A Horrible Calculation

144

December 17, 2012

Published in Neues Deutschland
(Germany) on 17 December 2012
by Ingolf Bossenz (link to original link to original)

Translated from by Ron Argentati. Edited by Gillian Palmer.

Do we live in a time of eternal recurrence, as Friedrich Nietzsche theorized? A recurrence that gets worse and worse? The name Newtown will now forever be linked to the worst grade school massacre in post-war U.S. history. That is, until the next and perhaps even more horrible massacre? Given enough time, the debate about the causes will have long since ebbed. Declining moral values, egoism, alienation, glorification of violence, social indifference, mental brutalization — the usual suspects won't be able to satisfactorily explain the unexplainable this time, either.

But crimes need to be successfully analyzed and motives for them discovered. There will always be people who are determined to find some macabre meaning in their lives by taking the lives of others and then taking their own. Fatally, such people in the United States always have a convenient means to do so close at hand: guns. Since the Newtown massacre, those proposing stricter gun control laws have new hope in their legal battle. The word “hope” may, in this case, sound monstrous, but what is truly monstrous are the attempts on the part of the gun lobby to overturn the ban on guns in schools. If they are successful, teachers (maybe even students?) will be able to shoot back.

Albert Camus wrote that cruelty is shocking and stupidity is discouraging. Unfortunately, this isn't just stupidity — it's purely cold calculation.

Grausames Kalkül
Von Ingolf Bossenz
17.12.2012

Leben wir in einer Welt der ewigen Wiederkehr des Gleichen, wie sie Friedrich Nietzsche beschrieb? Eines Gleichen, das gleichwohl stets schlimmer wird? Mit dem Namen Newtown ist fortan die Erinnerung an das schrecklichste Schulmassaker der US-Nachkriegsgeschichte verbunden - bis zum nächsten, noch schrecklicheren? Verstreicht bis dahin genügend Zeit, ist die Debatte um die Ursachen lange verebbt. Werteverfall, Egoismus, Vereinzelung, Gewaltverherrlichung, soziale Kälte, psychische Verrohung. Die bekannten Ingredienzen werden das Unerklärliche auch diesmal nicht befriedigend erklären.

Doch selbst, wenn Tatanalyse und Motivsuche erfolgreich sein sollten - es wird weiterhin Menschen geben, die entschlossen sind, ihrem Leben mit der Vernichtung anderer Leben einen makabren Höhe- und meist auch Endpunkt zu setzen. Fatalerweise stehen solchen Menschen, namentlich in den USA, immer wieder die wirksamsten Werkzeuge für ihren Vernichtungswahn zur Verfügung: Schusswaffen. Befürworter schärferer Waffengesetze sehen nach Newtown Hoffnung für ihre Forderungen. Das Wort Hoffnung mag in diesem Kontext gespenstisch klingen. Wahrhaft gespenstisch sind indes Versuche seitens der US-Waffenlobby, das Waffenverbot an Schulen zu kippen: Dann könnten Lehrer (und Schüler?) nämlich zurückschießen. »Grausamkeit empört, Dummheit entmutigt«, schrieb Albert Camus. Leider ist es nicht nur Dummheit, sondern Kalkül, grausames Kalkül.

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