Reds fanfic

So, that thing I'm working on for another thread has stalled, so I'll work on a short piece to get the juices flowing. Actually, the conversation @Bulldoggus just had resurrected this idea, since I had started and deleted it earlier.

Excerpt from the introduction to "Lest the Heavens Fall: The Secretariat of Public Safety in the Second Cultural Revolution" by Sean Gurstmann, 2008

".... The idea of 'economic criminality' was one that grew directly from socialist thinking. Poverty and the stress of working under capitalism forced people to go through desperate measures in order to survive or to live comfortably. Crime was only the expression of this desperation, and the only real way to eliminate violent crimes was to eliminate poverty and the stresses of capitalism. Even if there are criminals left after the revolution, they were likely capitalist holdovers: victims unable to let go or bourgeois profiteers from the old system. Hoover had structured SecPubSafe towards fighting such holdovers, whether they be reactionaries misled by old American capitalism like the Sons of Liberty or bourgeois profiteers like organized crime. Even street level crime were regarded as a capitalistic holdover, though those were delegated to local militias.

That is not to say that psychology or psychiatry had no role whatsoever. However, these fields were heavily influenced by the ideology of the time. Mental illness was an expression of the stresses of capitalism affecting the human mind. Such illnesses would likely disappear with the arrival of full communism. This thinking was in the background of many early cases. One of the biggest non-Revolution related trials of the 30's was of Albert Fish, "The Brooklyn Vampire", who killed at least 5 children (and possibly at least 3 more. He claimed to have killed hundreds). While the trial featured psychologists attesting to his perverted sense of right and wrong and various fetishes, there was some focus on his low station, and whether it amplified his feelings. Ultimately, he was convicted and executed for his crimes. Still, a killer like that was considered merely a product of a decadent capitalist system, and anti-social traits were grafted on. They were considered loners, rarely participating in civil society, selfish, angry.

During the Second Cultural Revolution, several what are now called serial killers[1] did fit parts of this profile. Ed Gein lived a solitary life, even as his family farm was inaugurated into a cooperative and never participated, which was brought to light after his 1956 arrest and conviction for the murders of 4 women in Plainfield, Wisconsin, and his grave robbing. [2] Andrew Venkman of San Francisco was also anti-social and mostly kept to himself. It surprised many acquaintances , then, when in 1964, he took to a tower, and shot at random pedestrians walking by, killing ten people, and wounding sixteen.

However, as the Revolution moved further and further in the past, this model and the idea that mental illness was symptom of capitalism began to crumble. Psychologists and psychiatrists began the fight to separate political ideology from the science of the brain, and SecPubSafe conception of serial murders was rocked by many cases to the contrary. Between 1967-1970, Carmen O'Hara, a well-liked teacher and community leader, killed almost 30 young boys around Des Moines. In the summer of 1972, several women in Cleveland were killed by a mysterious assailant. A year later, the murders continued, and the murderers actually sent a letter to the Plains-Dealer, tainting them. Signed "Z", the murderer was termed by the press and official releases as the "Z-Murderer" Eventually, through analysis of the letters, they found the murderer to be a 34 year old Health Service bureaucrat named Zubalon Cronk. A young man who had never known capitalism. Cronk said a voice in his radio told him to commit these murders. John Mayfield was the leader of a prominent automobile factory- the forest behind which he hid the bodies of various men he had tricked and killed. And the most famous was Herbert Koehler, the Colorado River Killer. A prominent politician and union leader in Haywood City, who between 1967-1978, murdered over 34 women.

In all cases, either the local militas or SecPubSafe originally attributed the crimes to people that fit the anti-social mode, most of whom turned out to be false. The old model was shown to be inapplicable and often, even counterintuitive to the pursuit of criminals of this ilk.

SecPubSafe, which had been geared towards safeguarding the revolution, now had to separate the ideology from the people. They began to remove the ideological aspect to many of these cases, and focus on other developmental factors (family, environment, health). This new focus on psychology would help SecPubSafe adapt to a new climate of instability and fear..."
[1] The term has a storied history, but it's popular use is mostly modern.
[2] OTL Gein, despite his reputation, was not technically a serial killer, since he was only convicted for the murders of two people (though he was suspected in several other cases)

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That was still a little difficult to write. But, I managed.
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
That was still a little difficult to write. But, I managed.
Very dank, but I'd think it would take until the 90's or 2000's (with the internet allowing Free World and Comintern detectives to compare notes) for anyone to consider breaking that level of ideology.
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
The UASR is not as ideologically rigid as the Soviet system.
Yes, but the thing is, speaking as a non-communist, the inherent ideological framework of a communist (even of the non-Soviet variety) is to ascribe anything bad or evil in this world to capitalism. The idea that a socialist society could still breed plenty of vicious, remorseless, compulsive murderers would be a very difficult pill to swallow for communists. There would be incidents, but they would be seen as just that, with little work being done on a co-ordinated national operation until later. Also, I'd bet you my firstborn that public militias would be incompetent at detective work by the standards of a modern police force.
 
Yes, but the thing is, speaking as a non-communist, the inherent ideological framework of a communist (even of the non-Soviet variety) is to ascribe anything bad or evil in this world to capitalism. The idea that a socialist society could still breed plenty of vicious, remorseless, compulsive murderers would be a very difficult pill to swallow for communists. There would be incidents, but they would be seen as just that, with little work being done on a co-ordinated national operation until later. Also, I'd bet you my firstborn that public militias would be incompetent at detective work by the standards of a modern police force.
The thing about the changes in the SecCulRev is changing those sorts of preceptions and ideas. The idea that problems can been seen solely in terms of bourgeois and proletariat, as opposed to human, is one of those perceptions, because if you can't accept flaws like that, there is no room for improvement, and the revolution is just one step in a transition. You need to find flaws like that in order to make such a transition possible.
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
The thing about the changes in the SecCulRev is changing those sorts of preceptions and ideas. The idea that problems can been seen solely in terms of bourgeois and proletariat, as opposed to human, is one of those perceptions, because if you can't accept flaws like that, there is no room for improvement, and the revolution is just one step in a transition. You need to find flaws like that in order to make such a transition possible.
Is that canon?
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
What precautions? Even in our society where we are aware of serial killers, there's very little you can do if some wacko decides to murder you.
Well, if a killer is targeting blonde, middle-aged women in the Kansas City area, then blonde, middle-aged women could be warned not to go out alone after dark.
 
Well, if a killer is targeting blonde, middle-aged women in the Kansas City area, then blonde, middle-aged women could be warned not to go out alone after dark.
Although he seemed to be watching a couple of programs on this topic, sort of, there were announcements or warnings ... Actually I don't remember.
No.

None of those have to do with capitalism.
The problem is not only in capitalism. The problem is that we live in conditions of the most inhuman conditions.
We live in dirty crowded cities, in every place of rest or cultural leisure so noisy that our psyche is just exhausted. Everywhere there are queues and crush. Social relations are based on oppression and hostility. Our art and media are full of lies, they manage to propogond both platitude and puritanical morals.
 
Although he seemed to be watching a couple of programs on this topic, sort of, there were announcements or warnings ... Actually I don't remember.

The problem is not only in capitalism. The problem is that we live in conditions of the most inhuman conditions.
We live in dirty crowded cities, in every place of rest or cultural leisure so noisy that our psyche is just exhausted. Everywhere there are queues and crush. Social relations are based on oppression and hostility. Our art and media are full of lies, they manage to propogond both platitude and puritanical morals.
I don't know if you understood my point. Mental illness has a lot of factors. Yes, it can be exuberated by poor living conditions, but those aren't the only factors. There are many genetic and environmental factors that can affect anyone, regardless of social class.
 

James G

Gone Fishin'
Transition to the highest form of society and rational management will cure these factors.

I presume you are fortunate enough never to have know anyone to suffer from mental illness so therefore you are ignorant enough to make such ill-informed, stupid remarks.
You are talking rubbish.
 
Transition to the highest form of society and rational management will cure these factors.

Let's tell all psychologists and psychiatrists to quit their jobs right now because all we need is to resolve economic woes and mental health issues will disappear forever.

As an autistic person and a fellow socialist; what you're saying is at best ignorant and at worst hurtful and insulting.
 
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