ARIZONA

this young man who shot the congresswoman in arizona and some other people, he didnt pick to be the way he is.  i think thats ludicrous.  i think that he probably in fact, influenced genetically, has a certain perception of life which is in error and what he is trying to do, every day of his life, is to make sense of the world as he perceives it.  but since he didnt design his receptors, then hes not responsible for the map that he develops, the map that allows him to navigate in a world that he thinks is the world — its not the world, its his world — but its not his world in the sense that he has intentionallly designed it.  it is unintentional.  it is inherent in his personality, probably from birth.  that is the world that he has grown to perceive.  there may have been influences on him in his family, in his early years with friends in school and in the ethos of his nation, but all those influences would be acting on him, particularly him, a person with a unique perception of what the external world is and how he relates to it and in it, and those perceptions are genetic.  so to blame this guy is not useful.  what one has to do is try to find mechanisms by which to identify people whose perception of reality is so far removed from whats useful that they will do in the end very great harm to themselves and perhaps to others.  if we could observe these people, observe the clues in these people's actual behaviors — in their symptoms and assumptions — and intervene in a way that is meangingful before its too late, thats the only solution.  we need to gain a better understanding of how mentally ill people, even pathological people, have not picked to be that way, that they have no choice in the matter, that they are acting in a way to try to make sense of the only world they know, which is the world they have inherited through their blueprint, which is genetic.

so what has blame and retribution got to do with it in any honest world?