I
really thought there was nothing to say or write about the shootings at
the Aurora, Colorado, movie theatre. The prattling, smug, and often
unsubstantiated talk filling the airwaves and print pages really added
nothing. But then I realized that there is indeed something important to
conclude from this tragic episode. And it’s one of the most important
things—perhaps the most important of all—to understand about history,
civilization, humanity, and society.
Human frailty.
None
of us are perfect. We all have weaknesses and shortcomings. And some
have more than others. We see a daily display of jealousy, anger,
hatred, ignorance, misunderstanding, clashing goals or interests, and
the whole panoply of bad things that humans think, say, and do.
Just
read the talk-backs to articles on almost any subjects and you quickly
find that kind of bickering, meanness, passions overcoming facts, hidden
agenda, and the hundred other things that, as Hamlet says, “The
heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks/That flesh is heir to.”
This
is the world we live and die in. Perhaps we succeed or fail, in our own
eyes or that of others. Perhaps we don’t have as many material goods as
we would like or as much fame or as much respect or as much power.
Frustration is not some accident that crops up; it is woven into the
very fabric of life.
And
so someone cracks, as happened in Phoenix, Arizona, or in Aurora,
Colorado. They might crack more quietly as serial killers do, or
publicly as do those who suddenly turn on their fellow humans who are
strangers to them. Or the cracking can take place on a world stage, as
rabid dictators with howling followers go to commit war, massacre,
oppression, and terrorism.
Or
it can be on a tiny, human level in the daily acts of rudeness and sins
to which we are victim and that we commit even to loved ones.
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