Why? I'll tell you why. Because he wanted to. Isn't that the reason we all do what we do?
My answer above doesn't seem to be 300 words, well maybe by Loughner's number scale it could be as he was noted by one of his college professors to have interrupted a class lecture by saying the number six could be called eighteen. Technically, I'd have to agree with him. (Is that bad?) Because it's true. Way back way if the people who named things decided to call a rose something else -- like, "testicle" then that is what we would know it as. Funny huh? "Awh my boyfriend bought me a dozen testicles for Valentines Day" Cute right? And I'm sure that they would indeed smell as sweet. So sure, technically, six could be called eighteen. And technically my 19 word answer, could be 300 words, depending.
But i'm off track, so since I doubt I can get away with my answer of 19 words. I'll go on.
I examined the videos on laughner's page and read the NY times article "Looking behind the mug-shot grin"
I wonder why Laughner was so obsessed with transitive relation. --For those of you who don't want to google it, or didn't take philosophy like I did last semester, transitive relation is the thought process of which: A causes B and B causes C thus, A causes C, right?
Example of this, at least from my understanding, (A) Jared Laughner went to Safeway, (B)He shot up the parking lot and (C) smiled when he was arrested. Soooo, Jared Laughner went to Safeway and smiled when he was arrested. What? that sounds crazy when you leave out the middle part. Hmmm.
It is interesting to me that all of his youtube ramblings were in this format or in some version of transitive relation. Knowing this makes the "rambling" not quite "rambling" but more of a some word that describes something a little more well-thought out phrases strung together. Confused? Maybe Laughner was actually a genius, which made him crazy because he couldn't handle his thought process. In the NY times article Mr Gutiernez was quoted saying "He had the most incredible thoughts but could not handle them" ----So maybe that's why he did it. He had the thought, and couldn't handle it so he acted without giving into rational thought.
The in-depth background given in the article kind of makes me sick. After what we discussed in the first class, about assassins becoming famous for what they did -- all I can think of with this article is, Here we go again. Anyone wanna bet when the first book about him will be released? I'm guessing within the next year becuase i'm sure some author is, for lack of a better phrase, jumping on that shit, to get a good payout.
Because history repeats itself, and everyone seems to love knowing every minuscule detail about a person who could commit a crime like this. Again, it makes me sick. As I read the article, I thought who cares if his favorite book is Peter Pan or that he drank a 24 oz can of Miller High Life occasionally.
The business woman in me does wonder if the sales of Miller High Life will increase due to this free advertisement. Think they'll send a Thank you card to Laughner if they do increase? Otherwise what was the point of mentioning the brand instead of just saying "beer" I can tell you. Because after the Tuscan shootings, people want to know all the stupid details of laughner's life down to the last time he went to the bathroom, in hopes to understand why a person could commit such a terrible crime. I could save them all the trouble. He didn't do it because he used to smoke pot, or because he dropped out of high school or because he showed up to high school drunk one morning. He did it, because he wanted to. That seems to be enough of an answer for me.
He definitely was weird though. His background will definitely satisfy everybody because people can call him crazy or insane. That makes them feel better about the situation because surely if Laughner would have been an outstanding citizen and "normal" among most people's definitions, would have made it a lot harder for people to rationalize the "why." To those people, I'd like to introduce them to the story of the "craigslist killer" Surely that one will be harder to rationalize.
I had to catch myself a few times while I was writing my own post from using the past tense when describing Jared. Isn't it odd how even though he is not dead, a lot of us speak of him using "was" or "did". Is it that as soon as he is arrested and "put away" we put him away from our own living conscience? He's alive, but it is hard to "feel" him being alive. Anyway, I wanted to comment that I agree with Pink Highlighter in that he is weird, but obviously sane enough to make his plans a success. Maybe society does try to rationalize mass murderers by labeling them as insane.
ReplyDeleteOk. This is seriously the THIRD time i have tried to post a comment here, because this thing has deleted my comments twice now. I really do hate technology :( Anyways, I apologize, this is way shorter then what i had originally written!
ReplyDeleteI agree, the transitive relation thing kind of had me thinking too. Loughner's cold and unemotional logic is somewhat disturbing!
However, i would argue that the little details of Loughner's life, ESPECIALLY the books he read are VERY important! Nietzche (?), Hitler, Kesey, Huxley, Bradbury, and the rest. All are highly controversial authors, to the point where there books have been banned. In the wrong hands, they were considered dangerous, due to their unpopular and radical positions. Loughner is the embodiment of this. Literature can be a dangerous tool and mode of communication, not something to be taken lightly.
Thanks for the feedback!
ReplyDeleteEmann, Valid point. I agree with you that the little details are important so we can try to piece together his life, his thoughts and his personality. My intention which may not have been entirely clear, was that people are now fascinated with him just because of what he did and it makes me sick. As in nobody cared about him before but oh wait! now he shot up a bunch of people... i wonder what his favorite books are? you know? just makes us sound fucked up.