Ultimately our lives are shaped by those that we look up to, we find a person and we shape ourselves to be just like them. We want to be our heroes but at some point we get to the stage were by being just like them isn’t enough we crave individuality, success and recognition we want to be better then our idol we want to achieve a greatness that only we can, and be recognised as an entirely separate entity. I recently read the new Death Note novel ‘ Another Note – The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases.’ The story is told by Mellow about a battle between L and B.
In it B was raised as an exact copy of L, because of Watari’s need to create a back up of L just like you would with a computer program. The whole idea of Whammy House was to create a copy of L because he is guineas. In the novel it said that this ultimately drove B insane and even when he tried to break free he was denied that as well. But what’s to say that he was insane?

Just abandon this pre-conception of what is sane and insane for a second. The environment that B was raised in is nothing like that of a normal family, even a dysfunctional family shows no resemblance to how he grew up. He was an experiment. Ultimately his environment was like that of a rat being raised and conditioned to run a maze as fast as possible and reach that piece of cheese at the end before it gets an electric shock. His intelligence was the only thing that was nurtured, he wasn’t abused in the sense that we are familiar with. The type of abuse that he faced was a psychological conditioning that individuality was irrelevant and all that was needed was for him to be like his idol. This is here the distortion in reality become present, Mellow mentions that L wasn’t exactly their idol but more so their god, he was that unattainable being that they all wanted to be but knew that no matter what they could not reach.

In the Arian order people (specifically white people) were considered the only organisms that were capable of pain. Vet’s and scientist performed brutal experiments on animals under the assumption that they were unable to feel pain. I once read a text about a monk that scolded a nun because she cried when he kicked a pregnant dog. This is a relatively similar concept to the environment that has been created within the idea of Whammy House. Although instead, children are being raised without the consideration that they require validation or at the very least recognition of their individuality. L was their like their God as much as he was their demon they wanted to be like him, but they couldn’t surpass him they were being raised within a closed environment and ultimately this is what lead to the B.B murder’s. Taking this environment into consideration there was nothing insane about Beyond Birthday’s actions. He was raised knowing that L was the greatest detective alive; his admiration grew until it was no longer able to fit in its cage. He grew up, he wanted to be better then L he wanted the recognition of his individuailty he didn’t want to just live in L’s shadow any longer he wanted an identity of his own. It’s just like the way a son who constantly lives in his father’s shadow in the business world will strive to create his own image have people recognise his work for itself not as a sub-product of his father. B knew that there was no way that he could solve a case that L couldn’t because there was nothing out there worthy of defeating him so that is why he himself had to create that case that L could not solve.
Yes he took innocent lives, but I’ve talked about this before. Students are trained like dog’s in schools they are robbed of their individuality, by being told how to act, what to wear, told how the world runs and not to question it. Those that are intelligent and have no problems with conforming are able to cope with this because their intelligence allows them to achieve recognition. But what about those that aren’t smart they are just considered another face in the crowd, not distinguished. The frustration of this slowly builds up and consumes them. They crave something that they know they are told they never have, but there is a type of light at the end of this tunnel. They will become determined to make them realise that they have their own worth and look at them the way that they have craved.
What is the one thing we see scrolled across every source of media every hour of every day?

B.B strikes me as someone suffering similar, he had the intelligence but it was seen as something that was only to be used in the purpose of creating a copy of the already perfect product. They ignored this individuality. Basically this lead to him wanting to be better then L, to have his state of recognition as an individual, he was intelligent he had conformed what else could he do? He started the killings and ultimate plan for suicide of achieving this.
He wasn’t insane; he was just taking part in a basic instinct. He wanted to justify his existence just as everyone does. His extreme methods came about as a result of the extreme situation that he was trapped in. This wasn’t as simple as dying your hair blue so you can stand out. His entire life had been shaped to fulfil one purpose.

So think about it now, the answer to that question was blatantly obvious. Violent acts. Every culture in the world recognises violence not matter the form and the more violent the act the greater recognition. Basically violence is becoming the mainstream way of the outcasts and unintelligent to achieve recognition. But on the other hand you have those like B who are intelligent and have conformed but want more they want is to achieve a higher status. By creating crimes that no one can solve they are almost becoming a proxy god, controlling life and death. Ultimately our society is it’s own real life Whammy House but instead of raising children to be a copy of the greatest guineas and ultimately denying their individuality we are creating an environment were violence is supreme.
So tell me now how are we suppose to distinguish insanity when this is the environment that society has created and is now ruling our reality.