Katinger.com

I watched the Nick Berg beheading video online the other day. I’m not sure why I did it, but after watching it, I wished I hadn’t. I guess it took actually seeing it for me to completely process a few things:

1. The shear horror of watching someone die violently
2. The level that a mind and heart has to be at in order to do such a thing to another person

First of all, you can have the best special effects and most convincing acting in a shoot’em up film, but it still doesn’t effect you when the movie is over. The horror here lies in the fact that you just keep telling yourself that it’s REAL. Second of all; what has to happen to a person in their life to make their heart so cold, their resolve so strong, and their hate so intense that they have the ability to hack through an innocent living person’s neck until their head comes away from their body? Simply unfathomable.

The first 2/3 of the video consists of the murderers reading their statement in Arabic with Nick sitting in front of them staring blanking and occasionally shifting, clearly having no clue what is about to happen to him. Once the main killer finishes his statement he pulls a knife out and begins hacking. The others jump on top of Nick and hold him down until he bleeds out and his head comes off. It’s that simple, and that unbelievable.

It’s been several days since I looked at it, and even now just writing this description is making my heart race. Actually, the worst part of the video is the sound, believe it or not. The video is grainy, but not grainy enough. But those screams, which eventually turn into wheezing gasps as the knife cuts past his wind pipe, are sickening.

After my initial shock I began to picture this thing from the perspective of Nick’s family. What if this was video of my best friend, son, brother, or father being brutally murdered for the whole world to see on the internet? How would I feel if some punk in his office cubicle was satisfying his morbid curiosity by watching one of my loved ones get killed? I’d be pretty damn disgusted I bet. I feel kind of disgusted for having watched.

This is just another point/counter-point on my beloved internet. It offers the ability to instantly share experiences and knowledge, while simultaneously being able to spread hate and murder.

I guess I wrote this to tell you that if you think you want to see the video, think again.