Improbable Monsters

Improbable Monsters


Francisco Goya once said, "Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels."




Why do we live in a world where such horrible, heinous things happen? What drives mothers to kill their babies, men to go on gun rampages and kill dozens of innocents, evil people to kidnap, molest, rape, torture, and kill the most innocent around us? Just in the last month, the news has been full of such stories. There was the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, Little girl walking home in Florida who was later found in a landfill in Georgia, two days later a girl in Missouri walking home from a friend's house was killed by a 15 year old . In the last year and a half, the news has been wrought with the news of Casey Anthony, currently in jail in Florida on charges of murdering her two year old daughter Caylee, storing the decomposing body in the trunk of her car for days, and then disposing of it in trash bags just yards from her own home. And the one that sticks in my mind and consciousness the most, the story of Nixzmary Brown who was brutally beaten, repeatedly for years, then beaten, her head smashed into the tub faucet, and drowned, by her step-father, while her mother watched. The reason for her severe “punishment”? She took a yogurt from the refrigerator without asking and allegedly broke the computer printer.


The heinousness is often written off as too horrible to be understood and many of us swear the world is becoming more evil by the day. If we do not attempt to understand, to diagnose, how can we hope to prevent future crimes of this nature? Then again, perhaps we cannot understand evil, apart from a malfunction or imbalance in the brain and our goal should be to prevent it, find evil, stop it. I do not believe the world is becoming more evil, I believe the size of the world increases the chances of such heinous incidents and the advent of the internet, television, radio, and newspapers have allowed for the spread, awareness, and notification of all of the horrible things that happen in this world.


Be aware of what’s going on around you. How many of these lives could have been saved had only someone stepped in? We will never curb evil, put it to a complete halt, but we can work to protect the weakest amongst us and can seek out with a rightful justice those who perpetrate such crimes. It is our duty to our fellow brothers and sisters (everyone in our community, the global community) to do so.


"Fantasy, abandoned by reason, produces impossible monsters; united with it, she is the mother of the arts and the origin of marvels. “ Francisco Goya