Charles Manson Failures

So much of what I read in the Charles Manson biography disturbed me, but mostly it is the running theme relating to society’s failure in Manson’s life that I dwell on most. These details are in several passages which cover and expose a broader and much wider issue than just Charles Manson and his childhood. It is our society’s inefficient and poorly managed foster care, institutions, jails, and mental health systems. Our society failed Manson several times early on, as it does many of those who are troubled. It not only fails due to the inability to catch and help those that are obviously mentally ill, but as in the case of Charles Manson, actually making a bad situation worse. Charles Manson said himself that after spending seventeen years

The messages we get from video games, movies, songs, and magazine covers are not always the healthiest messages to send children and for that matter for anyone. We glorify violence and guns, and this can be found everywhere. Few blockbusters can be successful without violence and shootings. Charles Manson knew very well we glorify Hollywood, the movie stars and their lavish lifestyle. This is one of the major reasons he chose Sharon Tate and everyone in that house. There was even a bigger response to his actions as he killed people who had achieved the American dream, and were famous. These killings got more attention than if he had killed a family in Wisconsin that nobody knew. This in itself is wrong; our society should be just as affected and horrified if it was any innocent family, or a famous Hollywood family. What does that say about our morals and values? Manson wanted as much attention as possible, and he knew how to get it. Still searching for the attention he didn’t get from his mother as a young boy. There were no safety nets for Manson early on. I fear that even though overall our society has improved on many levels, this issue remains to be the case for many. Mental illness is still a stigma and many people do not seek help

We are a society that is fascinated with such monsters and get some type of thrill from hearing about them. As a society, we need to come up with a safe place and system for troubled individuals to turn to, or have their families and friends turn to. Every municipality needs to address this issue or there will continually be more Charles Manson’s and serial killers. None of us will ever be able to know if Manson’s early years contributed to his murderous rampage, whether he would still have been a serial killer if he had a loving childhood and have none of the bad things happen to him every step along the way early on. Maybe having a psychotic uncle in the family meant his illness was genetic, and the events brought his behavior to the forefront to an even higher extreme. The cruelties he endured must have exacerbated his unhealthy mental state. Not everyone who endured a similar beginning became a serial killer. In either case, the society did fail him early on and we need to learn from it. Manson claims the events of his childhood played a big part in the man he became. When I reflect on the Manson story, I am most bothered by the uncertainty that our society, who failed him, has made enough changes to prevent future