I thought it might be opportune to revisit this thread from a ways back
pre-President Trump and before the intervening homicides from then to now. So
much has happened, even on this forum (we were spammed and scammed by a white
supremacist pretending to be someone they were not, for instance), that is
disturbing as demons in some appear to be almost or totally unleashed.
Hopefully, a picture of the wealthy sniper who killed and maimed so many in Las
Vegas will emerge and we will learn just how he moved from homicidal ideation
to commission, but the bigger picture I meant to illuminate in this thread is
how we all, through our actions or those of groups we support or to which we
belong, may have a hand in actualizing individual homicidal ideations, maybe
even a murder or murders.
My great fear and what seems very likely to me is that murder is an
evolutionary stable strategy held in check only by those cultural norms imposed
on individuals and groups by society; that can explain much of the violence and
the seeming increase as one source of restraint after another is subverted by
those who would change the whole world to their preference whether it is
"pro-life,""choice," or any other position that cannot possibly be forced on
any individual, e.g., a religion, a specific ideology or lack of one for that
matter, without dire consequences.
What sort of a world do you want for you and yours to live in? To me, good
science can reveal, indeed has in some facets, the nature of our problems in
someday arriving at a safe place for all, but it is up to us to build a culture
that promotes peace on Earth whether we accept that science or rely on
something else, say the non-zero sum aspects of many world religions (Mary Lund
referenced a pope a couple of popes back from the present one, talking about a
"Culture of Death," but historically that just seems like the pot calling the
kettle, black, although the same pope brought Catholicism well into the
Darwinian fold); most of our current religions have such non-zero sum aspects,
but they are not always front and center.
I suppose the interfaith organizations here and there help a bit, but many of
them still demonize folks like me, the infidels, non-believers and others
perceived as damned to Hell in ways that sometimes leads to abuse and murder in
the name of their faith and their deity. The faithful, in direct conflict with
much of the tenets of their respective religions (loopholes abound), slaughter
and punish those with whom they disagree.
Whaddayoudo? In this country, we have tried to separate religious questions
from governing, although we see religious folks try to change that again and
again, many asserting that the basis of morality is faith in, if not their
religion tradition, some supernatural deity that holds the reigns to everything
and everyone. If you don't have faith in the supernatural, to most folks
(pretty much all save a percent or two here and there) in the world (but not
quite half, religious or not, in the U.S., since according to Pew, half believe
folks like me really *are* moral) steeped in one religion or another, you are
amoral. But will I kill you? (probably not unless I am espousing some sort of
throwback communism or totalitarian ideology of which one in this thread
accuses me).
So again, what leads to action on our homicidal ideation? The carte blanche of
soldiers in wartime? What war? Are self-defense and defense of country both
homicidal ideation and justification for murder? I suppose the nature and the
culture of the person determines a great deal of it until things switch to
intent and any planning leading to killing.
President Trump won't rule out ISIS in keeping with his anti-Muslim rhetoric,
but was Stephen Paddock acting out with his guns against a specific group of
Americans he perceived as the enemy? Maybe there's a manifesto out there
someplace, although he does not appear to be an intellectual in any sense, but
if he perceived a certain segment or maybe all Americans, many of whom might be
found at a country western concert, as some kind of a threat to his Asian
girlfriend, say after watching the recent PBS documentary on the Vietnam War,
could that explain it? It is hard to imagine Ken Burns and Lynn Novice
triggering something as horrible as this incident, but given that it is the
first real objective look at our war footing in post-Korean War Asia,
specifically Southeast Asia, it might have, given his Southeast Asian
girlfriend. The POTUS has his unsupported hypothesis, and I have one, too,
although perhaps there's really something to mine.
When affairs of state and religion get mixed up with the evolved mechanisms of
the human brain, weird and scary stuff can happen unless we take steps to avoid
it. I think we do, but perhaps not enough steps or enough people when the chips
are down.
Here in Minnesota before Fall gets cool enough to close the windows, I can
sometimes hear the principal at the grade school near me speaking over P.A. to
say good morning to "scholars," what's on the cafeteria menu, recognizing one
student or teacher for something of great note, and always ending with the
admonition, "remember to be kind to one another."
Sometimes that kindness thing is hard to manage for some of us, both in showing
it or perceiving it, but even if it is just the "fake it until you make it"
variety, it can work. Whether it's the Christians persecuting Jews (everywhere
it seems), Jews to Muslims (mostly in the "Holy Land"), Hindus doing the same
to Muslims (in India), Buddhists to Hindus (in Sri Lanka), and more Buddhists
to more Muslims (lately in Myanmar), Muslims to other Muslims (take your pick
of Suni/Shia/Sufi or other Muslim to Muslim conflicts) kindness can work if one
can manage it, and as science has shown, it is also part of human nature as
well as this killing problem that makes it so difficult to be kind at times.