Returning to what I was discussing earlier about Jimmy's eyes, public facial mien and how it may have contributed, if at all to his years of public and private hiding in plain sight. A few things have struck me about his particular case which may shed light on such phenomenon in general.
1. First, conspiracy at heart, it could be argued is a mechanism of convincing the majority of society that elite social predators are not predatory and are not preying on the rest of us with impunity.
2. Second, the techniques which persuade and socially condition individuals in modern societies that social predators are not predators must be examined because they in many ways counteract thousands if not millions of years of evolutionary development which assisted social humans in recognizing who was predatory and who wasn't.
Two things about Jimmy tipped me into following a certain line of thought. First, was his perpetual public facial mask: popped, surprised/frightened eyes, open teeth grinned, usually with a long cigar protruding. This facial pose was televised and printed for decades and conditioned the public to see Jimmy in a certain way (consciously and unconsciously no doubt).
Second, was the description of something Jimmy did with his face in person to one of his unfortunate victims in an abusive encounter:
Other adults reported being humiliated by Savile. One woman said:
He came up and he was stood on my right-hand side of the bed and he came quite close to my face very very quickly so that when I tried to shout or make a noise or do anything, nothing came out… He just stopped [the abuse] and let go.
http://www.thejournal.ie/jimmy-savile-i ... 7-Jun2014/It seems Savile used his face publicly and privately, methodically or learned through happenstance, for certain malevolent ends. I think he tapped something that goes way back. Here is an excerpt from the book
Deadly Powers which I think explains the
"predator face" which I think Savile copped, probably reflexively or intuitively, and helped to possibly assist him in his victimization of a nation publicly and privately. I was tempted to bold all the below because I've only selected what I believed is pertinent but didn't want to sacrifice readability.
page 67 Triggers of Fear
How did our ancestors know which animals to fear? Did they learn from experience? Or were they blessed with some sort of inherited memory of specific predators?
Experience certainly taught hard lessons, but evolution also helped by priming our species to react anxiously or fearfully not to specific predators but to a general set of physical stimuli (or "releasers") closely associated with dangerous animals. As Hans Kruuk puts it, "[W]e have a strong instinctive response to the killer attributes of large predators."
....
What were the predator features that triggered the fear reaction of our ancestors? And why should we care? These stimuli are important to us because Paleolithic storytellers likely used them as "stage props" to enact "tales" about predators. The same stimuli are used even today by storytellers to tell their frightening tales.
page 68 The Predator Face
Almost all predators (save raptors) attack headfirst.[...] For ancient primates and for us today, the most powerful signal possible annihilation is a dangerous predator staring us straight in the face.
The Staring Eye
Although the face of the attacking predator is probably experience holistically, evolution has primed us to fear certain features of it, most crucially, "a fixed and direct stare." The reason is simple: before attacking, predators stare at their prey. In the Pleistocene, being stared at by an animal was a strong indication that one was being hunted. As a result, "fear of two staring eyes is widespread throughout the animal kingdom."
page 71
[...]In order to communicate about predators, to create narratives and stories about them, our distant ancestors would have had to imitate--however crudely--the essential features that define predators. In essence, they were coopting the fear-inducing traits of predators to enhance their own survival.
The Predator Mouth
The eyes merely guide the predator to the prey. It is the maw that does the dirty work--rending, tearing, crunching, dismembering, and swallowing prey.[...]Our ancient ancestors probably did not dread "death" or "mortality" in the abstract sense but rather the existential fact of being torn apart and eaten. [...] page 73, The predator face--with its teeth and maw--was imitated in all kinds of cultural productions, from masks worn at ceremonies to architectural elements of buildings. Even when used to "protect" buildings (such as temples) from intruders, such images must have activated at some level the hardwired visceral fear of dying by carnivore.
page 74 Predator Teeth
Exposed teeth trigger fear in all mammals, which then exploit this response to intimidate and frighten even members of their own species. page 76, Primates are especially intimidated by bared teeth. To scare adversaries, baboons actually pull down their lower lips to fully expose their very long upper canines. Early humans, being primates, would have reacted powerfully to the sight of teeth. [...] By using animal teeth and pointed stones, early storytellers probably exploited this innate response to conjure up a semblence of the predator during an enacted performance. Eventually, this fear trigger became a prominent feature of terror masks and of almost all mythic descriptions of predators and monsters.
page 76, The Predator Tongue
Fear is also triggered at the sight of a tongue--especially when it is depicted in the shape of a dagger or shark tooth. [...] page 77, The extended pinkish tongue is a fear trigger because it exposes the teeth and the throat of the mammalian predator and is used to lick up blood.
[In summary:]
Our ancient ancestors were primed by evolution to associate these features with a potential threat to their lives. To feel fear, they did not have to identify the specific kind of animal--they simply had to notice any of these physical features: staring eyes, an open mouth, flashing sharp teeth, a lolling tongue--these all spelled "danger", "predator."
Ok, after reading the above. Look at a photo of Savile again.
Wouldn't you say that is a predator face if you ever saw one? The "staring eyes, an open mouth, flashing sharp teeth, a lolling tongue (the almost ever present cigar acting as a long dark tongue)" which all "spelled "danger", "predator." I believe that when people are presented with this "predator face", even human ones, they can either fight, flight, display or freeze. I think the usual response is to freeze, even if it is holding ones breathe. [side bar anecdotal evidence, I've known people who have had partial to full predator faces and I've noticed that I tend to hold my breathe almost unconsciously around them. One coworker instead of doing the split second eyebrow raise of acknowledgement in the hallway would (mostly unconsciously I would guess) raise his brows and hold them there and smile for ages which was always completely unnerving and off putting. Another acquaintance had a fixed predator face which was his default (my guess was dietary issues or very high anxiety or pharmaceutical issues) and it was extremely hard to be at ease talking to his "rapist eyes" and devilish smile.
I think Savile used his "predator face" to both freeze television viewers and his victims in person to control them to a certain extent. The possible result? By deconditioning people to accept a stalking predator's cues as just eccentric show biz clowning he could behave in apex predator fashion and his preying on others just be dismissed lightly as "that's just Jimmy". It was almost like a wolf who through the sheer repetition of the media was accepted into the sheep fold without any qualms, safeguards of limits.If I knew all mysteries and all knowledge, and have not charity, I am nothing. St. Paul
I hang onto my prejudices, they are the testicles of my mind. Eric Hoffer
