The smoke was still clearing on the campus of the college in Oregon where some thirteen victims were murdered, when the gun-control crowd began exploiting the atrocity for their political ends. President Obama was among the first to declare his opposition to what had occurred, and to urge the adoption of “common sense” gun laws. It is disturbing to realize that those who are in control of the American Empire’s machinery of warfare – machinery that is directed against whichever nation the Emperor-in-Chief chooses to attack – cannot understand what might cause unstable young men to start killing strangers. That this shooting occurred on the same day the psychopathic John McCain was suggesting that the United States send ground-to-air missiles to Syrian rebel groups to shoot down Russian planes also failed to inform statists of the possible causal connections that lead some private persons to emulate their revered political leaders. Perhaps a few intelligent souls will recall McCain’s chant “bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” during his 2008 presidential campaign.
What, too, of the police officers who shoot and kill unarmed people without being called to account for their wrongs? Might their examples get into the already disturbed minds of young men? Oh, no, none of that is relevant to intelligent inquiries into the causes of the violent thinking that permeates our society. People might begin to suspect that institutional systems – particularly the state – with their dependence on the conflicts that sustain their energies, need to be examined. The established order cannot withstand that sort of fundamental questioning. Thus we can look forward to more foolish babblings from those who tell us that guns cause murders. Shall we next be informed that automobiles cause drunk-driving, bikini swimsuits cause rape, and fast-food restaurants cause obesity? Wait for the next report from the White House!
6:29 pm on October 1, 2015
