Ugly: little else ~

What is the genesis of venality? 

Like almost everything else - economic? Deprivation?  Greed? Or is there a need for freedom, without the sense that it leads to another trap?

What is the need for domination? 

Disgust? An inferiority complex? Frustration elsewhere? A depraved need for release? Or a simple pleasure to ride on one's own power, regardless of the fact that the victim is weak, helpless? 

In a world where survival is paramount, and one's own standing in one's own eyes is suspect, the economics of existence is the only worthwhile algorithm of living. Everything else is secondary. Relationships are equations of convenience. Existence is an existential state of cold-blooded logic. 

Seeking a visceral revenge on an old grouse is a mere setting right a power equation. Hating your wife is a mere extension of this. Kidnapping is a symptom of this. Friendships flounder when 'my' economics clashes with 'his'. 

And is this another world, or 'our' world in a lurid guise? Many things are extreme when 'others' do it, and are 'logical' when we indulge in them. We protect ourselves from ourselves by working out justifications for our own good. In the shadows of our bodies we hide sordid souls, which come out to play when we think nobody is watching us. 

An intolerance to suggestion, or an irritation in a relationship, or the politics of affection, are the soft manifestations of every extremity we may abhor. 

And therein lies the tragedy of our world. No crime is 'there': everything lies inside us. 

Ugly is that. And it is elemental and visceral and tragic because it is born and exists and perpetuates in our minds. And we are repelled,  because we understand it is our very own world.