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The level of discussion in this thread is very high, if I may say so. I will though bracket off the issue of Loughner's mental illness, his paranoid illusions and their relationship to the political conjuncture. Long and painful experience has taught me the impossibility of a fruitful discussion of schizophrenia on an Internet discussion list. The other issue is the interpretation of this act. Here I found myself agreeing with Joaquin and then with Lou. I found the latter's suggestion that the reading of this event will become part of the *scare us back into voting for Obama *push. Well said Lou. I also particularly liked Joaquin's point that this event could not be interpreted in terms of the necessity to find common ground opposing both the left and right wing extremes. Though I have read a piece in the Herald Tribune arguing precisely that. there is no left extreme. In any discussion of the interaction of the mentally ill with the world of politics, it is also important to recognize that those who rule us and whose ideas dominate us are in a way profoundly mentally disturbed themselves. They have created this shambles of a world where every day some truly destructive practice is endorsed by the powerful. For instance the coal trains to China pass by my house. I often stand on the foot bridge above them and think how the future of my grand children is being carried away with the same coal. Yet even to think that thought is to confine oneself to the very margins of what is a mad world. Sanity can be a very isolating experience. Perhaps the real scandal in all this is that Loughner was not at all isolated when he took out his gun. comradely Gary ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: [email protected] Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
