How grim is that viral image of Aaron Bushnell screaming ‘FREE PALESTINE!’ as he goes up in flames? His tone flits from one of political fervour to excruciating pain as the fire he ignited consumes his body. He ends up hollering the slogan at an infernal pitch as his earthly self succumbs to the blaze. It is at once an image of a disturbed individual and a disturbed political culture. Of both one man’s mania and what we might call Palestine mania – an affliction of Generation Z where they experience extremes of emotion upon mere mention of the words ‘Gaza’ or ‘Israel’. It’s an affliction we need to talk about.
When it comes to a typical psychopath, the suited and booted Patrick Bateman from the novel American Psycho might spring to mind, but, according to one expert, the number of women with the neuropsychiatric disorder could be far greater than previously thought.
