UNUSUAL ACTION IS THE ATTRACTION

It is human nature to be fascinated with action especially when that action is not ordinary or commonplace. Unusual action attracts us. Passivity or inaction does not. When, for example, someone takes extreme action and kills 32 people with an automatic pistol and then kills himself we want to know everything we can about him. Why did he do it? How was he brought up? What was he going through that led him to commit such a horrific act? Where did all this intense hatred of others come from?

We may even say that we feel sorry for him that he could contain so much hatred within himself. We may go even further and try to find in this perpetrator of so much mayhem, pain and misery an excuse to see him as some kind of victim himself—a victim of supposed persecution of the mental or physical kind. Meanwhile we may find it harder to think about the victims, all these innocent people whose lives were taken from them and all the grieving families and friends.

The Supreme Narcissist

The perpetrator acted out in such an extreme attention-getting manner because he felt he deserved such attention. He saw himself as more valuable and more important than all his would-be victims. He was in this respect the supreme narcissist, a personality that we described in previous installments of Mind Check and classified as evil.

The painful reality is that this evil young man was right. He used extreme action to gain attention for himself, and he got it.

Challenge for the Moralist

The attraction of extreme action is part of the challenge for the moralist. The moralist is forced to classify actions into three large categories, those that are good, those for which moral judgment is not relevant, and those that are bad. Justice through a nation’s legal system is not possible when the doer of such evil as happened at Virginia Tech also kills himself.

Our only recourse as responsible citizens of the world is our relentless condemnation of such acts because they are evil, but also in the hope that through such condemnation we may prevent another act of this type from happening ever again.

Remembering the Victims

Yes, as humans, we may be fascinated by and curious about an evil doer in our midst, but we must not fail to speak out about what he has done. And we must never fail to remember the victims. One of the messages in all of this is that there is much in human nature that may be understandable—“natural,” so to speak—but just because certain acts are part of the natural condition and as students of life—scientists, for example—we can study them, they are never acceptable or pardonable. And we must condemn them.

For example, at this time of grief for the innocent victims of the Virginia Tech massacre, it is not enough to remind ourselves of the Columbine tragedy in Colorado with weak words betraying a flabby mind set. It is not enough to remember all the other examples of gun violence in this country instigated by people judged to be insane. The recent murder of school girls in Amish country in Pennsylvania also comes to mind. We must speak out.

Mental Energy and Charisma

The topic of mental energy has been on the Mind Check agenda as something to write about for some time. The attraction of mental energy and the attraction of people of action are similar phenomena. Mental energy is what we mean when we use the word charisma. As we know from recent history, the charismatic leader may also be a force for unmitigated evil.

Saying that someone is too judgmental is often used as a pejorative in human affairs. Yes, people can be judgmental to a fault, but the fact is that the ability to make judgments is an inherent capability of mind. When this capability is not exercised, we lose our ability to lead independent responsible lives.

Morality, which is the application of judgment based on a reasonable, compassionate code of conduct, needs always to be acknowledged as the mind functioning at its highest level.

ABOUT MIND CHECK

Thank you for tuning into Mind Check, a biweekly effort to prove that we are what we think and that clear thinking leads to effective action and to a better world. Mind Check is intended to serve as a bridge between the realm of the human spirit, that center of our energy, mental and physical, and our rationality or reason, of which the scientific method is an excellent example. Mind Check is also intended to prove that the ideas of right and wrong are innate, not exclusively inherent in the situation or the whim of the moment.

To communicate with the author of Mind Check, please write to stephen.saft@gmail.com. For examples of the writer’s other writings, see the website http://www.iwillmeanpoetry.com. The author is also preparing to launch a site of podcasts consisting of spoken poetry, essays and short stories. Be on the look out for it.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen Alan Saft