Thoughts on the Shooting

Aside from the moral and ethical questions on politically-targeted violence, in the most self-serving Machiavellian sense, the real lunacy with violent acts –including assassinations of public figures– is that they often produce the unintended consequence of elevating the profile of the victim. Violent acts usually backfire in terms of generating sympathy and popular support. If you’ve never heard of the victim before, well you’ve heard of him now. Who knows how many future book deals that’s worth or how many speaking engagements he’s going to enjoy, assuming he’s able to survive the ordeal.

The victim of an assassination attempt today is a vile individual. Truly loathsome. The evidence in support of this point is overwhelming, but I’ll skip the cheap opportunity to provide examples. That’s not what’s a debate here, at least not for me.

There are indeed instances were political violence is justified (this is not one of them) and I could provide examples to that point as well. Many of the nations in the world we know today would not exist were it not for militant insurrections, and in some cases — targeted assassinations. Our own country wouldn’t even exist were it not for terrorism of sorts of the late 1700s. One nation’s terrorist is a future nation’s freedom fighter.

The problem is, especially to activists who think that these kinds of violent acts are justified or effective, is that more often than not they are demonstrably harmful to the cause, no matter how legitimate and noble that cause is. Sadly, the fallout of someone being shot, wounded, or even killed is martyrdom. Because of today’s violent act in Utah, the victim is now destined to reach a previously unattainable level of sympathy and even public support. At the very least curiosity is stoked. This all translates into more potential followers and increased attention to the arguments by the far-Right activist, no matter how absurd they may be. So, all the assassination attempt today has done is make this victim *more famous* and potentially *more dangerous.*

We can decry assassinations and political violence in and of themselves based on ethical moral and even pragmatic reasons. But even under the most selfish auspices, political assassinations are almost always counter productive to the cause that supposedly is to be advanced. I think this is especially true with people who are targeted who spread ideas because the natural inclination is for people to now be more curious about hearing those ideas. It’s a sort of “don’t look in the closet” mentality. We all want to know what made that person so objectionable that an individual tried to kill him.

Finally, as much as I would love to see certain political leaders and influencers disappear, we must also recognize that “eye for an eye” anarchy is not a solution. I don’t think anyone wants to see the United States turn into the Middle East. In a democracy, and even a floundering one as we’re in now, there must still be rules and laws and civility.

I have zero regard for the victim of today’s shooting. None whatsoever. But in a very pragmatic and purposeful reaction to it, I wish to declare that this is a terrible manifestation of extremism and one that is ultimately counterproductive to those of us who wish to advance progress and truth.

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Edit: Since this post in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt, the victim died. Some of the notation here should be adjusted. However, everything I’ve written here remains on point.

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