From watching Loughner’s youtube videos, it seems as though he eventually got to the point that he did because of negative experiences in his life with authority, namely being kicked out of college. Because of his numerous run-ins with police on campus for “strange behavior”, he made a video claiming that the college was unconstitutional, and that the actions of the administration were illegal. He also was not accepted into the army, probably for marijuana use. However, people get kicked out of school or barred from the military all the time and they don’t go out and try to kill their congresspeople. There must have been something else going on, particularly in terms of mental health. According to news sources, his personality changed exponentially in the past year or so. However, I think it is a bit unfair of the media to brand him as a crazy person, as someone who is mentally ill. There are plenty of mentally ill people who do not go on shooting sprees. I think that politics played a large role in his actions, despite what the media keeps saying. His online political rants and conspiracy theories, which he has been known to buy into, are not different from many opinions held by the far right. In particular he is concerned with grammar structure as government mind control, and issues with our currency and how it is not backed by gold. The arguments about the gold standard go back to the 1800’s, but in our day and age it is looked at as more of a fringe issue. I also found it interesting how his videos were laid out as logical arguments, all of which were valid points in terms of the rules of logic. However, most people would say that many of his arguments weren’t true to begin with. Nevertheless, with the help of the internet, Loughner has spread his message in unbelievable numbers. The five videos uploaded to his youtube account have together received around 5 million hits. Regardless of how incoherent they may seem, we are still watching them. If one of Loughner’s goals was to bring these issues to the forefront of national politics, it worked, and in ways that Sam Byck never could have done because of technological advances. But based on what I have watched and read, it seems like it was a mix of unfortunate personal circumstances, emotional issues, and increasingly extreme political beliefs that contributed to actions on Janurary 8th, much like Byck (at least according to Clarke). I think it would be wrong to place all of the blame on only one of these factors.
primary source: http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10#p/u/0/7uRjwPWaxiY
secondary sources: http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/01/10/jared_loughner_and_the_gold_standard/index.html
and
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/10/jared-lee-loughner-arizona-shooting
Another article that I enjoyed reading, but didn't really use in this post: http://www.slate.com/id/2281133/
DEAD AGREE!!! I agree with your point as I read the second line and see the word "authority." Jared keeps saying "government" in his videos but after I read the NYTimes report, I think that it is more than just the government. His father shuns him, the high school kicked him out, the military didn't accept him, the volunteer place tell him not to come back until he can follow rules, the teachers at his community college violate his right (so far as his logic goes), the Congresswoman doesn't acknowledge his ideal and ignored his question... All of them are authority sources that rejected him. Instead of an insane person who just shoot at a Congresswoman that he's mad at, Jared made decisions and choose Gabrielle Giffords (a person of authority) as a target for his "making-an-appearance-plan" so that the world can start to recognize/pay attention to his ideal "dreams."
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everything you stated in your post. It seems to me that our class is one of the few that categorizes Loughner as more than just an insane man. I personally think he was a genius, the way literate way he spoke on his videos show that he is a very intelligent man. Also, the way he got his message on to the world was brilliant... of course it doesn't excuse the fact that he is delusional and mentally unstable. It took me a good hour to decipher his videos. Like you said, the shooting was probably to take some anger out onto the world... and I think he targeted a government official just because he wanted to get his message onto the government! But in the end, who knows, for all I know, I might be totally wrong!
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