Second thoughts on Causal relationships: the American example

Following in the undeniably tragic wake of the Virginia Tech shootings is another curious phenomenon: finding someone to share your pain. This idea that if you know others who hurt like you it somehow makes you hurt less. This is not however the central theme of this post.

I have spoken in other blogs about the tendency for people and groups to attach causes to events that have little to do with the actual event. There is a news story out today about shared recognition between the Virginia Tech shootings and the Kent State shootings in 1970. Two incidents whose only similar factor is that they both occured on university campuses. There is a vast practical and theoretical difference between lone psychosis and government malpractice. Looking for commonality where there is some is one thing; appealing to the world for sympathy gives way to maudlin sentimentality.

Not that I don't understand them. Western civilization has always had a conceptual problem with randomness. people believe things happen to them for a reason. There is a causal link between all events. Here we sit at Z, we can therefore see the linear relationship from A. Z exists because Y came before it and X came before that. But it is impossible to know all the causes for an event. The Kent State and Virginia Tech shootings may be related in some way. but I doubt the organizers of the memorial had this in mind. Given the nature of this world it is possible there are multiple linear relationships all descending from one A to many Z's.

That was today's semi-relevant philosophical tangent...Enjoy