“Of that which we cannot speak,” the philosopher told us, “we must pass over in silence.”
As of this writing, twelve people are dead because of the theatre shooting in Aurora, Colorado. One was a six-year-old child, Veronica. Three were young men who threw themselves over their girlfriends and saved their lives. There was an Air Force veteran. A devoted Dad. All of them were people who went out to enjoy the communal pleasure of a big movie opening, and should be at home right now, bragging about being the first on their block to see The Dark Knight Rises.
Of all the commentary that has followed this disaster, one remark by a public figure has struck me with its truth. The star of the film, Christian Bale, said in a statement, “Words cannot express the horror that I feel. I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them.” Readers of this blog will know I don’t usually turn to movie actors to find wisdom, but Bale got it exactly right. I don’t understand. My heart goes out. Words cannot express. That is literally all one can rightly say.
And yet within minutes of the news first breaking, celebrated leftists, smelling in the blood of innocents some chance for political advantage, began to appropriate the corpses of their fellow citizens for soapboxes. ABC “newsman” Brian Ross slandered an innocent man in the hope of using the killings to perpetuate the media lie that the Tea Party movement is violent. Lefty politicians like Senator Frank Lautenberg and Mayor Michael Bloomberg began to beat the drum for anti-gun laws, despite the fact that Aurora already has stringent gun control. Brain-dead celebrities like Bill Maher and Cher found in the shattering grief of their neighbors a tremendous chance to insult America and Mitt Romney.
Does the ABC News team think a dead six year old is a prop for their disinformation campaign? Do Senator Lautenberg and Mayor Bloomberg think a community’s trauma is nothing more than a political opportunity? Do Bill Maher and Cher think anything? Do they know anything even exists outside the wonderlands of their own narcissism?
What these lefties reveal in moments like this — and they reveal it again and again — is that human beings — real live actual human beings with individual lives and desires and dreams and fears — do not mean a thing to them. Not a thing. To them, the Aurora massacre is not about the dead and the mourning, it’s about getting one in on the Tea Party! It’s about getting their hands on the Second Amendment! It’s about getting off a sarcastic remark! The victims and their families are just convenient stepping stones on the path to where they want to go.
I do not hear anyone on the right talking like this. This sort of moral vacuity is a product of the leftist philosophy — a philosophy that does not understand the worth of individuals, that does not conceive of each person as being a point and purpose in and of himself. We’re all just theoretical pieces in the puzzle of their perfect world. Never mind that we may not fit where they want us to. If we’ll just give them the power to push and push us enough, why, we’ll surely snap into place and, ah, what a beautiful life it will be then. It’s a way of thinking that deadens you to other people’s pain.
Twelve people are dead. A six-year-old child. Ordinary guys with the hearts of heroes. Sons and daughters. Lovers. Friends. Is it too much to ask of these chattering elites that they refrain from grandstanding on our neighbors’ bodies? Offer your condolences. Express your grief. Then shut your fat flapping faces. You’re not going to improve the situation. You’re not going to prevent it from happening again. You’re not going to do anything but show yourself to be so much less than what, with all your power and wealth and privilege, you really owe it to us to be.
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Thumbnail image courtesy shutterstock / Nejron Photo
Related at PJ Media:
Victor Davis Hanson: The Demons of the Modern Rampage Killer
Michael Walsh: A History of Violence
Rick Moran: The Predictable Banality of the After-Massacre Media
Dave Swindle: The Aurora Shooting Victims
Roger L. Simon: Time to Curtail Violence in Film
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