First of all, he is extraordinarily narcissistic and wants to be able to control.... everything. He believes he is better than most people. Lucid dreaming is an obsession of his because it gives him a world that he is able to create and control.
He is obsessed with some particular ideas surrounding the philosophy of language because he believes grammar is coercive. He is essentially a true individualist of language and a nihilist, and he wanted to be able to control even language and grammar. But obviously, a language is useless unless you are willing to make concessions in its usage.
He is crazy, but the scary thing is that a lot of people are thinking along similar lines lately, though in their own disturbing ways. We know he likely wont be the last shooter, but it would be great if he was.
hmmm
I have not checked the links yet.
I don't really know the circumstances surrounding him or the incident he was involved with.
So I'll do some research and come back with a more educated response.
First I want to respond to what you have written.
It makes sense that more people would feel similar things, even come to the same conclusions and act out the same way.
Perhaps his behavior is destructive, and perhaps he believed he was called to do exactly what he did.
Does this make him a villain?
Was he just an incredibly disturbed narcissist, or can we come to any other conclusions?
I believe lucid dreaming is incredibly fascinating.
Once you have experienced lucidity, it is hard NOT to be excited about it.
I think it is a bit unfair to equate a fascination with lucid dreaming to a simple desire to control everything.
There is probably much more going on here, but you have already judged him.
Concerning language... why not consider his ideas for a minute. He is certainly not the first, not the only one to come to such a conclusion.
I believe that language does limit us quite a bit.
Think about it.
We have the ability to make all these sounds, yet we still have such a hard time relating to each other.
Language is just one way of communicating. It does not carry the information we would like it to.
Consider how much information can be transmitted through vibrations, through 'music'.
I can see how an entire language COULD be coercive.
Language tied to concepts, tied to tradition, tied to our culture, our ideals.
Perhaps all human language has only limited our potential as conscious beings.
Am I crazy for thinking along these lines?
It seems you would think so, according to your post here.
Maybe this man was more sane than the rest of us.
Perhaps he WAS better than most people, if such a distinction can be assumed.
To dismiss him as a crazy person does us all a disservice.
Let's think about why he did what he did.
Is it so difficult to try to understand such behavior?
I think it is worth the effort.
As you say, he won't be the last shooter.
If we knew what could drive a person to do this, we would only be educating ourselves, and perhaps
we could then find a way to prevent the escalating circumstances that lead to this kind of behavior.
I think the issue is misguided energy.
Perhaps this man could have made a deeper, more meaningful impact if he had been given another outlet.
If he was encouraged to create rather than destroy, maybe this would not have happened.
Maybe he felt he needed to destroy in order for something better to be created.
He wanted to take responsibility for something, somehow.
Imagine if we were all so daring...
Is it crazy to think this way?
I see that you quote Nietzsche in your sig.
Do you think he was crazy?
Perhaps he just understood more than the average bear.
In any case, I think it is better to work to understand, rather than pass judgement on these people.
