Who is the American Psycho?

American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis 80s masterpiece about a Manhattanite serial killer that works on Wall Street, became censored in Germany due to its inflective content and abuse of violence. How could you ever censor a satire? It propably was a lack of understanding that overcame the censors in 1995. Beyond my opposition to censorship, I can hardly understand why this censorship was timewise limited and the book is no free for sale since the year 2000, five years after it was published. Not a proof for rigid consequence these censors adhere to. Apart for this discussion which only distracts from the genius that overcame Ellis while he wrote the book, one of the most catching phrases to me was :” I’m not sure whether I get away with it this time, I mean, I guess, I’m a pretty sick guy.” A simple phrase that only became interesting in its context. This phrase, not a confession actually, he spoke on the voicebox of his lawyer when he faced the consequences of his recent homicide that turned out to be a nocturnal massacre. And isn’t this something we all are frequently confronted with, whether this time, we will get away from it? It’s the thought of a smoker that wonders whether his consumption will not cause cancer, it’s the thought of health fanatics that could not withstand a temptation of sweetness or fat. It’s for the workoholic that knows he has harmed his health by stress and the lack of relaxation. We are all faced with fear frequently. You can blame it on the protestant ethics, catholicism that punishes consciousness after you committed a “sin”. Modern western civilizations cannot accept their nature although their science explained it to them. we still do not accept that it is not a weakness, but only a desire to fulfill that we have not asked to knock on our door. So in a strange way, Patrick Bateman is not a psycho at all. But we can become Psychos everyday if we do not stop to invent more and more fear for everything. American or not – every western society is full of this Bullshit.

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