Re: violence...

Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Thu, 16 Sep 1999 18:27:48 +0000

At 02:07 AM 16/09/99 -0700, Zeb wrote:

>One interesting thing I can tell you is to look into the amygdala (I think I
>spelled it right).

Yep.

A provocative report in today's Melbourne Age newspaper on the horrendous mad-dog violence in East Timor (militias hacking people to bits, heads on poles, that sort of fun thing) claims that some kind of psychotropic is involved in hyping the bastards up:

< Another Dare refugee, Mr Adolpho Suares, said the militias had been drugged before being led on their rampages by Indonesian troops.

< "When they take `anjing gila' they want to kill people everywhere. They do not even recognise their own father or mother. They just kill. That's why they call it `crazy dog' pill." >

(Age, Thurs 16 Sept, p. 13)

Could be a rural myth, of course, but sounds like something tuned to the amygdala.

Damien Broderick