Quote of the Week...from John Nash

The best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for themselves...AND the group.                                              ---John Nash.

One of my all-time favorite movies is A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe as the brilliant-but-troubled mathematician John Nash...it's a part of my DVD collection.  Although the cinematic version parallels the true life story of Nobel Prize winner Nash, Howard tended to sensationalize his mental illness (schizophrenia) in order to enhance the movie's visual effect and create more suspense.  The above quote is from the movie...I don't know whether the real John Nash ever spoke these words.  But I chose it because more and more I believe it has a nearly universal application in our lives...and especially when looking at those who seem disaffected and alienated within our society...

John Nash had just experienced a "eureka" moment when he suddenly understood the economic principle of duality, which is a refutation of Adam Smith's previously held tenet of "everyone out for themselves" being the optimal driving force for economic development.  But I believe there is a broader application of this duality sentiment, and it has a lot to do with how adjusted people can function around others.  If somebody has grown to feel that they belong nowhere and that the people in their lives care little about them, the notion can easily arise that they, likewise, are in no way accountable to others for their own outlook and behavior.  Alienation prevents the principle of duality...or as I call it, enlightened self-interest, from coming to fruition.  Instead, the isolated individual creates for himself a self-contained moral system that does not rely on anyone else...and consequently nothing he does to anyone else has any effect on his sense of guilt or conscience.  It's important for us as social creatures to feel a group connection...or as my pastor says, a sense of community.  Not having this connection, I have sadly noticed, seems to be a common characteristic of those involved in the too-many mass shootings we have been experiencing over the recent years...and the trend seems to be ominously accelerating...

Wednesday there was yet another school shooting massacre, this time at a high school in Parkland, Florida.  Almost instantly after the news first came out, the same old tired political talking point battle lines were being drawn with each side blaming the other.  I recognize that it's true that in many other countries with strict gun laws, the murder rate is much lower than here in the United States.  But I think that there may be another, possibly more important factor that inhibits this senseless violence: people in those other societies may be more closely-knit and inclusive than ours here in America, which can often be brutally cold about emphasizing individualism and independence as ideals.  When someone...especially when they are young...cannot find any sense of social orientation and already has a history of unchecked violent behavior, we're talking about a powder keg ready to go off.  Even the more reclusive of us can and should feel a sense of belonging to their community...but that community has a responsibility of outreach as well...and those on the social margins tend to be shunned, further aggravating matters.  In the meantime, we'd damned well better be willing to invest in providing better protection for our children in their schools...whatever it takes!