“The red mist descended and I don’t know what happened. I just lost it”.
But what is the ‘red mist’ and what is the ‘it’ that was lost?
The Scales of Justice.
My guess is that this quote (or variations of it) has been used in countless courtrooms as almost a justification for mindless violence. Not quite as a ‘get out of jail free’ card, but often as the last throw of desperation to try and wriggle out of a bad situation.
Bewigged judges sardonically raise their eyebrows and expert witnesses are brought in to bolster the defence with psychobabble; while the defendant squirms on a hook of his own making.
I reckon that the phenomenon of the ‘Red Mist’, or ‘Seeing Red’ has been around forever.
Criminal psychologists and other therapists do their best to try and unpick the phrases; which are essentially used as a kind of explanation for resorting to extreme and unrestrained violence in the face of perceived provocation.
If the person on the psychiatrist’s couch describes a past reaction in such a way it acts as a kind of conversation stopper, and a veil is quietly drawn over events; it’s almost as if it is an unquestionable reality, one that we should all just accept, and then move on.
But, where does its power come from? Is it a societal taboo, or a part of an accepted emotional spectrum that is positioned at the furthest end of the scale, so far indeed that it inhabits the edge of uncharted territory?
You can refer to it as, ‘unrestrained’, ‘unbridled’, or ‘allowing full rein to the emotions’ and to act them out in extreme violence. Or perhaps it’s just a massive and destructive tantrum, perpetrated by an adult?
The Berserker.
When you look into it, it goes a long way back.
The ‘Berserkers’ were a group of Old Norse warriors who adhered to the animal cults of bears and wolves. Supposedly, they allowed themselves to be taken over by the feral spirits of the most ferocious of beasts. This ability to flip the switch and abandon all forms of restraint was much celebrated. This was a calculated denial of humanity.
However, I reckon it is a convenient and deliberate misrepresentation of animals, particularly bears and wolves. This is humans doing what they do best; i.e. transposing human characteristics on to animals (anthropomorphism). These animals don’t do ‘frenzy’ as humans want to understand it; they are far too pragmatic and hard wired towards behaviours that aid survival.
For humans and the Berserkers, academics who study such things suggest that the frenzy was a form of altered states, deliberately brought on by working oneself into a trance-like condition, sometimes aided by psychotropic substances, fasting or other privations.
But, there is no doubt it was pretty much a group thing, and I am sure that at the time the ends justified the means. Remember, this did not exist outside of society; I suspect that society was grateful to have such a fearsome military unit at its disposal. The temporary loss of humanity was a price worth paying. For the Berserkers it brought reputation, power and probably an immense primitive form of release. They felt indestructible.
What is interesting is that there is no indication that the Berserkers were inclined to ‘lose it’ to such a degree that in their frenzy they turned against their fellows – unlike Cu Chulainn, who seemed like a total liability.
Cu Chulainn.
Cu Chulainn was a mythical Irish warrior hero, and was famed for his battle frenzy. The ballad writers use the most wonderful descriptive imagery of the condition that Cu Chulainn was in when gripped by his battle rage.
I remember reading it and thinking that even the most skilled comic book author or Marvel screenwriter came nowhere near to the massive exaggerated overstatements that the writers of the Ulster legends indulged in – no wonder the Irish are famed for their storytelling skills. Sample this description:
“The first warp-spasm seized Cúchulainn, and made him into a monstrous thing, hideous and shapeless, unheard of. His shanks and his joints, every knuckle and angle and organ from head to foot, shook like a tree in the flood or a reed in the stream. His body made a furious twist inside his skin, so that his feet and shins switched to the rear and his heels and calves switched to the front... On his head the temple-sinews stretched to the nape of his neck, each mighty, immense, measureless knob as big as the head of a month-old child... he sucked one eye so deep into his head that a wild crane couldn't probe it onto his cheek out of the depths of his skull…”
Translation: Thomas Kinsella, ‘The Tain’ Oxford University Press.
But, what’s really interesting about Cu Chulainn is how his return to civilisation after battle frenzy was managed. Described like a systematic and extreme kind of ‘decompression’.
The tribe wanted their leader back, but not in this state. This is what they did:
“Immediately the warriors of Emain seized him and plunged him in a vat of cold water. The vat burst asunder about him. He was seized and thrust in another vat and it boiled with bubbles the size of fists. He was at last placed in a third vat and warmed it till its heat and cold were equal. Only then was he cooled enough to return safely to the world.”
Translation, again: Thomas Kinsella.
These were clearly two different realms; a kind of ‘Incredible Hulk’ thing.
Of humans and psychopaths.
I am not convinced of an existence of a state among humans that is so elemental that it is bereft of any kind of cold logic calculating (but perhaps shrunken) core of basic humanity.
If such a creature exists then this must be the twisted mind of the psychopath, where the wiring is so messed up that they become a total scourge.
But, if there is any good news about psychopaths it is that they tend to have a very short run on the road to self-destruction, and they are so very rare. They are akin to the most unsuccessful parasitic organism, rather like Ebola, which announces its presence so dramatically and kills its host so quickly that its run of relative success is usually mercifully short (Thank God for the World Health Organisation).
In conclusion, I reckon that deep down we want to believe in the ‘Red Mist’, it acts as a lazy excuse for the perpetrators and, to some degree, for society; a go-to scapegoat.
Next time you see one of those fly-on-the-wall cop investigations on TV, and the guy is in the interrogation room starts justifying himself by saying that in a moment of madness he ‘saw red’ or, ‘the red mist descended’, look for the flicker in his eyes, that tiny light of humanity that tells us that he is being economical with the truth.
If you can’t see it, you may be witnessing that rare creature, the psychopath, who probably committed the crime for kicks.
Martial artist ‘seeing red’.
For the martial artist ‘losing it’ is probably one of the worst taboos. We aim to be totally in control. I cannot think of one martial discipline that encourages its participants to whip themselves up into such a rage that the ‘red mist descends’.
Also, those levels of anger involve flooding the body with all kinds of naturally produced chemicals, the stuff that the primitive body is supposed to hold back in reserve for only the most extreme situations.
If your training encourages you to regularly indulge in jacking yourself up on stress (because that’s what it is; chemical stress in condensed form) then your quality of health will plummet. You might ‘save the hour’, by beating the other guy to a pulp in a rage induced frenzy, but, in the long term, the rest of your days will be very limited. Hello hypertension, hello stroke, hello the onset of catastrophic disease, and bye bye to good health and longevity.
As a final thought - Of course it might not be the ‘Red Mist’ at all… maybe you are just on drugs.
Images, designed by Tim Shaw through AI.