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Jared Lee Loughner 's murder spree was the fault of Michel Foucault
by Lord Garth

The year was 2007 and Jared Lee Loughner got a chance to ask his Congresswoman a question. The question was (per an article in Mother Jones),

'What is government if words have no meaning?'

Apparently Congresswoman Gifford did not have a good answer for Jared. From that time on, Jared held a grudge against the Congresswoman. Of course, if words have no meaning, there can be no good answer for that question or any other question (obviously Jared didn't get that). But who could have gotten the 'words have no meaning' trope into Jared's head.

It should be obvious. Michel Foucault, a French philosopher who died in the 1980s famously opined, in his work "Les Mots et les choses" (Foucault wanted to call it "L'Ordre des Choses" but there was a copyright problem) that words have only the meaning that the ruling class allow because they (the ruling class) control the narrative, the grammar (Jared believed the govt controlled the population via grammar), etc. For some reason, the Universities and Colleges of the U.S. (probably elsewhere) are filled with professors who believe the 'words are controlled by the ruling class through narrative' thesis (or one of the numerous corollaries or the thesis). These professors have influenced thousands (probably tens or hundreds of thousands, maybe millions) of students in this country. It seems Jared was one of them.

Thus if anyone beside Jared can be blamed for this atrocity, it should be Michel Foucault.
(this is my first original Rantburg editorial)
Well done, Lord Garth. Paul Krugman, eat your libelous heart out!

Posted by: Lord Garth 2011-01-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=314079