What Does It Mean?

God bless U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of the shooting in Tucson. Among the dead are a U.S. District Court Judge, an aide of Giffords' who was engaged to be married, and a nine year old girl. This is terrible beyond any reasonable hope of consolation.

I had a strong feeling of déjà vu when I watched the clips on CNN and Fox. In 1998 I watched news people I recognized standing in front of a building I recognized in Jonesboro, Arkansas. They were reporting on a school shooting. Five people died. The shooters were two boys, ages 13 and 11.

I was born in Jonesboro and lived there until my early twenties. I left to attend the University of Arizona in Tucson. It's possible that I shopped at the Safeway grocery store where today's shooting occurred. The landscape was eerily familiar. I had a disturbing feeling, for just a moment, that my connection with both places means something. It doesn't. It is just chance.

The day after the Jonesboro shooting I asked a room full of American Government students "what does this mean?" After a bit of uncomfortable silence, my students began to offer some answers. One student said that it demonstrated a culture of guns and violence in America. Another thought it meant that we needed stricter gun control laws. A couple of students thought it was a sign that America had abandoned God.

I acknowledged all the opinions offered with respect, but I let it be known that I had a different answer. I thought, and I still think, that it didn't mean anything.

Like any population of animals, human beings display variation. Some are very tall, some very short, with most somewhere in the middle. Sort them on a simple two variable graph, and you usually get a bell curve. The same is true of psychological traits like mental stability and a tendency toward violence. At one end we get heartwarming, heroic stories. At the other end is the terror.

It is altogether proper that we praise the one and deplore the other. That is healthy moral action. It is harder, but still a good idea, to recognize that in a nation of more than three hundred million people, random variation is going to produce more than a few dangerously disturbed individuals. A few handfuls of the latter will be fully capable of doing dreadful things. Some of those things, like landslides and earthquakes, will occur. Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh just didn't mean anything, beyond our vulnerability to the facts mentioned above.

As yet very little has been reported about Jared Lee Loughner. It is conceivable, of course, that he will turn out to be part of some dark political conspiracy. One can imagine that he is an agent of the militant wing of some Tea Party organization. The deplorable Paul Krugman seems to imagine that. One can imagine that he was hired by the Daily KOS to discredit the Tea Party movement. If anything like that turns out to be true, today's atrocity will mean a lot.

It wouldn't fit the pattern. Organized political violence in American history is all too common at the street level, but pretty rare above that. Assaults on public officials are usually the work of isolated and disturbed individuals or small groups of the same. John Hinckley Jr. shot President Reagan for the same reason that Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon: they were psychopaths who chose celebrities as their targets.

Violent acts are easier on the public psyche when they are meaningful. We know who to blame, who to go after. We can persuade ourselves that we can get them before they get at us. Sometimes that is true. Meaningless acts are unnerving. They remind us of how little control we really have, of how many bottomless pits lie beneath the institutional and psychological edifices we construct.

We will find out more, no doubt, about Mr. Loughner. Maybe what we find out will be meaningful and even in some dark sense comforting. Don't count on it.

Comments

[Miranda]

While I am reluctant to agree that all this boils down to is bad genes, you may be right that the attack itself meant nothing.

Nevertheless, I think that the reaction to it means something. The quickness with which both members of the press and of the Democratic concluded that this act must have been due to the influence of conservatives is significant. Dick Durbin's hints that Sarah Palin's "Don't retreat, instead RELOAD" comment had something to do with this are also, I think, a bit shameful and opportunistic.

Perhaps the most interesting reaction so far, though, is this one, as reported by CNN:

"Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, told CBS' `Face the Nation' that he had spoken with Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, who is `very angry about the level of angry rhetoric that he believes incites people.'"

[Bill Fleming]

I don't really believe you are saying there is no "meaning" here, KB. The moment is absolutely pregnant with profound meaning... albeit ineffable.

[George Mason]

This individual was listening to the voices in his head and nothing else.

[Bill Fleming]

it's perhaps worth considering that the entire body of philosophical and theological thought is an exercise in finding meaning in the seemingly meaningless.

[KB]

Bill: sometimes the meaningless of an event is the meaning.

Miranda: I don't know to what degree Mr. Loughner's actions were influenced by his genes, his unique environment, or his actions. I am sure it was some mix. I just don't think that this event says a lot about "society", let alone about Democrats or Republicans. It just says that in a large, open society, you are going to get a few dangerous screwballs. Sometimes wisdom means recognizing that there is nothing wise to say about something. It just plain happened.

[Bill Fleming]

KB, sometimes. Similarly, sometimes a seemingly meaningless event can be a catalyst for something profoundly meaningful. My gut says the Arazona event is one of those. A crossroads of sorts. Not a "cause and effect" situation, but rather a synchronicity. A tipping point and perhaps... even a catharsis. A game changer.

[Bill Fleming]

Arizona.

[Jimi]

Bill,

I disagree....it is going to come out that this guy was an Obama supporter, a who believed in the "Progressive" philosphy, and just like all the others it will be swept under the rug by the MSM, and it will be forgotten about soon, not to be mentioned publically.

[Bill Fleming]

Well, Jimi, let's just say your crystal ball is better than mine. Regardless, the conversation I'm talking about has already started, will likely continue, and is not likely to be contingent upon which political ideology the kid from Tucson subscribes to.

[Miranda]

Dr. Blanchard: That I can agree with!

[Jimi]

Bill,

"the conversation I'm talking about has already started, will likely continue, and is not likely to be contingent upon which political ideology the kid from Tucson subscribes to."

Exactly what conversation are you refering to?

Look from my perspective, this event most likely was bigger than just political disagreements. This guy had some issues, maybe a chemical inbalance...who knows...but the point is the Left is running out and immediately pointing the finger at Republicans and Conservatives....Why? There is no evidence for that, and in fact, if the below pieces of evidence are true, then in my opinion, this guys was way more aligned with the Left than the Right.

1.) Favorite Books - "The Communist Manifesto" - "Animal Farm"
2.) Into Occult
3.) 911 Truther
4.) An Atheist

[Bill Fleming]

Yes, Jimi, there are insane people of all political persuasions. The conversation I'm talking about is about us all turning down the emotional thermostat. About how we're all Americans, and about how it doesn't do any of us any good to point fingers at each other.

[Jimi]

Bill,

O.K. Fair Enough...There is common ground there!