The wool over our very eyes

By this time, you've all have heard of the Austrian senior citizen, that fathered not 1 not 2 but (+5) 7 - yes 7 - children from his own daughter held captive for over 24 years. I've heard of this sort of thing before. I took sociology in university, but nothing like this case.

The aftershock having initially struck me has since then worn off.

Now, I'm trying to empathize more with the daughter's struggle. I feel she should be viewed as a hero; which we often let our guards down because the media is so intense on exploiting what sells rather than real human interest? The reason I suggest this is, through such a hardship, nothing about it is endearing to me, however, because you or I cannot relate to such torcher or deprevation of freedom (on such a small scale) that the woman endured. It made me think, this woman isn't meant to be an inspiration, as if to say she had so much taken away from her - this in turn would be the western worlds view of such isolation. Which is why I believe for a person in her story to go through such an enormous struggle, the actions of her father be it through thinking intimidation or otherwise, something inside of her kept her strong enough to survive. She could have lost all hope, but now she has an opportunity to seek treatment in every way she deserves.

I suppose this makes her a hero in my eyes, not because of what her father did, but from the tragic aspect beneath it all, there is a life that the old man could have completely took from her - forever.

So I care to call her a tragic hero, not due to my own ignorance. That the fact remains she isn't living the good life from one moment to the next, she's a hero becasuse of misery that displaces our sense of the world which we live.

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This kind of discussion resembles a time, as memory serves me correctly, that happened many - many years back. It's that this very type of logical argument, I take it has given me a rite of passage? What I'm trying to describe is a void, I could feel that I needed to pursue something greater, a certain mystery of my will. However, now that the time passed, and I can take yet another step back and look at what kind of a "brain-structure" I've developed, it's like looking into a mirror and saying, "I did it." It's reaching this kind of height due to intellect that reconnects me; it reminds me I was right to take the voyage in learning.

Nobody taught me this stuff, and fascism is something that is neglected in society today. It's an incomplete knowledge that hits you like a cemenet truck, unless you try.

When you really think about this subject matter, 'a paradox of the will' is an ingenius method of instruction.

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I want to hear more about old man's wife, who lived upstairs who apparantly didn't know anything about this whole thing. Twenty Four years? Three kids on the doorstep?

I won't cast her as a liar just yet, but I am calling shenanigans on the upstairs of that house. As of now, I haven't heard about her education level and if she herself was deprived in her own way.

And how do you compensate someone for 24 years of entrapment?

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I think your right on taking the approach you have. I suppose re-reading my original opinion, sounds a tad over-glorifying the whole thing. There are more questions that deserve to be answered, and you hit some key points vegas.

But, from an outsiders perspective without really knowing what or why about the incest, to a certain degree we might never fully comprehend it. Therefore, we neglect to think about the other aspect when a case such as this is exposed. It forces us to think, think about how we handle the bigger picture and what role we may infer from victims of exploitation. My educated guess is that sometimes what we fail in not quite understanding, leads to impartial attitudes or purging ourselves into believing half-truths. For anyone to feel victimized sounds absurd, however, what might the first thing people on a natural instinct resolve? Again, my better opinion tells me people say, "OMG this is horrible." then remain satisfied unbeknownst turn off their tv sets and sit comfortably watching it to their hearts content without realizing it. I suppose it takes a type of internalizing or 'seperating' of what we see is normal in society, while not challenging the images that connect us to what we're watching.

My take on the matter is not personal, nor should it be, but typically the news audience might resort to minimalizing the painful reality. That is why I say she is a hero. The msiery she's suffered, is a struggle, but I witness something heroic in the sense her misery humanizes me because she survived.