After the evil perpetuated at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a column entitled “Don’t Surrender To Do-Somethingism On Guns,” David Harsanyi at The Federalist is mostly correct when he writes, “Law-abiding Americans have no obligation to take ownership of a madman’s actions.” The only thing I take issue with in Mr. Harsanyi’s piece is in him referring to the Ulvalde mass murderer as a “madman.”
Again, when such events occur, we must be careful not
to confuse evil with mental illness. Of course, “madman” doesn’t necessarily
always refer to someone who is mentally ill, however, inevitably—even among
those who should know better—whenever we have a mass shooting, a frequent and
near immediate default assumption is that the perpetrator was mentally ill. Perhaps
the Robb Elementary School murderer was mentally ill, but we don’t yet know
that, and early indications are that he did not have a history involving mental
illness.
What’s more, ascribing mental illness to the Robb Elementary
murderer doesn’t help Mr. Harsanyi’s case. If someone who kills another human
being is “mentally ill,” then it means something should have, or could have,
been done to cure them, or protect others from them. As I noted in 2018 (see
above link), after the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in
Parkland, FL,
As our culture grows more and more secularized, it has become a very common practice to describe those who commit widespread acts of violence—especially if such violence involves the death of multiple human beings—as “crazy.” Some of this is tongue-in-cheek, but much of it is sincere. I believe this is the direct result of the psychiatric community attempting to redefine what is moral.
For decades we have witnessed the psychiatric community take acts that were long considered evil, or at least immoral and illegal, and deem them a “psychological disorder” that needs to be cured. It’s just good for business, I suppose.
In his essay, The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment,
C.S. Lewis noted that, when it comes to crime and punishment, we too often are
facing off with those who believe “that all crime is more or less
pathological.” Thus, instead of the criminal “getting what he deserves”—what
used to be called “justice”—we must heal or cure him, and, as Lewis puts it,
“punishment becomes therapeutic.”
Additionally, when we refuse to simply call evil what it is,
lawmakers—especially, but not exclusively, Democrats—feel emboldened to “do
something” to “fix” the problem. After all, when politicians can paint
themselves as part of “the solution,” it makes re-election more likely. If we
learned anything from COVID-19, this should have been the lesson!
Shortly after COVID-19 entered the U.S., countless
politicians across America were all too eager to act. Not that our government
should have done nothing, however, as American leftists—as well as those
throughout the world—well demonstrated, for most of us, their “cure” was indeed
far worse than the disease.
Led by Anthony Fauci—one of the leading
prophets of scientism of our time—and his ilk, millions of American individuals, and
hundreds-of-thousands of American businesses, churches, and schools were duped
into following—or worse: enthusiastically embracing—the “corona-communism” of
the champions of Big Government in America.
The
longer the charade played out, the more it became clear—as the data in schools, professional sports, airplanes, Antarctic research stations, and the like revealed—that
almost everything we did to “slow the spread,” including the “six feet” nonsense, was worthless and unnecessary. This
is especially true of useless masks and foolish lockdowns.
These
two highly destructive measures seemed—until the evil notion of vaccine
mandates came along—to be the favorite of “do-somethingism” apologists
throughout America and the world. For well over two years now, far too many
Americans have lived under democrats devastating “do-somethingism” in the name
of “public safety.” This is in spite of the mountains of evidence that point to
the ineffectiveness of masks and lockdowns when it comes to
controlling the spread of COVID-19.
Nevertheless,
those beholden the Covid Cartel are still pushing masking and the like. This
is true even in schools, where science has well demonstrated mandatory masking
the most unnecessary, as well as the most destructive. It just goes to show that,
once “do-somethingism” takes hold, it’s hard to get rid of!
If
so many Americans weren’t susceptible to “do-somethingism,” the left wouldn’t
continuously try—and often succeed with—it. And if they can’t accomplish their
do-something wish list via legislation or executive order, the American left
has often been able to rely on like-minded judges in U.S. courts. Tragically,
many Americans simply want to be mothered, and the left is only too happy to
play such a role.
The
left’s “do-somethingism” on COVID-19 has destroyed countless lives and livelihoods.
The damage is still being measured, and worse, still happening! If the American
left can “do-something” to get rid of guns (or ammunition) in the U.S., they
absolutely will. As numerous nations have proved, America has remained America
largely because of the Second Amendment.
Recently, the idea that America needs to be “fundamentally transformed” has reached the highest levels of the left. The quickest way for this to happen would be to take guns from law-abiding Americans. We largely surrendered to "do-somethingism" on COVID, we should never make that mistake with guns.
(See a version of this piece at American Thinker.)
Copyright 2022, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and
Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com
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