Grammatical Error

It's ironic that when we point to the evidence of Jared Lee Loughner's insanity, we point to his grammar.

Seriously. There's also the shooting, of course -- but a shooting could easily be the work of a sane person -- a politically motivated sane person, perhaps. Those floating, nonsensical words on his YouTube videos, on the other hand, convince us that Jared Lee Loughner is crazy.

It seems the most popular theory as to why Loughner 'did it' is what The Daily Beast calls a "toxic cocktail -- mental illness, mixed with angry political rhetoric". General consensus states that the radical right-wing conspiracy theories (such as government controlling the minds of the people through grammar) didn't help, but the real problem was simply that Jared Lee Loughner is insane. This is the safest and most plausible answer -- it rids everyone of blame and is more or less supported by the little evidence we have -- that is, the evidence from Jared himself, who is (according to Ranke) the most reliable and accurate source. For although the rhetoric on his YouTube videos is vaguely right-wing (I might say just plain radical) -- certainly anti-government -- and he did target Congresswoman Giffords, the dominant message is not one rooted in a coherent political ideology, with a clear political goal, but one centered around logical structures, an obsession with their workings and possible subversions thereof. What if we had new currency? What if we had new words? What if reality was dreams, and we could control our dreams? These are the questions Jared shows us. And according to his friend Bryce Tierney, interviewed by Mother Jones, his grudge against Giffords did not stem from her political agenda, but from her refusal to answer his question: "What's government if words don't have meaning?" Tierney says that "[e]ver since that event, he thought she was fake, he had something against her."

I am not interested in speculating why Jared Lee Loughner decided to shoot Gabrielle Giffords, and all those there to meet her. I don't see the value in it. What I am interested in is Loughner's determination to view the world as dream world, a world of symbols, or of illusion. In lucid dreaming (which is how many have interpreted Loughner's 'conscience dreaming'), one is aware of the dream state and can step in and change things as they want; they can engage as an active character in their own narrative. I see a parallel in this interactive narrative with Sam Byck, and how he attempted to engage with the world. [Enter grand theory:] Byck viewed Nixon as a symbol of all that oppressed him, but Nixon was beyond his reach. Although he felt profoundly affected by him, Nixon seemed to live in a separate world. For most Americans, I think, politicians feel more fictional than real; they are characters in a narrative we see unfolding daily. Byck tried to thrust himself into that narrative, to gain control -- or perhaps the collision itself was merely the point. This seems, to me, akin to Loughner's choice to turn reality itself into a dream, into something he could interact with. A place where, he told his friends, "I can create things and fly. I'm everything I'm not in this world." His desire to 'dream' a new world corresponds with his desire to coin new currency -- find new words, words inseparable from their meanings.

I don't know Jared Lee Loughner, and I don't know what went through his head. But I hope that we don't continue to write off 'mental disturbance' as something foreign, as a real reason anyone would do anything. Insanity isn't a reason; in fact, we pretend that it's the opposite.