Do we really need to know?

This article was published in ABC The Drum 20 October 2010

You wonder sometimes: how much do we need to know?

The Canadian trial of Colonel Russell Williams is getting plenty of play in local print and online outlets, never mind that the events are somewhat removed from day to day Aussie reality. Which means the only interest being served is prurience, some sort of slack-jawed, morbidly-fascinated curiosity.

You'd have to say - tune out now Canadian jury - that by any working sense of the word, Williams's life has been touched by a thick slap of evil. He might even be mad as well as bad. Such people exist. Such people sometimes let the diseased portions of their existence overlap into the innocent lives of others. The effect can be utterly, brutally, inhumanly, tragic. But these people are rare. Weird anomalies. Our lives won't benefit in any way from knowledge of their crimes. Reading these accounts won't prevent any repeat of these deaths and assaults ... and possibly, given the copycat impressionability of the sad and sick, it might even lead to others.