Recalling Alston Chase’s analysis of the Unabomber, raising the question—can the United States survive the nihilism our educational system now promulgates at every level of our schooling?
Well said is insufficient praise. Curious, I sampled opinion in my middle class community on Nextdoor. Scary was the number of people who wouldn’t report him. “We are only 3 or 4 CEOs away from free healthcare.” What I saw was the understanding of a 5-year-old when told his parents can’t afford the Christmas gift wanted.
I can see how this was a factor. However, Mangione does not appear to be a math whiz loner that Kazcynski became by high school. I doubt an elite prep school selects as their valedictorian anything less than a kid who embodies their brand.
So how does Mangione transform from a networked, successfully launched young adult to someone who his mom admits to not having been in contact with for months? He just fell off the grid into a morass of physical and mental health challenges. Did this start at the time we were all forced into pandemic lockdown?
The book "Bowling Alone" and other assessments about the devolution of American civic culture may be more informative. I would draw a parallel to the Jordan Neely/Daniel Penny affair. While Jordan's family is up in arms with the verdict, how involved were they leading up to the day where Mr. Neely boarded the subway car and went berserk? What attempts did they make to address his mental health problems and homelessness?
Similar questions should be raised about Crook's family environment in the lead up to his attempted assassination in Butler County.
What we teach in schools is important, but it is the deterioration of family ties in each of these three situations that is at the center of these tragedies.
Why do we have to look at Kazcynski for a comparison? There were two attempted assassinations of Trump, with two shooters who could be said resemble Mangione much more closely -- if we assume that law enforcement got anything right on the Thompson murder case.
With our FBI and New York police in their current sad state of disrepute, I'm not at all sure we should believe anything we've read or heard in the media about Mangione.
As an aside, no one seems to be taking note of the fact that he shot Thompson in the back; not in the head as an assassin would normally do. My guess is that he wanted to cripple Thompson; not necessarily kill him as revenge for his own back issues. I also expect that Mangione's defense will be insanity brought about by the pain resulting from botched back surgery. I'm sure that the defense can find a couple of sympathetic leftwing jurors in a Manhattan pool. And, of course, for the prosecution, we have Bragg at the helm. Sadly, I suspect Mangione won't do much time...
The nihilism angle I don’t think applies. This young man wants the betterment of society, but has looked for justification for violence to accomplish it. I think the novel Crime and Punishment is applicable here. We have a suffering young man that has become sufficiently motivated in his hatred to act out violence. Did he want to get caught? No. The only reason he got caught was because his subconscious mind inherently knows that what he did is evil, and not justified by his suffering (or others’) and would not allow him to conduct himself in such a way as to get away with it. His story is far from over.
Folks like Mangioni and Kazcynski think that they will never be caught. Oops. If he's the actual killer then justice -should- be served. However I'm already seeing the "insanity" defense being formulated. We shall see.
Well said is insufficient praise. Curious, I sampled opinion in my middle class community on Nextdoor. Scary was the number of people who wouldn’t report him. “We are only 3 or 4 CEOs away from free healthcare.” What I saw was the understanding of a 5-year-old when told his parents can’t afford the Christmas gift wanted.
I can see how this was a factor. However, Mangione does not appear to be a math whiz loner that Kazcynski became by high school. I doubt an elite prep school selects as their valedictorian anything less than a kid who embodies their brand.
So how does Mangione transform from a networked, successfully launched young adult to someone who his mom admits to not having been in contact with for months? He just fell off the grid into a morass of physical and mental health challenges. Did this start at the time we were all forced into pandemic lockdown?
The book "Bowling Alone" and other assessments about the devolution of American civic culture may be more informative. I would draw a parallel to the Jordan Neely/Daniel Penny affair. While Jordan's family is up in arms with the verdict, how involved were they leading up to the day where Mr. Neely boarded the subway car and went berserk? What attempts did they make to address his mental health problems and homelessness?
Similar questions should be raised about Crook's family environment in the lead up to his attempted assassination in Butler County.
What we teach in schools is important, but it is the deterioration of family ties in each of these three situations that is at the center of these tragedies.
Why do we have to look at Kazcynski for a comparison? There were two attempted assassinations of Trump, with two shooters who could be said resemble Mangione much more closely -- if we assume that law enforcement got anything right on the Thompson murder case.
With our FBI and New York police in their current sad state of disrepute, I'm not at all sure we should believe anything we've read or heard in the media about Mangione.
If this guy is guilty..
then I wonder if this is his first attempt at bloody revolution?
and, I'll bet NY doesn't bring him to trial for murder but, instead, settles for an insanity plea and "treatment".
As an aside, no one seems to be taking note of the fact that he shot Thompson in the back; not in the head as an assassin would normally do. My guess is that he wanted to cripple Thompson; not necessarily kill him as revenge for his own back issues. I also expect that Mangione's defense will be insanity brought about by the pain resulting from botched back surgery. I'm sure that the defense can find a couple of sympathetic leftwing jurors in a Manhattan pool. And, of course, for the prosecution, we have Bragg at the helm. Sadly, I suspect Mangione won't do much time...
The nihilism angle I don’t think applies. This young man wants the betterment of society, but has looked for justification for violence to accomplish it. I think the novel Crime and Punishment is applicable here. We have a suffering young man that has become sufficiently motivated in his hatred to act out violence. Did he want to get caught? No. The only reason he got caught was because his subconscious mind inherently knows that what he did is evil, and not justified by his suffering (or others’) and would not allow him to conduct himself in such a way as to get away with it. His story is far from over.
Folks like Mangioni and Kazcynski think that they will never be caught. Oops. If he's the actual killer then justice -should- be served. However I'm already seeing the "insanity" defense being formulated. We shall see.