World of Illusions, introduction

                                      Society secretly wants crime, needs crime,
and gains definite satisfaction from the present mishandling of it!
We condemn crime; we punish offenders for it; but we need it.
The crime and punishment ritual is part of our lives.
The great sin by which we all are tempted is the wish to hurt others.
Is it hard for the reader to believe that suicides are sometimes committed
to forestall the committing of murder?  There is no doubt of it.
Nor is there any doubt that murder is sometimes  committed to avert suicide.

                                       -Dr. Karl Menninger

     The novella I wrote based on this quote is going on Kindle in the next day or two.  It actually took first place in a writing contest at a Conduit conference years ago.  The name of the blog comes from this short story.