Those of you who know me personally know that psychology is my academic passion.

Now I could dedicate this post to defending it as a science, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I don’t really need the approval of smug academic elitists, and science itself does not need the approval of the populace for it to be valid.

No, rather, I’m going to dedicate this to a short explanation of one of the reasons I love the science, and why I intend to dedicate my life to studying it.

There won’t be much humour of any kind in the following post, so if you’re not in the mood for some heavy or profound shit, don’t read on.

This gets pretty fucking gruesome.

The following is a description of a lynching famously known as the “Waco Horror”.

Nothing to do with Michael Jackson. He was a fantastic musician.

Yes he was. Shut up.

Jesse Washington, a 17 year old mentally retarded^[1]African American farmhand from Waco, Texas, United States, was convicted of murder on May 15, 1916, and infamously tortured and burned alive in a racially motivated lynching known as the Waco Horror.^[2]

Washington was arrested on May 8, 1916, charged with having raped and murdered Lucy Fryer (53), the wife of a well-to-do cotton farmer in Robinson, Texas, on the outskirts of Waco, Texas. Fryer was found bludgeoned to death. Washington was sent to the jail in Dallas for detention prior to his trial to avoid a lynch mob. Due to tremendous public pressure which was also incited by the local press he was transferred back to Waco and put on trial a week later.^[3][4]

The trial took place on May 15, and the jury of twelve white men found him guilty and sentenced him to death.

The trial lasted four minutes and, before he could be executed, he was seized by the mob without resistance from the authorities. A chain was put around his neck, and he was dragged to the town square. Furthermore, according to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center within Cincinnati Ohio, he had been stoned with bricks, spat upon, and, at numerous points in torture, had shovels dug into his bare flesh and bone. A pile of wooden boxes had been set up at the base of a tree—Washington was castrated, thrown onto the pile, and then doused with coal oil. The chain had then been secured around a tree limb, and Washington, still secured within was hoisted above the flame. He made numerous attempts to climb the now-hot chain, and the crowd cut off his fingers to prevent any further attempt at escape. Three times, the agonized boy was raised and lowered into the flame in front of the crowd of 16,000, and in direct response, three times, further, according to the Cincinnati Freedom Center Exhibit, the crowd cheered and roared.It is not known how long he lasted before he died, but the mob let him burn for over an hour; they then took various body parts, such as his fingers and teeth, as souvenirs. His limbs were separated from his body, put in a bag, and dragged around town.

Among the spectators watching Washington burn was the mayor of Waco. Photographer Fred Gildersleeve took photographs of the lynching to turn into postcards. Washington was 17 years old at the time of his death.

As you can see this is from Wikipedia, so the hyperlinks are intact. Just in case some of you need to quickly research and find out what an African American, farmer, or death is.

This is a postcard from the event.

The back of the postcard reads:

“This is the barbecue we had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it. Your son, Joe.”

You know, reader. You remind me a lot of this Joe.

I’m not being a dick. Look at the faces of the men. They’re human, aren’t they?

Hear me out. This is a human being that wrote this letter. These people that did this, who committed this atrocity and injustice, this appropriately named horror, probably had a family. A lot of these men likely went home and tucked their daughter or son into bed that night.

Are there evil people? In their situation, where you knew absolutely nothing else, raised only with that state of mind, would you have joined in?

You’ll object, obviously. You’ll say no.

But I find that hard to believe, reader. You’d think in the enormous crowd that saw this happen, many, not just one, would do something. Would intervene. I know I, as I am now, would. But they just cheered.

They all just cheered.

Psychology challenges this notion that there are simply good and bad people in the world. Experiments by Milgram researching into obedience and authority show this.

Morality as we know it is at the hands of the science that is psychology, and ready to be snapped over its knee. It is redefining it, and showing us that it’s not that simple that there are just good people and bad people. Maybe rehabilitation is more appropriate than punishment, maybe we cannot fully understand someone’s motives until we understand their background and emotions.

Maybe with a proper understanding of why people commit these horrific acts, we can intervene through simply educating them or persuading them. By rehabilitating them, not punishing them and dehumanising them.

That’s for you to mull over, reader, but I’d like to briefly end with this.

This is you.

Everything that you are, everything you have ever learnt, felt, experienced. Every love, every time you cried, even times you felt there was something more in the universe, or rationally came to a conclusion that there was not. All the music you will hear, the beauty you will perceive from the natural world and from others minds and actions. Times you saw people suffer, mourn, die. All the emotions you have felt, will feel, everything you will see and everything you remember, has all and will all occur within this gory blob of flesh

This is worth studying. This is worth understanding. There comes a point in any serious scientist, philosopher, writer or artist’s life when they know that their field is worth devoting their life to. That there’s absolutely nothing else they can, or would do with their life.

This is worth studying. It does not matter what universities say. It does not matter what the media says. It does not matter what your parents, friends or peers say.

The very core of humanity, the cause behind the Waco Horror, the creator of all the horrors, the genocide, and all the compassion and innovation that have ever existed;

Ladies and gentlemen,

The brain. The mind.

You.