1.
A young internet pundit, who like just about every broadcaster at the time of this writing, a few days after the horrific carnage at a gay bar in Orlando, was discussing the tragedy. The pundit said, "I am not going to show his (the mass murderer's) picture or mention his name." He had no desire to "idolize" a monster. The man who committed those deeds, in the pundit's view, was no longer a man; he had become an evil excrescence.
This is what Mr. Trump had to say:
"The killer, whose name I will not say or ever use, was born in Afgan." No, Donald Trump, Omar Mateen was born in the state of New York, just like you. (No comment on your Bushism, the originator of which, remember? once said, "Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible diseases.")
I recall that Anderson Cooper refused to mention the name of Adam Lanza, the young man who killed 26 people, many of them very young children, at an elementary school in Massachusetts.
The man who committed the heinous killings was Muslim. He was also one of us.
Omar Mateen was a Muslim, but he was just as American as the Christian of European descent who gunned down children at Sandy Hook; Omar Mateen's family had emigrated from Afghanistan, but he was just as American as the American, of Chinese ethnicity, who slaughtered thirty-two students at Virginia Tech; yes, Omar Mateen was a young American Muslim man, just as American as the young Christian man who gunned down outstanding Christians at a church in South Carolina..
What is something they all had in common? They were born human beings and remained human beings, despite their despicable deeds. No, Mr. Pundit, I don't want to idolize them; I don't want to demonize them either. The brains of these young men had been factories of delusions for many years before they exploded.
Excoriating dynamite is not an effective way to remain unscathed.
To those who refuse to mention the name of the latest author of the latest misery, I have six words to say:
Omar Mateen, Omar Mateen, Omar Mateen.
2.
All of these young men were severely disturbed. They were locked inside their troubled psyches. They had no friends. They were unable to contribute, to love, or to enjoy. They were loners. They considered themselves failures. They were outcasts. They were ignored and, in some cases, bullied. Rage shouted down whatever small voice was left of their conscience. They wanted to die.
It takes a village to make a violent murderer, Mr. Trump, nobody is born that way. No man is an island until a man-made lake of indifference and hostility separates them from the rest of us. Were they responsible for their deeds? If so, we are responsible too.
Are we our brothers' keepers? If not, we are more likely to become our brothers' victims.
We are chasing hurricanes, armed with broken jars, trying to incarcerate the wind.
In the June 2016 edition of The Atlantic, there is an article by Stephen Cave entitled, "There's No Such Thing as Free Will." I was aware that most current scientists and many philosophers of the present and of the past denied human agency; there has been new research that strongly indicates that free will is an illusion.
I found it interesting that, according to Cave, some current research asserts that, once the average Joe and the average Jane realize this, they tend to be less charitable, less honest, less good. I am sure that research would also indicate, however, that when one realizes that free will is an illusion, the source of shame and failure becomes an illusion as well--but that research hasn't been done. What is another likely benefit of realizing there's no free will? Acceptance of life just as it is. How could someone be so angry as to become a mass murderer, if he or she accepted life, the good and the bad, just the way it is? Another result would be compassion for oneself. Why am I so troubled? I didn't choose my genes. I didn't choose my environment. It's not my fault. I'm as good as anyone else. Once a troubled young person comes to this conclusion, the likelihood of causing trouble to oneself or to others is greatly diminished.
I must note that I don't believe the research that suggests that the knowledge of the illusion of human agency is necessarily deleterious. True, it is an illusion. But it is an illusion of an illusion: the separate self is a phantom as well. Science knows this; it is also one of the pillars of Buddhism, that is, the teaching of non-self or anatta. Once this truth is deeply experienced, burdens are lifted. After the tarnish of ignorance is polished away by knowledge, one is dazzled by the beauty of one's inner gem, identical copies of which are present inside all. One then is "free" to act according to one's true nature. And the true nature of everyone is good, very good; I have no doubt about that.
If your son had been killed by Omar Mateen, you would be devastated. If your daughter had been killed by Adam Lanza, the mass murderer at Sandy Hook Elementary, you would have been devastated as well. Does it matter who pulled the trigger? Does it matter that all the mass murderers had guns?
Once the illusion of human agency becomes apparent, the gross injustice of our justice system, based largely on retribution, becomes apparent as well. Violent criminals are no more evil than an avalanche. Trying to handcuff a volcano is even more stupid than promising to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, which is stupid enough. Once we realize that we are all, deep down, innocent; once society agrees with Emerson, who famously wrote, "One to me is shame and fame"; once we realize that weeds are just as important as redwoods, there would be peace. An effective, necessary and just justice system would also result. The true purpose of the courts is to protect and prevent the victimization of others. This necessitates the temporary or sometime permanent removal from society of an individual who is known to be dangerous. This has, or should have, nothing to do with vengeance.
Omar Mateen, I mourn your death. But you--through no fault of your own--were already dead, as far from your true nature as earth is from a distant star. Most of all I mourn for the victims of this atrocity, who, like you, were young, and who, unlike you, were full of life: Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, Jean Carlos Mendez-Perez, Franky Jimmy Dejeus Valazquez, Amanda Alvear, Martin Benitez Torres, Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, Mercedez Maarisol-Flores, Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, Giberto Ramon Silva Menendez, Simon Adria Carrillo Fernandez, Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, Enrique L. Rios, Jr., Miguel Ariel Honorato, Javier Jorge-Reyes, Joel R. Paniagua, Jason Benjamin Josephat, Corey James Connell, Juan P. Rivera-Valazquez, Luis Daniel Conde, Shara Evan Tomlinson, Juan Martinez, Jerald Anthony Wright, Gerald Arthur Wright, Leroy Valentin Fernandez, Devin Eugene Crosby, Jonathan Antonio Vega, Jean C. Rodriguez, Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, Yilnery Rodriguez Sulivan, Chrisopher Andrew Leinonen, Angel L. Candalario-Pedro, Frank Hernandez, Antonio Devon Brown, Chrisopher Joseph Sanfeliz and Akyra Monet Murray.
Who could see all those beautiful faces without shedding a tear?
In the name of all these innocent victims, we must, I repeat, stop chasing hurricanes, armed with broken jars, trying to incarcerate the wind.
3.
Omar Mateen, Omar Matten, why, why did you commit mass-murder? Better question to myself and to everyone else: if you had been in the same shoes as Mr. Mateen--that is, if you had had the same brain which had been shaped by the same environment--why would you have done the same thing?
Paradoxically, the absence of free will does not equal fatalism. Environments can and must be changed.
We need gun control. We also need to make better shoes.
A young internet pundit, who like just about every broadcaster at the time of this writing, a few days after the horrific carnage at a gay bar in Orlando, was discussing the tragedy. The pundit said, "I am not going to show his (the mass murderer's) picture or mention his name." He had no desire to "idolize" a monster. The man who committed those deeds, in the pundit's view, was no longer a man; he had become an evil excrescence.
This is what Mr. Trump had to say:
"The killer, whose name I will not say or ever use, was born in Afgan." No, Donald Trump, Omar Mateen was born in the state of New York, just like you. (No comment on your Bushism, the originator of which, remember? once said, "Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible diseases.")
I recall that Anderson Cooper refused to mention the name of Adam Lanza, the young man who killed 26 people, many of them very young children, at an elementary school in Massachusetts.
The man who committed the heinous killings was Muslim. He was also one of us.
Omar Mateen was a Muslim, but he was just as American as the Christian of European descent who gunned down children at Sandy Hook; Omar Mateen's family had emigrated from Afghanistan, but he was just as American as the American, of Chinese ethnicity, who slaughtered thirty-two students at Virginia Tech; yes, Omar Mateen was a young American Muslim man, just as American as the young Christian man who gunned down outstanding Christians at a church in South Carolina..
What is something they all had in common? They were born human beings and remained human beings, despite their despicable deeds. No, Mr. Pundit, I don't want to idolize them; I don't want to demonize them either. The brains of these young men had been factories of delusions for many years before they exploded.
Excoriating dynamite is not an effective way to remain unscathed.
To those who refuse to mention the name of the latest author of the latest misery, I have six words to say:
Omar Mateen, Omar Mateen, Omar Mateen.
2.
All of these young men were severely disturbed. They were locked inside their troubled psyches. They had no friends. They were unable to contribute, to love, or to enjoy. They were loners. They considered themselves failures. They were outcasts. They were ignored and, in some cases, bullied. Rage shouted down whatever small voice was left of their conscience. They wanted to die.
It takes a village to make a violent murderer, Mr. Trump, nobody is born that way. No man is an island until a man-made lake of indifference and hostility separates them from the rest of us. Were they responsible for their deeds? If so, we are responsible too.
Are we our brothers' keepers? If not, we are more likely to become our brothers' victims.
We are chasing hurricanes, armed with broken jars, trying to incarcerate the wind.
In the June 2016 edition of The Atlantic, there is an article by Stephen Cave entitled, "There's No Such Thing as Free Will." I was aware that most current scientists and many philosophers of the present and of the past denied human agency; there has been new research that strongly indicates that free will is an illusion.
I found it interesting that, according to Cave, some current research asserts that, once the average Joe and the average Jane realize this, they tend to be less charitable, less honest, less good. I am sure that research would also indicate, however, that when one realizes that free will is an illusion, the source of shame and failure becomes an illusion as well--but that research hasn't been done. What is another likely benefit of realizing there's no free will? Acceptance of life just as it is. How could someone be so angry as to become a mass murderer, if he or she accepted life, the good and the bad, just the way it is? Another result would be compassion for oneself. Why am I so troubled? I didn't choose my genes. I didn't choose my environment. It's not my fault. I'm as good as anyone else. Once a troubled young person comes to this conclusion, the likelihood of causing trouble to oneself or to others is greatly diminished.
I must note that I don't believe the research that suggests that the knowledge of the illusion of human agency is necessarily deleterious. True, it is an illusion. But it is an illusion of an illusion: the separate self is a phantom as well. Science knows this; it is also one of the pillars of Buddhism, that is, the teaching of non-self or anatta. Once this truth is deeply experienced, burdens are lifted. After the tarnish of ignorance is polished away by knowledge, one is dazzled by the beauty of one's inner gem, identical copies of which are present inside all. One then is "free" to act according to one's true nature. And the true nature of everyone is good, very good; I have no doubt about that.
If your son had been killed by Omar Mateen, you would be devastated. If your daughter had been killed by Adam Lanza, the mass murderer at Sandy Hook Elementary, you would have been devastated as well. Does it matter who pulled the trigger? Does it matter that all the mass murderers had guns?
Once the illusion of human agency becomes apparent, the gross injustice of our justice system, based largely on retribution, becomes apparent as well. Violent criminals are no more evil than an avalanche. Trying to handcuff a volcano is even more stupid than promising to build a wall between Mexico and the United States, which is stupid enough. Once we realize that we are all, deep down, innocent; once society agrees with Emerson, who famously wrote, "One to me is shame and fame"; once we realize that weeds are just as important as redwoods, there would be peace. An effective, necessary and just justice system would also result. The true purpose of the courts is to protect and prevent the victimization of others. This necessitates the temporary or sometime permanent removal from society of an individual who is known to be dangerous. This has, or should have, nothing to do with vengeance.
Omar Mateen, I mourn your death. But you--through no fault of your own--were already dead, as far from your true nature as earth is from a distant star. Most of all I mourn for the victims of this atrocity, who, like you, were young, and who, unlike you, were full of life: Anthony Luis Laureanodisla, Jean Carlos Mendez-Perez, Franky Jimmy Dejeus Valazquez, Amanda Alvear, Martin Benitez Torres, Luis Daniel Wilson-Leon, Mercedez Maarisol-Flores, Xavier Emmanuel Serrano Rosado, Giberto Ramon Silva Menendez, Simon Adria Carrillo Fernandez, Oscar A. Aracena-Montero, Enrique L. Rios, Jr., Miguel Ariel Honorato, Javier Jorge-Reyes, Joel R. Paniagua, Jason Benjamin Josephat, Corey James Connell, Juan P. Rivera-Valazquez, Luis Daniel Conde, Shara Evan Tomlinson, Juan Martinez, Jerald Anthony Wright, Gerald Arthur Wright, Leroy Valentin Fernandez, Devin Eugene Crosby, Jonathan Antonio Vega, Jean C. Rodriguez, Rodolfo Ayala-Ayala, Brenda Lee Marquez McCool, Yilnery Rodriguez Sulivan, Chrisopher Andrew Leinonen, Angel L. Candalario-Pedro, Frank Hernandez, Antonio Devon Brown, Chrisopher Joseph Sanfeliz and Akyra Monet Murray.
Who could see all those beautiful faces without shedding a tear?
In the name of all these innocent victims, we must, I repeat, stop chasing hurricanes, armed with broken jars, trying to incarcerate the wind.
3.
Omar Mateen, Omar Matten, why, why did you commit mass-murder? Better question to myself and to everyone else: if you had been in the same shoes as Mr. Mateen--that is, if you had had the same brain which had been shaped by the same environment--why would you have done the same thing?
Paradoxically, the absence of free will does not equal fatalism. Environments can and must be changed.
We need gun control. We also need to make better shoes.
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