Monday, October 2, 2017

Pure Evil in Los Vegas, or mass sins?

Pure Evil or mass sins?  Mass murder in Los Vegas.  Home of the free, land of the disconnected. Oct 1, 2017: 
The horrific carnage we just witnessed in Las Vegas will never be stopped with sensible or even draconian gun control measures.  The time and resources we spend on these are wasted.  It keeps us from addressing the systemic root causes of any mass murder.  This bloody incident highlights the cost of a warped mental perspective spawned by a lack of empathy/compassion for human life or a bent mental frame reinforced by real or perceived injustices.
News reports highlight Stephen Paddock slaughter as “the largest mass shooting in US modern history”.  This is true.   But we easily forget that guns are not the only or even the most horrifically destructive means of mass murder in the US.  Increasingly other easily affordable means are available to every U.S. citizen and increasingly every human on earth.  And most, like guns can never be effectively banned.
Note that Mr. Paddock had a pilot license and owned two aircraft.  And, according to investigators he had ammonium nitrate in his car.   Now think Timothy McVeigh with a rental truck killing over 150 people and al Qaida’s use of airplanes in killing thousands.  Or, the loan wolf terrorist attack in Nice France that killed 80 people using a rental truck without explosives or firearms.
Paddock was not a gun nut. He had no military or criminal background other than his father, a professional bank robber who was once on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.  Stephen Paddock was supposedly a multi-millionaire gamble/speculator.  Obviously he never speculated that his wealth could benefit others in great need, or be used for more unselfish ends.
President Trump called his assault on concert goers an act of “pure evil”.   “Evil’ however is not a useful word.  It certainly feels good say it but it has limited prescriptive value.   ‘Crime’ or ‘sin’ however, does.   These terms  offer some effective preventive measures to consider once we get past the grieving for those who were killed or wounded.   Why sin?   It was Mahatma Gandhi who once postulated the seven sources of sin.  Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Religion without sacrifice, and Politics without principle.  It appears that Mr. Paddock struck out on most. And so do most of us. Our culture encourages these sins and we have great difficulty in resisting them.
Someone once postulated, “how healthy can we be if we are well adjusted to a profoundly sick society?”   And I’m going to go way out on a limb here and suggest the root cause of mass killings by any technical means is our ‘American’ culture of individualism and “America first” -- a worship of selfishness without much consideration for the pledge that we have all given before our U.S. flag  of “Liberty and justice for all”.  
Few Americans are moved to action by whatever empathy they may have when US military forces accidently mass murder innocent people while conducting our nation’s 16 year war against terrorism.  We call it collateral damage and view such murders as acceptable in using force to maintaining our own security.  We dictate to other nations what weapons they are allowed to have and threaten them with lethal sanctions or annihilation if they don’t bend to our will.  When our corporations are linked to exploitive business ventures or corruption that results in lethal poverty, poisoning, prostitution, or support for murderous regimes.  Too few Americans turn to boycotts or urging their U.S. Representatives or Senators to vote against such crimes or introduce legislation to prohibit them.   Holding generals, soldiers or CEO’s accountable for such violations of fundamental human rights?  Just not a priority.
Some claim that we are a Christian nation.  But looking at most people’s check books it would be hard to identify those who actually walk Jesus’ talk.  That whole “do unto others” thing is more of an ‘eye for an eye’ reaction than a ‘love your neighbor’ or ‘forgive those who tress pass’ commitment.
Bottom line:  So don’t be surprised if sensible gun laws are passed and the mass killings don’t subside.  Or, if draconian gun laws pass and the killings accelerate.
It should be a “Self –Evident” “Truth” that all people are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights.  And, that real peace and sustainable security is not a function of disarming people or having more or better armaments.  The imperishable human desires for maximum freedom and security are a function of justice.  In a religious sense, “the Golden Rule”.  
The surprise of Mr. Braddock’s family to his horrendous crime/sin could reflect the disconnect that exists within their family, and perhaps our own, and beyond to our local and global neighbors.  I’m not sure what it will take to change this.  To reconnect us to our better selves.  So far,  it appears that only massive pain and suffering even get us close to looking at alternatives to the status quo.  I could be wrong, but reality suggests not.  More gun laws are not the answer.  A culture that discourages sin and insists on laws that enforce “liberty and justice for all” could be.

Imagine a US culture with a profound respect for all human life and God’s creation that sustains it.  A culture of fewer sinners, led by a President and policy makers that walk our national pledge of  “liberty and justice for all”.



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