The name of the Charlottesville killer is not important. The aftermath will naturally center on this individual. We will have story after story filled with the crumbs and sub-crumbs that we are able to dredge up to suggest that we have done class A reporting. What is important is the act and what led to it. The most important fact about Charlottesville is that we are once again ignoring the most salient fact of all -- this guy was an individual.
Individuals rule for good and ill
He is one being. One person. One decider. He is one of us. He has with one fatal decision determined the shape of world history.
That is what these one-person (usually one man) adventures are all about. Whether we are talking of Fort Hood or Charleston or even Jonestown, history is made by free decisions. We all have the power to decide.
All it takes
As Human Beings, we have minds and consciences. Both are terrible things to waste. Freedom is our capacity to make ethical decisions. A binary world is one that refuses to acknowledge that we are free and potentially moral human beings. A binary world serves exactly those you would expect to see profit from mindlessness, exclusion, intolerance. The conscience contains universal protections against these evils.
Values, not virtues move history
These universal protections are what we call values.
Words are an imperfect vehicle. But they are what we have and they serve us well if we think beyond the box of the binary. In a triadic world, which sees a third way, and understands that options are infinite, we minimize individual evil.
Many factors
The multiple causes of any world-shaking event are obvious. But when they are punctuated by violence and remembered by the consequences it is the split-second decision of the perpetrator that tells.
Up until that actual event, the potential freedom exists to change history for the better.
Mob behavior
Mob behavior is an invidious form of idolatry. It takes place when freedom is ceded to a voice that appeals to the worst evils. The reason we do not want to keep Donald Trump in his exalted seat is that he, like David Duke and other merchants of hate, have purchased advantage at the cost of lives.
It is no mistake to associate the devil with lies. The truth is what ethical behavior is about.
Moment of truth
Every decision to perpetrate violence is a Moment Of Truth. Even in that moment, the perpetrator is observing himself. There is no escape from responsibility. The world progresses because most use their freedom to opt for a decent existence. When the world morphs into its proper triadic state and binary is flushed out, our lives will improve radically.
