Make Arrogant Bastards Naked and Vulnerable Again

Someone perusing my blog noted I have a pretty good picture of that Las Vegas music venue, with Mandalay Bay, the Luxor, and those fuel tanks all visible (photo taking off from McCarran Airport on Feb. 14, 2017).

I spent a lot of time at Mandalay Bay and vicinity, back in the day (2001 - 2009). Strangely, I’m not as affected by this shooting as others around me are, even though I’m familiar with the turf. Just another Sunday night in Vegas.

In its own way, Vegas is a heartless, brutal place. All cities have hearts, sometimes big, expansive hearts, but Vegas' heart always seemed to be a shrunken, smoldering lump of charcoal in the endless desert. It's the truest expression of the American spirit.

Paddock carefully planned this, and I’m curious about his motives and actions. He was looking for a target crowd, but cared not at all what their interests were. Country music; hip hop, alternative music, it was all the same to Paddock. That’s strange to me, but indicates his mindset. Music = emotions. Music Festivals caught his attention only because they are often larger than sporting matches or other sorts of events.

My suspicion is Stephen Paddock carried out this massacre as a challenge to himself, in order to defeat emotionality - to not let emotions deter him from experiencing the thrill of executing a master crime.

I’m intrigued by the lack of a political angle to Paddock. Mesquite, NV, is a hotbed of political intrigue, with Cliven Bundy and his crowd, and stranded between Mormon ways and Sin City, but Paddock apparently didn’t care. That hell was for others.

Paddock had spent his entire life trying to corral emotions; to master them. Paddock became a pilot, and that kind of training forces you to sublimate emotions. Successful gamblers too have to be dark, discriminating, dispassionate people, and Paddock certainly tried to be, but that road is hard. Gambling tricks you at every opportunity, with emotions hiding everywhere. Gambling makes you dishonest and sneaky. As Fyodor Dostoevsky noted in "The Gambler," if you could successfully purge emotions from gambling, you could win as much money as you please. That never happens, though.

We've seen this battle before in American culture. "Breaking Bad," for example, is a story about a rational man losing his bearings, and ends with use of an automatic machine gun.

Gambling became tedious to Paddock after a while. A master crime would suffice, though. He had to work alone because other conspirators are unreliable. His getaway planned failed only because he got caught up in the thrill.

Like Dostoevsky wrote: “No, it was not the money that I valued—what I wanted was to make all this mob of Heintzes, hotel proprietors, and fine ladies of Baden talk about me, recount my story, wonder at me, extol my doings, and worship my winnings.” Same with Paddock.

And now it's left to those other dark, dispassionate people, the politicos, to parry the damage. The GOP effort on bump stocks isn’t serious. Bump stocks are relatively easy to make. Outlawing bump stocks would be like outlawing sandals. If they were serious they’d outlaw the guns.

We have to go after the guns. Purge the emotions and go right after the guns. That's the only approach that people like Paddock will ever understand and will ever work. Experience the thrill of making arrogant bastards naked and vulnerable again.

More on Paddock.