After cogitating on recent events, this idea of acknowledging the relationship between testosterone and sickening violence crystallized in my mind so I wrote a post about it here in my blog. http://aheadontheleft.blogspot.com/...
The birth of that concept came after having MSNBC on in the background last week. S.E. Cupp of The Cycle was having her go at the guest who was on discussing the identity of the Boston bombers. I don't remember her question/statement verbatim, but it was something to the effect of "I've heard a number of people today referring to this suspect as a kid. He's not a kid. He's a terrorist. He killed people." blah blah blah blah blah etc, etc. My immediate thoughts were that S.E. Cupp was expressing a specific type of anger quite typical among people like her (no labels necessary). To me, it sounded like she was afraid that the mention of his youth would garner too much sympathy for someone she wanted drawn and quartered right now.
This was a third prong to the entire tragedy for me. The first was the event itself. The second was the fact that one of the perps was so young and obviously influenced by an older instigator. The third was that people like S.E. Cupp respond to events like this with all retribution and no curiosity except for wanting to know who else they can punish. Perhaps they think that curiosity equals weakness.
Humans like me are naturally and necessarily moved when a young person commits a horrific act. The connection between youth and innocence is universal. Humans like me are heartbroken when a pliable young mind is exploited for bad. I do think it is sad that Dzhokar Tsarnaev was exploited resulting in the worst possible choices. I have a suspicion that the S.E. Cupps of the world would twist this to mean I was looking to somehow exhonerate Tsarnaev which is in no way what my words are saying. I simply said that his youth adds a further element of sadness to the story.
I find that sadness to be far more inspiring than vengeance. The telegraph was invented out of sadness. I'm at a standstill trying to figure out what beneficial human advancement came from vengeance. So I was inspired by sadness and the desire to not be like S.E. Cupp to actually acknowledge the connection between violence and young men. It really does beat sitting around stewing in anger.