The Dark Web Murders

CHAPTER FOUR

Monday, 13th August. Late evening 

Lurking just below the surface of the clear web—that is, the normal Internet—is a vast network of vile and corrupt activity called the Dark Net, or the Dark Web, or even on occasions, the Deep Web.'Deep' because of its enormous capacity. It is literally 'deep'. Searchers can only access 0.03% of the Internet via browsers like Google. The rest, and there is some statistical evidence to indicate that very few people are aware of this, is what makes up the Deep Web. Everything about it is anonymous. Browsers cannot even access it unless they themselves are anonymous.Identities and locations of Dark Net users stay anonymous. They cannot be tracked due to a layered encryption system which protects the users'identities. Those surfers who know what they are doing conceal their IP addresses by 'pinging' their activities around numerous international servers. Usually they rout the addresses via countries that are hard to police,like Russia or Serbia. They also use sophisticated encryption techniques, so trying to track them is virtually impossible. 

To access this vast domain, users need considerable levels of technical expertise. Dark Net websites are accessible only through special networks, and even then, only by using special deep web browsers. The most famous of these is called Tor. Users are advised to exercise caution. The modern Dark Web's notorious reputation is well-earned, and the hidden Internet is undeniably dangerous. A careless slip, an identity falling into the wrong hands, and the consequences can be dire. Government agencies, among others, are becomingly increasingly concerned that it is a haven for criminal activity. 

Concerned? They would experience emotions considerably more horrific if they were to fully inform themselves of what is available.Extreme pornography, so-called snuff movies, media exchange for paedophiles and all sorts of dangerous people, drug markets—these are all part and parcel of the normal services the Dark Web provides. It is possible to purchase firearms, or even hire a hit man. On a Dark Net site called The Human Experiment, sadists can view illegal human experimentation on homeless people, 'dross from the streets', expendable and worthless. Other sites show real-time streaming videos of young girls, maybe twelve or thirteen years of age, sitting or lying on beds in small rooms. Viewers with the correct code can bid to purchase or rent any of these children. Some of them, depending upon who is bidding at the time, will be sold to buyers for up to fifteen thousand pounds.Every taste, no matter how corrupt, is catered for somewhere on the Dark Web. 

Even those who do not themselves engage in illegal activity, but who would have secret yearnings to do so, can enjoy vicarious experiences by following the blogs of those who like to boast in detail of their bizarre and unnatural exploits. On the evening of Monday, the eighteenth of August, one such blog appeared for the first time. The blog design is professional, impressive, but singularly at odds with its location on the Dark Web. There is a predominance of gold and blue, with images of white marble busts of Plato and Aristotle set against a hazy background that seems to represent a thriving university. A Latin tag arcs over the scene like a banner: Amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas. And below the scene, in smaller letters,sharp red letters, is another Latin tag: Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest. 

There seems little here to attract the attention of Dark Web browsers. The immediate impression of classical culture, the implication of scholarship, the tone and theme of the blog—learned, philosophical—seem utterly out of place. But for those who take the time to read the piece, for those who have the intellectual capacity to delve into its argument, to penetrate its pseudo rationalisations, there is to be discovered a pernicious undercurrent. Here is meat for a certain type of jaded consumer who might seek vicarious access to the deviant and depraved, with the titillating promise of more to come. 

 ΝΕΜΕΙΝ'Σ ΒΛΟΓ

 Συστιξε

 Welcome to my blog, dear reader. Over the next few weeks I invite you to consider a series of arguments which I will set before you, arguments that will, I trust, encourage you to question the myth of social norms and examine the importance of impartiality in the role of Nemesis.Today let us consider the concept of Justice. Philosophers from the time of Ancient Greece, such as Plato and Aristotle, have wrestled with this concept. There have been tomes on the subject from mediaeval scholars such as Aquinas and Augustine. Modern times have provided us with detailed analyses of the issue from Kant, Hobbs, and even more recently, Rawls. All of them see Justice as a moral concept, as doing the right thing,as giving everyone their due. It is defined as a fundamental moral virtue that ensures the establishing and maintaining of a stable political society. 

Yet depending on the culture that defines it, Justice is different things to different thinkers. Plato held that Justice issues from God. Locke argued that Justice was inherent in the natural law. Social contract proponents claim that Justice is what is mutually agreeable to all concerned. Then there are those who claim that Justice is retributive and is about punishment for the wrongdoer.But how are these ideas to be interpreted? Which, if any, offers a correct definition? Who exactly gives people their due? Who decides what is fair? Courts have been set up, as have been other institutions of government, to mete out Justice. But is what is meted out always trulyJustice? Or occasionally truly Justice? Or rarely truly Justice? 

Human interaction is multi-faceted. To what extent does society's view of Justice consider all of these facets? To what extent does the practical application of Justice spread its net to all those involved? Are there people who, caught up in the apparent meting out of Justice, actually suffer grave INjustice? I have experienced the application of Justice. I have seen the dispassionate and uncaring face of so-called retributive Justice. I have seen the ramifications of Justice as its ripples spread beyond the ken of the  principal actors. I have seen great harm result from the cold-hearted dictates of shallow judges who remain impervious to the evil they cause. 

Philosophy is abstract, and philosophical Justice is abstract. But real Justice is in the here and now, in the acting out against the evil of the so-called defenders and protectors of society. Real Justice penetrates to all those who pervert, or cause to pervert, its action. Many thinkers may disagree about the precise nature, the fundamental essence, of Justice, but at its core there lies the clean, pure biblical eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. 

And that is why I have appointed myself the agent of tangible Justice, the righter of wrongs, the one who sees beyond the immediate. Hand-washing after the deliverance of penalty does not alleviate blame for subsequent calamity. The prime mover must take a shared responsibility for events that occur as a result of his judgement.And so I have identified and punished one who saw himself as the punisher. 

I live again the moment of his judgement. He is standing there in his room of opulence—arrogant, pompous, confirmed in his overweening superiority. He is initially unaware that Justice has finally found him. I experience a moment of satisfaction when, seeing me casually heft the Instrument of Retribution in my hand, his air of smug haughtiness wanes. His expression vacillates between annoyance and uncertainty, migrating to a burgeoning fear.  Ah, Justice! He has no idea.

 "What are you doing?" he stutters. 

"You'll learn in eternity," I say coldly. 

Although Justice should be meted out dispassionately, and this is an issue that I will address at another time, I am aware of a sense of pride in my physical coordination, in the smoothness of the arc, the accuracy of the strike, as I swing the weapon. I draw back, with bent arm, behind and below my right shoulder and, turning my body with ineffable grace, my arm stretches and extends upwards as the club smashes, with a gratifying crunch of bone, against the side of the miscreant's head, precipitating an effusion of blood, grey matter and bone splinters. He crumples to the ground and I know that Justice has been done. I draw down the pants of his black evening suit, and I savour the irony as I thrust the Instrument, a policeman's truncheon, so appropriately linked to the apparatus of the Justice system, deep into the malefactor's depraved rectum.  A prime mover cannot distance himself from the evil consequences in a chain of action which originated with him. He is responsible. He must accept blame. Justice has been served.

 My next blog, dear reader, hopefully in a few days, will examine the morality of Vengeance.

Nemein.