Responding to tragedy is never easy, but the best response is often the one involving the fewest words. That’s true when a friend receives terrible news—nothing’s worse than the loudmouth uncle trying to be “helpful”—and it’s true in moments of national grief like the present one.
There’s something deeply unbecoming about the habit of blabbing censorious political opinions while people are still dying. Social media and 24-hour news encourages the habit, but it’s an unlovely one and ought to be resisted, especially by those with prestige and influence. We still know very little about Stephen Paddock and the murder in Las Vegas of at least 59 people. We know his name and the roughest sketch of his background. And we know he used an arsenal of guns.
What we don’t know are the most important things, beginning with his motives. As of late Monday, we don’t know how he acquired these weapons. He seems to have been a lone wolf, but we don’t know if he had assistance. We are unaware of any pattern of violence or illegality.
Our ignorance, 24 hours after the event, was still impressive. Yet that didn’t stop our progressive politicos, journalists, and celebrities from issuing sanctimonious admonitions about who’s to blame and what ought to be done. Hillary Clinton urged Americans to “stand up to the NRA” and “try to stop this from happening again.” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told his congressional colleagues their “cowardice to act [sic] cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers. None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.” The entertainer Lady Gaga assured her fans that “blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate.” And there was the CBS vice president who got herself fired for writing on her Facebook page: “If they wouldn’t do anything when children were murdered I have no hope that Repugs will ever do the right thing. I’m actually not even sympathetic bc country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”
And so on and on.
Of course, in order to “stop this from happening again,” in order to “legislate,” we’d need to know far more than we knew on Monday while these confident observers were offering their counsel. For instance: If Paddock had no criminal record, as seems to be the case, it would make no sense to toughen mandatory background checks—at least not in response to the Las Vegas massacre.
But this is the sort of unthinking cant we’ve become used to in the immediate aftermath of tragedies—waves and waves of histrionic verbiage about the need to “take action” and “do something” in response to events nobody yet comprehends. The grandees who emote and sermonize after acts of mass murder seem to think their effusions prove their righteousness or authenticity, but in fact they only prove their inability to deal reasonably with complicated and sensitive situations.
It’s best, though, to say as little as possible, even on the subject of saying too much, and so we will only quote the words of the prophet: If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
