I realized that my feelings of helplessness were directly related to the level of frustration I experienced, and the amount of anger I experienced. That helped me understand why I would feel such an extreme response to a verdict in a case in which I did not know the victim or the perpetrators.
I also found that I responded with anger to aggression that I could not understand. On Facebook this week, I read a story that I had not previously read about a dog name Buck, which was shot in the face, tied up in a trash bag, and left for dead. I have heard more horrific accounts of things happening to people. In fact, during that same time period, I read a story about a young pre-med student who gave his infant daughter a bleach solution to drink, because he had been told that the solution would help her chest congestion. Objectively, I value human beings more than I value animals, and I believe that a young infant suffering a tremendous harm is worse than an injured dog. However, the father's actions, while ignorant, were unintentional. I actually found myself empathizing with him. On the contrary, the person who shot the dog and tied him up in a garbage bag was not acting out of ignorance, but out of malice. I found myself very upset by the notion of this type of emotional aggression, which people commit simply for the sake of the harm (Kassin et al., 2010). Interestingly enough, I believe that my failure to understand is a form of helplessness. Because I could not understand why someone would do something so horrible to another living creature, I find myself unable to predict when people would do those things, which leaves me feeling helpless to stop that type of behavior.
It also made me contemplate the weapons effect. Reading about Buck's story, I discovered that it is not uncommon for people to use weapons against domesticated animals for nuisance behaviors, such as dogs defecating on someone's lawn. I do not believe that people would be so quick to inflict violence...
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