The Charlottesville Incident

Last year, I wrote an article about ambition and insight (in German), which pointed out that your judgment can become extremely poor, if it tries to satisfy your ambition.

I didn't reveal the background then which led me to this statement, because it is a little embarrassing, but I'll do it now. I had gotten a little angry while driving through Poland, more precisely the part that was formerly Eastern Prussia. People there were just a little too smug, one even had a sign on his lawn saying "Thank you, Hitler!" And so, during the long hours of the drive, I indulged in some unpleasant fantasies.

Long story short, there's a part of our mind that is prone to rage, the animal part that is constantly weighing alternatives in order to choose the most advantageous course of action, cf. Die Weltenlieferanten der drei Seelenteile.

Part of life is to keep this tendency in check. But as we all know, this occasionally fails, cf. Falling Down.

Now, some people, or at least one person, really, i.e. Alex Jones, allow themselves to stay in this state of mind, but fenced in, i.e. limit its outpour to words and certain words at that.

Still, the quality of their judgment demonstrably suffers, as is evidenced in the case at hand, where a guy drove his car in a narrow street into a bunch of college youth in shorts, hitting random targets, and Mr. Jones immediately assumes that leftists put their women in front of them to hide behind.

Also, it stands to reason that the driver of the car had fallen victim to the same muddling of the intellect.

So, is the public engaging in rage, though lawful, potentially harmful?

Yes, there may be more harmful things, but definitely yes. The right course of action would be to leave the firestarter behind, once the fire is started, and entrust it to flamekeepers.

Now, the world we live in isn't ideal though and I'd be very surprised, if the evolving discussion wouldn't soon focus on car attacks and the mentality that they betray, without ever clearly calling it by its name, i.e. a belief in individual responsibility, but rather keeping it vague as something that both Muslim and rightwing terrorists share, somekind of antisocial disturbance, caused by uncoolness.

Or do you think otherwise?

Every incident in which reason is breached offers a chance to reaffirm it, but it will not be taken, as long as reason is being perceived to be unprofitable.