What Is The True Lesson of A Tragedy in an Aurora, Colorado, Film Theatre?
I really thought there was nothing to say or write about the shootings at the Aurora, Colorado, movie theatre. The prattling, smug, and often unsubstantiated talk filling the airwaves and print pages really added nothing. But then I realized that there is indeed something important to conclude from this tragic episode. And it’s one of the most important things — perhaps the most important of all — to understand about history, civilization, humanity, and society.
Human frailty.
None of us is perfect. We all have weaknesses and shortcomings. And some have more than others. We see a daily display of jealousy, anger, hatred, ignorance, misunderstanding, clashing goals or interests, and the whole panoply of bad things that humans think, say, and do.
Just read the talk-backs to articles on almost any subject and you quickly find that kind of bickering, meanness, passion overcoming facts, hidden agenda, and the hundred other things that, as Hamlet says, “The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to.”
This is the world we live and die in. Perhaps we succeed or fail, in our own eyes or those of others. Perhaps we don’t have as many material goods as we would like or as much fame or as much respect or as much power. Frustration is not some accident that crops up; it is woven into the very fabric of life.
And so someone cracks, as happened in Phoenix, Arizona, or in Aurora, Colorado. They might crack more quietly as serial killers do, or publicly as do those who suddenly turn on strangers. Or the cracking can take place on a world stage, as rabid dictators with howling followers go to commit war, massacre, oppression, and terrorism.
Or it can be on a tiny, human level in the daily acts of rudeness and sins to which we are victim and that we commit even to loved ones.
There is no solution. Certainly, individuals can be helped; problems can at times be diminished. But there is no political ideology or government program or redistribution of wealth that is going to cure humanity’s ills.
I had the fortune of reading Rabbi Jonathan Sacks “Profits and Prophets”
article just recently along with yours Dr. Rubin.
He goes on to say that the key word, used by both Isaiah and the sages, is “emunah”, meaning “faithfulness” and “trust”. Isaiah in our “haforah” twice uses the phrase “kirya ne’emana”, “faithful city.” The sages say that in heaven we will be asked, “Did you conduct your business be ‘enunah’?” – meaning “in such a way to inspire trust”.
Now, take a look at the market economy. It depends on trust. In fact on a more personable level we all depend on trust. Rabbi Sacks goes on to say –
“Remove that, and depend instead on contracts, lawyers, regulations and supervisory authorities, and there will be yet more scandals, collapses and crashes, since the ingenuity of those who seek to sidestep the rules always exceeds that of those whose job it is to apply them. The only safe regulatory authority is conscience, the voice of G‑d within the human heart forbidding us to do what we know is wrong but think we can get away with.”
This statement is as appropriatly placed in this persons collapse as it is for Wall Street I think.
The rabbi concludes that Isaiah’s warning is as timely now as it was twenty-seven centuries ago. I’d have to agree.
Yesher koach.
Yes, let’s deregulate and count on the banks and Wall Street to do the right thing. Libor anyone?
Let’s hyper-regulate and trust on Obama and wise men selected by him to run things.
this used to work, and will again. Those banks and other instutions of public trust which work from principles of honesty and integrity will prosper, as will those who seek them out and tender their custom to them. Those who seek only their own increase will fall by the wayside, eschewed by an astute public. Case in point: I used to bank with Washington Mutual Bank, which treated me honestly and fairly, and with utmost respect. They EARNED my trust, provided services that saved me significant funds, were “flexible” when difficulties arrose, desiring to not only keep me as their customer, but to see me prosper. When they got sold downriver by the Fed and slurped up from the floor onto which they were cast by the “regulators” and “protectors of the public trust”, JP Morgan Chase “acquired” them at firesale. I decided to remain with them and see what happened. First move, credit card interest rates rose, Second, some services, formerly included at no extra cost, were ended. I could purchase these at additional, significant, cost. The branch personnnel continued, though they slowly went elsewhere. New ones quickly learned who the long-time patrons were, and treated us with great respect… but their hands were now tied when it came to “issues”. the telling blow came when they decided to place requirements to qualify for the “free” checking accounts….. none of which I could meet. Rather than paying their new monthly fee for the “free checking” account, I took my money, and custom, elsewhere.. to a small, local and locally controlled bank. I miss being able to bank anywhere in the country with my own former vast network of branches… but I do NOT miss the fees, restrictions, terminated services, bigher interest rates… I still do not have those former “free” services, but I’d rather see my funds to to the local people who work hard on my behalf. I have learned since I left Chase that about forty percent of their former customers have followed my flight. now I learn that JP Morgan Chase have been dleiberately manipulating the price of silver worldwide, have taken billions of federal money, and are posting very high profits as a company. Word in this area has it that Chase is not to be dealt with, but the smaller local banks are. (there is one local bank has a sullied reputation, and is also avoided, so the “free market” is doing its work well in this regard.
Fee Market truly DOES work.
Lawrence whether you want more regulations or not, I cant see why many executives at HSBC and else where are not in jail with the laws we have already.
Libor scandal? How about HSBC mis labeling funds intended for Iran and routed through the United States? If you or I did something like that we would never see daylight again.
Most organizational problems can be broken down into two areas. Education and enforcement.
Education: Does everyone within the organization know AND understand their duties/responsibilities and what is expected of them?
Enforcement: Does everyone within the organization know AND understand that they will be held accountable for their actions (or lack thereof)?
After 20 years in a military uniform and another 8 in the civilian sector, this basic premise hasn’t really changed.
If we look first at the log in our own eye, we are less likely to cry out at the sliver in the eye of others.
I personally have a strong superego, and would not commit or excuse any kind of mass murder. The idea that we are all evil belongs in the realm of religion, not the premature analysis of a human being who has, indeed, committed murder and may, or may not be, insane. I wrote a blog about competing premature diagnoses of Holmes here: http://clarespark.com/2012/07/24/the-cracked-and-cracking-loner-as-mass-murderer/.
This tragedy is not explainable by some idea of “Cracking”. It is an example of plain naked human evil. To say he couldn’t take “it” any more and therefore he got all dressed up as if he were the Joker in the Batman stories and went out to randomly kill people is an insult to the victims. And to our intelligence. People who can’t take it do themselves in; not innocents.
Well said. He didn’t dress up as the joker, he dressed as himself hoping to fool folks into blaming the film or a ‘condition’. As you said, he is evil.
Wow, you certainly know a lot of what another person who you’ve never met or spoken to was thinking. How did you find out his motivations, when no one else is capable of doing so?
Ogma, obviously I’m stating my opinion. Yeah, I’m human and could be wrong. I’m basing my comments on having studied serial and spree killers extensively. IMHO the level of planning, preparation and detail are far too extensive and completely inconsistent with someone who has lost their grip on reality to that level. I.E. loss of a sense of identity or schizophrenia. He certainly doesn’t believe he’s the joker. He may identify with the mayhem etc of the joker, but that guy has green hair. He chose to dye himself in a color distinct from the joker (probably for other reasons).
On some religious sites their debating whether he’s possessed. Comes to kind of the same thing as assuming a mental disease. Let’s find something to blame other than he as a human being deciding to act in an evil manner. Something else must have caused it.
Right on, man. Barry Rubin’s logorrheal musings on a simple horrific act of evil reflects so much of what is wrong with contemporary society. A rabid animal does not attract a lot of exculpatory pleading, nor should the human animal. The sociopaths thrive on wimpy self-canonized dolts.
I always appreciate reading your well considered thoughts on humanity. Today I found a slight disagreement. I am an atheist. Though I don’t expect to be judged by God I know that after I die I will be judged by my family and friends and acquaintances in life. Although I will not care at that time I do care now because I am alive – and now is when I will be committing the good or bad acts for which I will be remembered. Although I don’t always succeed at choosing the best behavior I assure you this is a strong motivation to do so.
As far as my desire for self-improvement, that also is something that I carry with me. I am motivated to do that for a more selfish reason: because if fate grants me some time as I am dying to reflect on my life – I want the satisfaction of knowing that I did the best I could with whatever potential I was given at birth.
And that also is a strong motivation. I am well past retirement age but still taking courses at the University. And I still read and learn as much as I can, especially of those wise sages I can find, such as yourself. Cheers.
There have been many incidents where armed citizens cut short what would have been a rampage. These have happened in the USA, and in Israel where the authorities have long recognized the safety aspect of an armed citizenry. It is unfortunate that the mass media, because of its anti-gun bias, routinely kills such stories while reveling in tragedies like this one.
Ron Paul’s Texas Straight Talk: Lesson From Aurora: Gov’t Cannot Protect Us From All Harm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1_g3-FFFtFY#!
Although the ancient Gnostics believed that we held a spark of higher, divine nature imprisoned within us, we grow out of and are rooted in the physical, the animal, the primate world, and, although many of us these days try, we cannot escape or deny our heritage.
The dynamics and the burning, visceral behaviors, motivations, and goals of each member of the primate band for dominance, and mates, progeny and survival, violence and bloodshed, millions of years in the making—no matter how disguised, repudiated or ignored, are—in greater or lesser measure—hardwired, within each one of us, and always will be, and any attempt to “fundamentally transform” our innate animal, human nature via some form of ideology or, in the future by some possible genetic manipulation, would make us no longer us, no longer human.
Ignoring and denying our nature and basing public policy on some idealized view of human nature risks even more carnage. But, no matter what, there will always be casualties, except some courses of action will minimize them, and some will greatly increase them.
Religion that engages primarily our emotions, and philosophy that primarily engages our intellects and is a much weaker restraint–are ways to restrain those animal instincts, that innate violence, rage and selfishness, and perhaps to not only blunt and contain them, but to re-direct them into positive and useful directions.
However, as you so ably pointed out, once Religion and the ideals, goals, constraints, and redirecting channels it creates and promotes are removed, we revert, more and more, back to our innate animal nature, with the results that we see all around us.
Human Frailty?
What if this guy (and Jared Loughner) were possessed by a demon? You know, like Satan? Think you could write a couple of pages on that?
And after all, if this is the case how would you know? What with all the people writing reams and reams of pixels treating this as a just another tragedy, like a mine cave-in or something.
I hope much more about the shooter is investigated. I think his mental health was a factor in the attack on the movie-goers and I see some simiiarities between him and the med studernt who killed women in the Boston area. Rather than give him the death penalty, I think he should be studied. I may be all wrong; I have no degree in psychology and I no expert on such things. However, I tend to discount the “he is evil” and biblical theories.
I would recommend you read, “Mindhunter” by John Douglas. He is a former FBI profiler and he makes some interesting observations on the psychology of serial and spree killers. Additionally, quite a bit about criminals and their manipulations of psychologists that evaluate them.
Just as “one man, one vote” made political equals out of men, “one man, one gun” does the same in a physical way. Collectively we have no choice but to absorb statistics as they occur.
By creating anything more powerful (like a bomb or an airplane), then it’s an arms race. Absorbing statistical catastrophes can no longer be shrugged off as acceptable losses, nor prayed away as God’s will. Countermeasures are necessary- which generally means less freedom and chartering strongholds of power.
What to do when even worse weapons are used, such as a virus or nuke? I fear these events must cycle uncontrollably over millions of years… imperceptibly except to a few helpless observers. One could presume that all worlds grapple with this, and with little success.
“Second, when the traditional ideals of individual responsibility, family cohesion, and ethical behavior break down a society is in very serious trouble. And if that problem isn’t addressed, there’s really nothing worth talking about at all.”
Traditions and ideals, religion, Godliness and all the others have never in human history prevented the catastrophes of human on human like Aurora. It is naive to claim otherwise. In all human communites and societies these acts have always been, and will always be. It is unfortunately who we are.
Somehow we accept that human nature includes violence but stop short of recognizing when a human is about to be violent. What signs of coming violence were known by the assassin himself, his family, his associates? What stopped them and stops any of us from speaking up when indicators of meltdown are becoming obvious?
Every killer, every thief, every rapist, every white collar criminal, every sociopathic politician, everyone starts out as a human baby. Unless we are ready to concede that someone is born evil we better darn well start looking at those who bring these damaged and destructive people into the world. The last time I looked I was responsible for my children, loving them and nurturing their souls. Sure, they may do something foolish and get themselves in trouble but mass murdering innocent people is on a whole different level.
Funny how every last pundit, talking head,journalist, blogger and so forth omits the elephant in the room–the parents. Blaming parents is taboo in our country, why? Who else raised these kids? Christopher Nolan? Were they dropped off by Satan in a cornfield? I do not think so. I’m sure there are photos that prove they are actual huimans raised by humans.
My father had a saying while I was growing up, when I was a teenager he said, ‘don’t get into trouble, because if you’re in trouble I’m in trouble.’ It always stopped me in my tracks, I never wanted to shame my father. But the deeper message was he was taking responsibility for the way I turned out. I do the same thing with my children.
The fact that Holmes’ mother was so worried about her statement to police the morning of the shooting that she hired a lawyer a couple of days later is unbelievable. Most parents, if they woke up to find their kid killed a whole bunch of people would be sedated in a psych hospital for 3 months!Coincidentally, one of the Columbine killer’s mothers actually got her hair done 2 days after the shooting and the hairdresser gave an interview to the paper. Which one of us could have our hair done after our under 18 son just mowed down a school cafeteria and then shot himself? Kind of gives you a window into their upbringing. Read Scott Peck’s People of the Lie–it gives good insight into maternal attachment disorder and narcissistic parenting and then read about soul-murder by Alice Miller. These toxic parents are everywhere–and cross all socio-economic barriers. And abuse can come in many forms–
Let’s start putting the parents in prison alongside their offspring-regardless of age–I bet alot of moms and dads will start taking how they raise their children alot more seriously. We may never eliminate evil behavior but if we stop being afraid to BLAME parents instead of the media, the culture,Palin, the tea party, politicians, video games, heavy metal and the kitchen sink(anybody and anything but the parents!how absolutely odd)we may find we have a much less violent nation. It couldn’t hurt to start putting the onus on a group that seems to never have to answer for their kids behavior.
Oh and Holmes’ parents asked that the press “respect their privacy.” WTF??
Sorry. Some people choose evil. There are sociopaths who feel no connection to other human beings and it’s a matter of debate as to whether that’s inherent or affected by other influences. However, humans are all different and theres’ no guarantee that raising them in a particular fashion will result in cooperative and well-adjusted citizens. I’ve known kids raised in wonderful circumstance with caring parents who chose to do wrong, and I’ve met folks raised in horrible circumstances who chose to do good.
I’m sorry, they may not be born evil but at some point that becomes their choice. And we need to hold individuals responsible for their choices. Not their parents, friends, movies, games, satan, ads, twinkies, books, magazines, political party, or magnetic alignment of their bed, or them being raised in a society which tends to look for excuses for people.
I have not seen “The Dark Knight Rises” and probably won’t, but I did see “The Dark Knight” ($5 dvd from Walmart) and it had no plot and no story line, at least to speak of. What it did have was pretty much non-stop mayhem. I am guessing that the killer saw “The Dark Knight”.
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said “We do not kill a mad dog as an example to society; we kill him because he is a danger to society.” There are times tht call for the Judge Roy Bean Remedy: try him, convict him, hang him, break for lunch.
I have a cousin whose second son was a sociopath, and a college roommate who also had such a son. Both women had other children who did not have this disease. In the former case, the son was killed in a house fire, and the mother suffered torments because her only reaction was relief. Nothing could be done for him because he did not believe there was anything wrong with what he did, and in today’s world we must have the “consent” of the criminal madman to treat him. Far better for us all just to shoot him and move on.
what I learned from the murders at Aurora
I learned that there are evil people that do evil things
I learned that there are lawyers and others that will do their best to defend the indefensible and twist the law, common sense and decency into pretzels.
I learned that people hate the death penalty but had no problem with the murder of Bin Laden, even when obozo when a senator was telling us that we needed to capture him and put him on trial.
And I learned that people with no core values are extremely destructive, because they play politics with issues instead of being statesmen.
Ben Swann Reality Check takes a look at the questions the national media isn’t bothering to ask about the Colorado theater massacre.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jeW_-Kq7vA&feature=plcp
Mr. Rubin,
News flash: What happened at Aurora is badly characterized by you as a tragedy.
It was a massacre. For the difference, consult your nearest dictionary.
Exactly – where conservatives see personal responsibility and free will, (“Crimes”) liberals will pretend to see a “Shame,” a “Tragedy” or an otherwise inexplicible act of god or pre-destination determinism (inshallah akhbar) and immoral relativism, “because after all, there are no real criminals, because we’re all really only victims anyway!”
Upon seeing a car accident, a liberal will say: “Speed kills,” or even “That tree hit his car!” – while a Conservative will say: “He was driving too fast for the road conditions.”
In the same manner, to blame the decisions of a criminal on ‘mental illness’ is only to give them this idolatrous excuse:
“I didn’t do it! ONLY my BRAIN did it!”
Whee!
Who cracked in Phoenix? If the event in question was the Gabrielle Giffords shooting, that happened many miles south, in Tucson.
“There is no solution” Rubin opines. I disagree.
His opening statements note the increasing irrationality seen in today’s public discourse. The reason for this is a simple one: never having any facts which would ever agree with their perpetual irrationality, the left must always resort to the slanderous evasions known collectively as the critical thinking logical fallacies (the deflective ad-hominem personal attacks, the distractive strawman red-herrings, and of course the immoral relativist’s favorite, the tu quoque – i.e: “islam isn’t evil because we all do it too! Whee!”).
Isn’t it funny that people who actually have facts, rarely (if ever) seem to feel the need to indulge in fallacies?
Next, he posits that “there is something wrong in every person” – the reason is “human frailty;” that “none of us is perfect.”
Again: I disagree.
All crimes are forms of theft: offensive attacks that deny the attacker’s victim something they, not the attacker, are entitled to; basic robbery is theft of one’s stuff (and so is arson); kidnapping, assault, and rape are all thefts of one’s bodily autonomy, murder is theft of one’s life, and lying (fraud) is only the most basic form of theft – it’s the theft of the Truth. (And lying includes presenting one’s merely subjective, unresearched, fact-free opinion as if it were objective fact)!
And even all threats are psychological attacks (aka: coercion, duress, extortion, “terrorism”) which are thefts of one’s peace of mind and security, and all non-defensive attacks are already classified as crimes.
After all, when you attack the Others first, then, by definition, you are the predatory criminal aggressor, and they are your innocent victims – there’s no two ways about it!
(Attacking second, in defense of one’s self and/or of innocent others, is always OK, and is in fact a mandatory requirement for having any sort of deterring justice in the world at all, ever! Without counter-attacks criminals have no reason to be deterred into ceasing theirs)!
Thus, we have developed a natural law, which rationally depends on these cause-and-effect facts, known as The Golden Rule of Law, which, by defining situational morality as “Do Not Attack First!” enables trust, progress, and Civilization. It is often abstracted as “THOU SHALT NOT KILL!”
It’s opposite might be called ‘the brazen rule of chaos,’ which defines immorality as “only we have the holy right to always attack all ‘The Others’ first, so there, nyah!” and so inflicts distrust, stagnation, and Barbarism. It has been abstracted as “THOU SHALT KILL!” (and is known today as “islam”)!
Even the ‘Ten’ Commandments are really only a bunch of listed symptoms, illustrating this simple binary; the first five are all cautions to “Fear and Obey!” while the second five are all admonishments not to steal! Thus, they, too, can be summed up as “Greed NOT; Be Fearful!” (or: don’t attack first)! – while islam embodies the exact opposite (“Fear NOT; Be Greedy”) – or: “Always attack first!”
And of course the victim-blaming rationale for evil is always that one was somehow only “defending” one’s self, by pre-emptively attacking the others first, by adding insult to injury with the slanderous implication that “well, they were going to attack me, anyway” and “so it’s for their own good for them to Submit to me attacking them, first”)!
Even small children instinctively know the Golden Rule of Law as the:
“But, Mom! THEY STARTED IT!” Rule.
Interestingly, our despised (by moslems) “Western” system of morality, is in fact entirely “Eastern” (Chinese) in origin!
It was first coined by Cong Fuzi (“Confucius”) in the negative (as “Do NOT Do Unto Others…!”) and then allegedly by Jesus in the (false, nannnysate advice) positive, and since then it’s been used in the UN’s founding Charter (where it describes the #1 War-Crime as “to be the aggressor in war”). It’s the physician’s Hippocratic Oath (“First, Do No Harm!”) and is even used by social engineers as the “Precautionary Principle.”
It’s opposite creed, which I’ve termed the ‘Brazen Rule of Chaos’ has been attributed by John Milton in Paradise Lost, to Satan, as: “Who Dares, Wins!”
Backwards criminals always conflate their own “might-makes-right” jungle-law creed with the Old Testament’s “An Eye for An Eye” doctrine of proportional deterrence and justice, when in fact they are exact opposites! They also pretend the (after-the-fact) “ends justify the means!” when, in fact, the means only ever really define the end results:
After all, when you decide to lie, kill, and otherwise steal to get ahead, in the end, you’re not really a “great success,” you’re still really only a lying, murdering thief!
The line about the results possibly being different if someone in the audience had a gun is total bull. As a IDF vet I’ve seen the difference between the way a civilian reacts to gunfire and a trained soldier. Giving guns to civilians is going to raise the body count. I know people back when I was living in Israeli people who did carry weapons, and in 2 cases returned fire on terrorists in jerusalem killing the terrorists. That’s the result of our training. If you havent been trained properly or been under fire previously your reactions are more likely to harm people than to save people.
Uncle Vladdi:
“[T]he ‘Brazen Rule of Chaos’ has been attributed by John Milton in Paradise Lost, to Satan, as: “Who Dares, Wins!”
That’s famously the motto of Britain’s Special Air Service–and, IMO, quite relevant to combat.
DCC, civilians who lawfully carry tend to also have been trained & (as in one recent publicized case from Florida) can effectively stop suspects. But, without a gun, one may still get a chance to apply something else!
“Who Dares, Wins!” was coined by Milton as the writing on the placard over Satan’s throne, in Paradise Lost. Obviously, Satan struck first – and Lost.
The bravado in that motto is countered by others, such as “The best offense is a good Defense.”
However, sure, it can be (and obviously) is, used, out of context, to designate bravery … which is fine, as long as the other fellows have already started it by attacking first (even if “only” by making threats, since threats ARE attacks).