Stop Making Sense, Part II

WHENEVER A HORRIFIC INCIDENT visits us, like the mass killing in Fort Hood, Tex., yesterday, our natural impulse is to ask, "Why?" And, to some extent, it's important to get to the facts, if only to see if there are patterns that could warn us before future catastrophes hit.

We hear so often (mostly from the blanket media coverage that inevitably follows) that people are "trying to make sense of it all." Even if the shooter recovers and tells his story, we will probably never know the precise reasons for his rage, let alone be able to make sense of them.

And, as I have written here before, "the idea seems to be that we can make sense out of an act that has no good purpose and is nonsensical on its face. I don't want to make sense of these acts because it would treat them as more rational than they truly are. It would make explicable the inexplicable. To me that's a little too close to making them excusable."

We are told that people need to have "closure," but if one of my loved ones were victimized in killings like this, I can't possibly imagine ever feeling closure, if by that people mean a sense of peace with it all. I say all this with the greatest respect and understanding for those who cling, for their own good reasons, to such things as "closure."

Many may also be tempted to make something of the fact that the American-born shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, is a Muslim, a fairly observant one, according to today's reports. This, some will say, figures, as Islam is leading so many Muslims these days to vent their rage through violence. 

While it's true that a relatively tiny proportion of the millions upon millions of Muslims around the world are killing in the name (but against the teachings) of Islam, it's dangerous to assume that's the motive here. We really can't know at this point, if ever. It would be dangerous, too, to conclude that other Muslims around us should be suspect, too.

That's not what I call making sense. 

Jeff

Comments

[Joyce]

Yes, Jeff, I completely agree with you about the inablility to explain or reach closure in these kind of violent acts. And, I also pray that the act was an isolated one man incedent and not tied to any Muslim terrorist group for the sake of the good people of Muslim faith.

[Rinky]

I believe that extremists of any kind have their own personal issues in their lives that they are not able to deal with, and it's easier to rationalize that others in the main stream are the cause of all their problems as well as all the problems of the world.