Terror in DC:
A tragedy has been all in the news the past couple of days. A young mother ran a barricade at the White House and men in uniform chased her down and killed her. It reminds me of a similar tragedy that happened in Florida not so long ago. A watchman came to blows with a young man, and the young man died of gunshot.
I know little enough about this particular watchman, but I imagine if he were the most brilliant mind in the field of security he’d have found a paying job in the field. On the other hand Washington is the nerve center of the most powerful institution the world has ever seen. There you really do put the best talent available. But when challenged by an unarmed woman the result was not so different from the best that watchman could do.
A trial was held for the Florida killing. There were lots of protests. I expect that there will be protests against the killing in DC also. If not, I will begin to wonder whether certain protests are in fact instigated not by outrage but by social workers giving hints to their clients, which hints eventually make their way to pimps, who take the occasion to send their prostitutes out and stir up some chaos; it’s probably good for business. And I will begin to wonder whether any woman I see protesting anything political has wound up there through some such mechanism.
So I hoping for a really shrill protest. I’m paranoid enough already.
Part of both tragedies is that they could have been prevented with a little good judgment on either side. It would only have taken a tiny amount more wisdom than they were manifesting. So since these tragedies span such an amazing scale of abilities they say something about human wisdom in general. For over a decade now there has been a major industry tasked with persuading us that we are at serious risk from terrorists. A reasonable and prudent mind would look at the record and conclude from the record that there is more risk from foolish law enforcement. But somebody wants to keep us scared and I’m pretty sure it’s because somebody wants to use our fear to control us. But I don’t hear that mentioned very often. And that’s so obvious.
Meanwhile what I am doing is trying to bring attention to a threat that is of supreme magnitude but which is abstract and a little subtle. Given what human wisdom is capable of I should not expect much response, should I?
There have been blank visitors over the past month.