The Three Tenets of Existential Terrorism

Words are not things or actions. They are vibrations of the air molecules or squiggles on a page. Mistaking words for reality is the mistake that puts politicians in office and sells all of the products, religions, and systems of government on the planet. Saying "Tree" is no more a tree than saying "I love you" means that someone loves you. To perceive reality as it is, one must accept that words are a vehicle for the transference of our perception of reality, not reality itself.
God is dead. I killed him (it, them, her, et al) on November 5th, 1991. Justifiable Homicide. The idea that the universe is run by some cosmic supra-hero concept of ourselves is absurd and unproven. The idea that the creator of the universe put us here in these bodies to satisfy some moral experiment is offensive. The God question; "What are we doing here?", may or may not be valid. At this time, we are here because the physical laws of the universe are not completely against our existence. Our short time of consciousness would be far better served ensuring our survival rather than posturing before some misanthropic cosmic deity.
The only government, the only rule of law, is economics. However our societies are structured, whatever religion or ethnicity, we have all decided that those with relatively more assets have better lives than those with less relative wealth. All measured value is economic value in this system.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Crazy Among US



What do we do with the crazy among us?  The revelations about the recent shooter in Santa Monica and others reveals that they were primed to commit an egregious act.  "Mental disorders are common in the United States and internationally. An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.1 When applied to the 2004 U.S. Census residential population estimate for ages 18 and older, this figure translates to 57.7 million people.2 "  Of course, the numbers above apply to all disorders from Schizophrenia to Agoraphobia.  There is no number for the proportion of mental disorders in which the individual will go out and shoot people.  Medical conditions are private, as is their conversations with their care providers.  Adults have their own rights.  The Santa Monica shooter was given a mandatory psychological evaluation and released three days later.  If you are an adult, the standard is no incarceration unless you are an immediate danger to yourself or others.  Most aren't.  Most are, despite their condition, intelligent enough to tell the doctors what they want  to hear and save their rage until they are released.  Given the numbers, we should feel good about the number of crazy people who commit violent acts.  It is a very small percentage.  We should also realize that the numbers are overwhelming to any monitoring systems we might have in place.  Until we have an economic way of monitoring the most dangerous among us, we will always have Santa Monica scenarios.  

1. Kessler RC, Chiu WT, Demler O, Walters EE. Prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of twelve-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun;62(6):617-27.
2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates by Demographic Characteristics. Table 2: Annual Estimates of the Population by Selected Age Groups and Sex for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004 (NC-EST2004-02) Source: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau Release Date: June 9, 2005. http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)