"...There's A Reason We Use The Term 'Without Rhyme or Reason...."

12 people are shot to death in a Paris office.

 

The rest of us, obviously, react with shock, dismay, distress, fear, even a little anger.

 

And an almost instant need for answers.

 

Turns out that the fundamental answer is actually readily available.

 

The psychologically damaged zealots who carry out these heinous attacks cloak themselves in the robes of righteousness, screaming out their "allegiance" to their God (in this particular incident, with the terrorist's favorite trademark phrase that pays "Allahu Akbar") neatly, almost as if it were professionally scripted, between the gunshots that took a dozen lives.

 

The irony of the whole "righteous robe" metaphor, by the way, can't be lost on even the most obtuse observer when you factor in that these "brave defenders of the cause" always manage to include face masks that hide their identities in their execution/assassination/massacre wardrobe choices.

 

But, that's a cowardly lion of a different color. And a topic for another time.

 

In the case of the Charlie Hebdo killings, we naturally gravitate towards trying to unravel the complexities, examine the underlying causes, decipher the intricate psychology of what would drive any human being to inflict injury and death on such a horrific scale.

 

Turns out it's really not all that complicated.

 

Three gutless, tragically pathetic wastes of life's precious gifts killed someone because that someone made fun of something.

 

And then killed eleven more someones because they happened to be in the building at the time.

 

As with Aurora, as with Sandy Hook, for that matter, as with the killing of JFK fifty years ago, we are so overwhelmed by the magnitude of the event that we almost instinctively seek, if not crave, deeply layered explanations.

 

When the fact is it's not at all complicated.

 

It ain't brain surgery.

 

And no DSM is required in order to understand what's going on here.

 

All you need is a dictionary.

 

 

rea·son

noun

noun: reason; plural noun: reasons

1. 1.

   a cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event.

 

 

ex·cuse

noun

noun: excuse; plural noun: excuses

ikˈskyo͞os/

1. 1.

   a reason or explanation put forward to defend or justify a fault or offense.

 

 

 

 

The aforementioned gutless, tragically pathetic wastes of space who carried out this mass murder tried to cover up their gutlessness with the aforementioned standard wardrobe choices and outcries of supposed allegiance to their divine inspiration.

 

And the disrespect of others toward that divine inspiration was the reason they would give for their actions.

 

If they could shout a reason at us given that, of course, they have already been hunted down and most delightfully exterminated as pure evil always deserves.

 

They killed twelve people because those twelve people made fun of something.

 

At least, given the circumstances, that was what seems to be the reason.

 

When it, arguably, wasn't the reason at all.

 

They killed twelve people because those killers were gutless, tragically pathetic wastes of life's precious gifts who, for whatever reason, wanted to kill people.

 

And that those twelve people made fun of something was an excuse.

 

Not a reason.

 

There's no excuse for that.