No Explanation Possible for Irrational Acts

“Can you ever explain something like this?” asked Susan Bibeau, the mother of Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, who attacked an unarmed guard at a war memorial in Canada before assaulting the Canadian Parliament. Zehaf-Bibeau was killed by Kevin Vickers, the Parliament sergeant-at-arms.

The sad answer to this anguished mother's question is, no. There is no explanation for things like what happened in Ottawa this past Wednesday. There might be thanks that it was not worse, there may even be reasons in the sense of why Zehaf-Bibeau acted they way he did, but no explanation which might prompt someone to say, 'Oh, so that's why'. Irrationality is on its face not rational.

But we must face it every day of our lives. Throwing aside extremist ideologies of any type, we simply cannot know how everyone else is going to act on a given day or at a given time. Not to sound trite, but perhaps Bilbo Baggins expressed it best: it's dangerous to leave your home each morning. Yet we cannot do that. We cannot live our lives sitting on our hands and worrying about what's outside. We have to go out and face what's there.

The Canadian response has been grand, indeed sublime in its grandeur: watching the procession of slain Corporal Nathan Cirillo as he makes his last trip home from roadsides and overpasses as his hearse returns him to Hamilton, Ontario. You can see many images of such quiet bravery here: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/24/nathan-cirillo-highway-of-heroes-photos_n_6043546.html?1 It is the very definition of Lest We Forget.

So let's not forget that we have jobs to do, just as Cpl. Cirillo and Kevin Vickers did so laudably. We honor them both, the living and the fallen heroes, by continuing to do what they are and were protecting us so that we can do: live our lives freely, even in the face of those who would do us wrong.

Evil Empires and Ottawa

What happened in Ottawa on Wednesday is indeed tragic. It is tragic on many levels and in many forms. It displays to each one of us, and in a very direct manner, that no one is safe. One deranged lunatic can ruin your whole day.

But how do we stop them? What can we do to prevent this happening again? There must be some answer.

Alas, there is not. We cannot prevent evil from happening, no matter how hard we wish we could and no matter how hard we try. We live in a fallen world. People are weak; we all are subject to fall prey to the lowest forms of humanity. That's simply how it is. In an imperfect world such as ours, that's simply how it is.

Yet we cannot stop trying to prevent evil. That is a very politically incorrect way to say something, yes. But there is good, and there is evil, in the world. And calling evil evil is the first step we must take in pursuing the goal of doing all we can to eradicate evil from our lives. Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an evil empire, and was derided by many in the the public forum for being so blunt. Yet the Soviets are no more, and President Reagan has superhighways and airports named after him.

We will lose many battles. We will, in fact, lose the war, so far as we may fight it on Earth. Yet we have something on our side which is above the Earth, above all the tiny thoughts we as individuals may think to ourselves. We have truth, those of us introspective enough to see it, on our side. The Canadians see it; they have witnessed it every bit as much as we did on 9/11, they have witnessed it first hand of late, and they have the right attitude. They say, we have seen what evil can do, and we will fight it to the ends of the Earth. It will not go unpunished. This is an excellent attitude to have.

Because of it, the Canadians will win in the long run. And we will too.