The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters by Goya
The next day arrived.
Then came
the awful hour of midnight in a movie theater in Colorado, and the collective
heart of our nation had been broken once again.
I kept remembering how Charleton Heston looked when
he ambled away from Michael Moore at the end of Bowling for Columbine.
It wasn’t Moses or Ben Hur turning his back on Mr. Moore,
but it was a smug and surly man.
America talks the
good talk about peace and love, and its people are a giving people, but the
colors of its flag reflect tragic periods of its footsteps on the tracks of
history.
I recalled a quote
that says in effect that when a group of men kill it is more acceptable than
when killing is done by just one man.
There are
rationalizations for everything.
Each of us has had
those moments of violent anger when unthinkable thoughts are thought but never
acted upon.
Our conscience and
reason halt and cool our hateful and fiery footsteps.
The awareness of
violence---whether read in books, heard in songs, or seen in movies and video games---is
not the cause of violent acts.
In fact, it might be argued that these vicarious
experiences deter us from doing the horrible things that we read, see, or hear.
Unless we
are predisposed to do so.
And that word predisposed possesses quite a few nuances that would need to be
researched.
No, it something
else that makes an individual pull triggers to kill others.
I remember reading
that killers who kill are killing others instead of killing their own hated
(and hateful) selves.
If homicide is engraved
on the DNA of a mind, then the blueprint is already made for violent acts.
Predisposition?
Nevertheless, what
was done at the Century Aurora 16 in Colorado is horrifying
and overwhelming, whatever the explanation.
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