Greg G. wrote:
Lew Hodgett said:

...
The shooting rampage raises many questions, starting with "WHY".

I've been reticent to join this fray until the smoke cleared.
But that truly is THE question of the day.


Yep, but should it be?

Carl Jung postulated that humans are evolutionarily compelled to ask (and
discover) the "why" of something. When confronted with an effect, we MUST
find out the "cause." It's in our genes!

That makes sense. If you don't want to get hit by another rock, you'd best
find the caveman who threw the first one! Those who don't care whether
they've been hit by a rock die off rather quickly.

Unfortunately, this compulsion sometimes generates silliness. In our quest
to answer "why," bizarre constructs are often promoted as the "one true
cause." Examples include untold hours of speculation in UFOs, JFK
assassination conspiracy theories, global warming, the pyramids built by
space aliens, and so on.

The trick is to discriminate between effects that can lead to provident
causes (contraction of the space-time continuum at near-light velocities)
and those that lead to merely useless speculation (Major Hassan's rampage).

In the latter case, it's simply better to deal with the effect (kill the
****er, his family, his dog, and everybody he ever knew, verily, unto the
third generation) and move on.