The killer was a “loner” he was “schizophrenic” and had “incoherent ideas, erratic behavior and most certainly was seriously mentally ill.” Writes mental health expert E. Fuller Torrey, in today’s Wall Street Journal.
The Journal’s main editorial continues the thread, “Loughner’s Sickness” is the title. Loughner’s actions, “Weren’t the harvest of the national political tone or the latent neurosis of society, or the anthropology of Arizona” the editorial states. No, the murders were “the result of an individual’s mental illness.”
This mouthpiece of capitalism makes it clear that only a credited expert an “attending physician can diagnose Jared Louhghner.” but it seems clear to the Wall Street Journal editorial board that Loughner’s a “schizophrenic.”
Both the editorial and Torrey’s piece take the opportunity to explain why schizophrenics are killing people all over the place, “five decades of failed mental health policies.” When they threw the mentally ill out of the hospitals and care facilities and in to the streets in order to save money, they failed to institute programs to care for them once they were out there. Actually, they never “failed” or forgot; they simply didn’t care. Taking care of the mentally ill is “money out”. It is not profitable; not a good business decision.
Anyway, they have to come up with something given the shockwaves this has caused in US society in an economic environment that is causing considerable misery for workers and the poor. The right wing is on the defensive a bit.
Sarah Palin also made similar statements today. She consulted with advisors and came up with a short statement about individual responsibility. Palin quotes Ronald Reagan, a B movie actor and political figure who inflicted considerable violence on the workers of America, “We must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker.”
“Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own,” she continued. “They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of the state, not with those who listen to talk radio…..”
I would say the killing of three million Vietnamese is an act of “monstrous criminality” but none of the criminals responsible for orchestrating that slaughter have been brought to trial. Throwing people out of their homes is an act of “monstrous criminality” as well but it is legal in Palin’s world.
On the subject of law, the ruling class in society makes laws for society as a whole; laws that we are all forced to abide by. But these laws are made to serve the interests of the ruling class alone. Capitalist society cannot create equal rights for all of us. How can it? By its very nature it’s an economic system that creates haves and have-nots, the rich and the poor. All workers know this. We don’t need degrees in philosophy or law or sociology to understand this, we experience it every single living moment, in the workplace, the school, and especially the institutions of capitalism, the courts, the universities etc. People experience racism, sexism, all sorts of discrimination that is built in to class society; this is not an individual issue, it’s a social one. We know society is unfair; most of us just don't have an alternative.
There cannot be equality between exploiters and exploited as many have said. So they make laws that perpetuate and defend this set up. So when we collectively break their laws in the pursuit of justice and equality that is a righteous thing, a good thing. We cannot advance humanity without collectively breaking their laws. Unions were illegal once. So was interracial marriage.
The capitalist class is currently waging a war to convince us we have “free will” and we have to bear the consequences of our actions, this way we don’t direct our anger against the system that exploits us. What we do as individuals, what happens to us as individuals, has nothing to do with society. The fact that we have mental illness has nothing to do with society. But we know that’s nonsense.
Why are there very few women pilots, or another example, black pilots? Is it because women or blacks do not have the skills? Are they more stupid than white pilots? Are they simply choosing not to be pilots? Do people sleep under freeway ramps because they want to? Even if they want to, in most cases they would not be in command of their faculties and need help from society. Blacks are almost 50% of the prison population but only 13% of the total population. Why is this? They make bad choices? No, racism is the cause of this. Society is the cause of this. Even if they are all “guilty” by the standards of capitalist courts, it is the justice system and the system that perpetuates it that is at fault. The problem for the capitalist class is that if we clearly understand this then we naturally try to change the system. It’s like when the alcoholic finally admits to being an alcoholic, we can deny it no longer; something has to be done.
This is not to say that those of us that hold this view don’t believe people have a certain amount of free will and responsibility for the choices they make; they do. But, as Marx explained, we make choices but we don’t get to make the circumstance under which these choices are made. And we know how insecurity, hunger and fear of losing one’s job affects the choices we make.We change the conditions, we make different choices. Rich people don't rob liquor stores because they can rob legally.
“Violence bred of illness is hard for free societies to stop” the Journal editorial concludes. What sort of violence is was it that we saw as US attack helicopters mowed down innocent Iraqi's I wonder? And Loughner may well be mentally ill, but society causes as much mental illness as it does physical ones. Many of the family annihilations that have take place over the last few years are a product of society. We have accepted certain expectations of us. We work hard, we do everything right, but we still end up losing our home, our job, our children’s education goes out the door. When this world falls apart, some of us simply crack.
This individualistic and false view of the world is designed to prevent us from thinking about society and our role in it. Those of us that are old enough to remember the cold war between the Soviet Union and the west recall that western propaganda always spoke of the “failed system” of communism. Stalinism was not communism but nevertheless we were taught to recognize that a certain system of production failed. Every ruling class teaches that that the society it governs is the best and only way to organize our productive life, so capitalism cannot be to blame. They don’t even want us to consider that there is an economic system called capitalism and such a thing as the working class and the capitalist class. They refer to these in the journals they produce for themselves, not in those they produce for us.
They all stick together in the end. An Obama spokesperson had this to say:
“The president believes that right now, the main thing we should be doing is offering our thoughts and prayers to those who’ve been impacted and making sure that we’re joining together and pulling together as a country,”
No anger, no questioning about what leads someone to do what Loughner did. Just pray. And we are advised to join together with the very people who are cutting education, health care for the poor and disabled, throwing people out of their homes and in to the streets; and last but not least, waging war on people throughout the world.
Now that’s nonsense.
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