We'll probably never know the answer to that, but I a glimmer of a thought has occured to me.
Our society has been drifting away from personal responsibility, and towards blaming somebody, anybody but the individual actor for the misery that one person causes.
We hear some blame "poverty" for crime. "Society is at fault!"
We hear others blame those of another race. "Racism is keeping us down!"
We even hear echos of the evils of slavery and how the descendents of slaves are somehow not to blame for their current plight.
There exists a whole industry of "activists" and excuse-makers, who lay the blame for any number of society's ills on society at large, instead of upon the individual who, although supposedly a rational, thinking and reasoning soul, has made a series of less than optimal choices leading up to their current situation.
When segments of society procreate without cohesive family units, they deprive their children of the optimum opportunity for development. That is NOT society's fault. It is the choice of the individual parents involved.
When politicians and "poverty advocates" blame the lack of a good education for poverty, do they ever look at the individual choices made by those whose education is lacking? How much effort was put into the coursework over the standard thirteen-year public school education period?
When "blame others" becomes the mantra of society, isn't there a tendency for someone who feels injured to come to the conclusion that those "others" must be punished?
Early reports indicate that today's shooter killed his own mother, and also murdered innocent children. His crime is so foreign to the thoughts of most of us that our immediate reaction is some level of insanity, for we truly believe that only an insane person could commit such acts.
For others, this person was simply evil, and decided to commit murder out of that motive.
I believe it is both: however, the insanity is revealed in the symptom of rejecting personal responsibility for one's action, and laying the blame elsewhere: on an unhappy childhood, on poverty, on emotional upheaval...
If we accept the pemise that humans are rational, thinking beings capable of understanding cause and effect instead of animals subject only to our instincts and basic drives, we must accept the concept that we are, each of us, responsible for our own actions as adults.
For centuries, young children were given the benefit of the doubt because it was clear that they hadn't grown to a level of maturity capable of understanding the consequences of actions.
Adults, on the other hand, with some few exceptions, can. Therefore, each of us must be held accountable for our own decisions, and not be allowed to put the blame on others for the direct results of those choices.
How is this "blame others" attitude manifest? Tax the successful! Reward the spendthrift! Assist the profligate!
We give "refundable" tax credits to those who pump out children that they cannot afford to raise.
We tax the productive when their ingenuity produces products that generate great wealth by being of value to multitudes of individuals, who freely purchase those items or services because they are worth at least the amount paid.
We allow our national soverignty to be trampled by those who come in uninvited across our borders, demand the benefits of the society we have created, and drain our resources without demonstrating a relinquishment of allegiance to another nation: one that does not give them the freedoms they have by being here.
Many of the truths of the old proverbs are ignored.
We try to squeeze more from the goose that lays the golden eggs, but cut back its feed.
We say to the Little Red Hen, it matters not that you planted the crop, weeded the fields, harvested and threshed the grain, ground it to flour and baked the bread. You must give up the fruits of your labor to those who have not worked as hard... or at all.
We reward and excuse the scoundrel by taxing and punishing the good steward.
In such a world, is the evil we see any wonder at all?
