GOP Shooter and the Possible Reasons

With each of these shooting we all stop and think, why did they do that? More often than not we are quick to blame whatever side to shooter claimed to be on. We blame them for ‘violent and polarizing rhetoric’ and ‘dog whistles’ which are all just thinly vailed calls for this sort of thing. One side will quickly jump on gun control and the other will say, if only one of the victims had a gun they could have stopped it sooner. Shortly after the political battle will start again and not much will be done. Instead why don’t we look at the deeper problem?

            Nihilism is defined as “the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. Extreme skepticism maintaining that nothing in the world has a real existence.” So if you have no moral principles and life is meaningless then what does it matter if you kill a few people? It does not happen right away but in stages. First you think that life is meaningless. Next you move to the idea that if life is meaningless then anything you do has no point to it. This can have a freeing effect because it tells you that there is no meaning in life and so you don’t need to worry about your responsibilities. Life is full of suffering and if you have no responsibilities or meaning then what is the point of suffering? This can cause resentment to foster. With this resentment growing you notice that not everyone is suffering as you are. This just causes more resentment, only directed to the world. Eventually you reach the conclusion that life is suffering without meaning and you start to plot your revenge. What is the best way to take revenge on life, why not take out a bunch of innocent people and to cap it all of take yourself out as well just to prove how meaningless everything is.

            This resentment has become a staple in our society today. You see it when college students at an Ivy League university who have their tuition being paid for by their parents marching in protest about how they are being oppressed. You see it when someone tweets from their iPhone while enjoying a pastry at Starbucks about how capitalism is evil. You see it when an illegal immigrant single mother of four is on welfare, WIC, housing assistance and a number of other social programs calls out for more government assistance. They are not mad because they don’t have enough, they are mad because someone else has more. This is the fatal flaw in socialism as well. They are not trying to help the poor, they are just mad at the rich.

            Another problem is fanaticism. Meaning “a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, especially for an extreme religious or political cause.” Fanaticism is the opposite of Nihilism. They embrace morals in an extreme way. This ridged structure allows you to feel secure in the chaos of the world. Yet when you see other people doing better in the world who do not share your moral code, you start to get upset. It calls into question everything you stand for. Instead of looking at your code you start to resent those people who do not follow it. This resentment builds because you do not understand how someone, who is immoral, is allowed to succeed where you, who is doing everything right, is not doing as well. It eventually gets to the point where you think that if the universe isn’t going to bring justice onto these immoral people then I will have to. Usually the fanatic will claim a call from God or the universe or whatever higher belief they hold acting through them. You see this in a lot of terror attacks that take place.

            In both of these examples it is resentment that causes people to do harm to others. It goes back to the story of Cain and Abel. Cain, the older brother, resents Abel because God favors Abel’s sacrifices over Cain’s. Cain, instead of thinking to himself, I should make different sacrifices (even though God tells him that) starts to resent his brother Abel. His resentment grows so much that he eventually kills his brother. This resentment narrative is the older brother of the victim narrative. It moves from my life is terrible to your life is better and that is why my life is terrible. These are dark paths these people are walking down and we will never truly know their mind, but I hope this helps make a little more sense out of the world.