Nick Martin, writing for TPMMuckraker has an article entitled JT Ready Identified As Gunman In Arizona Massacre. The background is that yesterday, apparently, Ready killed himself and four other people: his girlfriend, her daughter, her daughter’s boyfriend, and the daughter’s 18-month old baby. It appears that he took measures attempting to make it look like the killings were the work of Mexican drug runners.
The article gives quite a bit of detail about Ready’s anti-immigrant fervor and ties with white supremacist organizations. But what really caught my interest was the opening paragraph:
Longtime white supremacist and border vigilante JT Ready saw himself as part of a war that few others would fight. He amassed weapons. He donned a uniform. He formed his own brigade of volunteers to walk alongside him as he hunted what he described as “narco terrorists” flowing across the Arizona-Mexico border.
It seems to me that, with some people, there is a driving need to see one’s self as a heroic figure in the consequential drama of one’s life. And that need leads to a view of the world that doesn’t comport with reality which, in turn, leads to interactions with the world that aren’t healthy and which aren’t helpful to others.
In this category, I also see the fervent believer with a personal relationship to God that helps them withstand the persecution that is everywhere while they are engaged in a noble effort to stand against evil; perhaps through a desperate battle to save America by battling its destructive cultural decline.
I’m sure there are plenty of other examples, religious and non-religious; left-wing and right wing. We’re all protagonists in our own story. That’s inevitable. Noted philosophers Jethro Tull explained that we’re “looking for a sign that the Universal Mind has written us into the Passion Play.” But, the self-focus and need to be central figures in the larger story can lead to destructive behavior and detract from our ability enjoy and participate in the reality that is actually around us.
Sounds like extreme narccisism and borderline personality disorder. I thought that was a peculiarly southern male afflication. Apparently it has spread west.
It’s usually associated with politicians of either (major party) stripe as well.
And let’s not forget non-violent sociopaths, (lawyers, politicians, CEOs, sales people) who are uniquely equipped to succeed in a society where most people still play by the rules.
I would sell my soul to be a nonviolent sociopath and cheat people with no regret, or even a suspicion that I could have regret.
Is irony the right word for when a commenter posts on a lawyer’s blog an agreeing post that basically states that all lawyers are sociopaths? I’m looking for the right word…
I am not suggesting all lawyers are sociopaths. Sociopaths are probably overrepresented in law, but they are greatly overrepresented in politicians, CEOs, and car dealerships..
My experience is that most lawyers are decent people. They are just often called upon to crummy jobs.
I sometimes think of this song by the Animanicas when I meet people that believe they can save the or should I say save their world with questionable tactics. Or maybe all of these people using religious and patriotic rhetoric to make the world a better place to live. Maybe it is better to go through your life by being Thick as a Brick.
“IT’S A GREAT BIG UNIVERSE”
And we’re part of a vast interplanetary system
Stretching seven hundred billion miles long.
With nine planets and a sun; we think the Earth’s the only one
That has life on it, although we could be wrong.
Across the interstellar voids are a billion asteroids
Including meteors and Halley’s Comet too.
And there’s over fifty moons floating out there like balloons
In a panoramic trillion-mile view.
And still it’s all a speck amid a hundred billion stars
In a galaxy we call the Milky Way.
It’s sixty thousand trillion miles from one end to the other
And still that’s just a fraction of the way.
‘Cause there’s a hundred billion galaxies that stretch across the sky
Filled with constellations, planets, moons and stars.
And still the universe extends to a place that never ends
Which is maybe just inside a little jar!
It’s a great big universe
And we’re all really puny
We’re just tiny little specks
About the size of Mickey Rooney.
It’s big and black and inky
And we are small and dinky
It’s a big universe and we’re not.
You might think that you’re essential
Try inconsequential
It’s a small world after all!
Here’s the link to it from UTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DufMJosYmJs
Excellent. I think of Pinkie and the Brain in this context of Benevolent Despots to rule the World with a measure hand.
That reminds me of a Monty Python song:
Just remember that you’re standing on a planet that’s evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That’s orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it’s reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It’s a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it’s just three thousand light years wide.
We’re thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go ’round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that’s the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you’re feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space,
‘Cause there’s bugger all down here on Earth.
Somewhat related to the concepts here is one of my favorite VIMEO videos featuring an interview answer by Neil DeGrasse Tyson:
http://vimeo.com/38101676