Members of the UCSB, Isla Vista, and Santa Barbara communities are brought together and laid low in grief by the multiple murders committed in Isla Vista on Friday night, May 23, 2014. Their lives just beginning, seven beautiful young people are instantly and horrifically gone. Families are devastated and inconsolable, and our communities terrified. When the wise tell us that this too shall pass, they do not mean that we will recover and live as we did. There are events in this world so terrible that we don’t handle them; they mishandle and damage us.
This is such an event, and we know there is nothing we can do to un-ring this bell and restore these precious souls to their bodies in this world. But what most of us may not yet realize is that there is little we can do to prevent deranged individuals from committing acts of domestic terrorism again here and elsewhere. Removing guns does not remove the cravings of such people for the destructive power a gun provides. Knives don’t satisfy this craving as well, perhaps, but, as we have seen in this case and around the country, they work well enough. Neither can we believe that making guns more difficult to obtain legally will make them less available to those who shouldn’t have them. In a few years (or days), human entrepreneurialism and the intent will give these individuals at least as much access to the tools of terror as they have now.
Alternatively, making it possible for students to carry concealed weapons legally seems fraught with peril and unintended consequences. Then, we ask, why can’t we put a foot patrolman or a citizen volunteer with a radio on every corner? Or why can’t we direct the public to forward all the red flags that seem so predictive after such an horrific event to our mental health and law enforcement agencies? The first reason is that the anticipated benefits of all these suggestions are not adequately persuasive in light of the anticipated social and fiscal costs. More importantly, perhaps, each of these suggestions is almost certain to bring a legion of negative, unanticipated consequences without significantly reducing the frequency of these terrible events.
There is a practical, effective alternative, but it requires that we discover the truth hidden from us by our own senses and emotions. Both tell us horrific events like this are absolutely real, and both conspire to lead us in all the wrong directions. This can be illustrated by the relationship of darkness and light. Standing in a pitch-black room, we are absolutely certain that what our senses report is real, and we are equally confident that we can put an end to our terror by studying what we experience in more detail. Once we give it a name, the sensory experience of darkness appears even more real, and we become even more convinced that it must contain within itself at least one vulnerability. Yet, try as we may, we cannot end darkness by studying darkness, because it is nothing more than a name we have given to the absence of light. Light is the only thing that can end darkness, because light is the only thing that is genuinely real.
There may come a time when we discover all this for ourselves. If we do, then we may also discover the way to reduce the frequency of such tragedies and finally eliminate them. Like light, the only genuinely real thing in society is the abundant, unconditional expression of our finest qualities. Of these qualities, unconditional joyfulness in life; unconditional empathy, compassion, and generosity toward others; and unlimited creativity, intelligence, and wisdom are among the most important. As compelling as tragedies like Isla Vista appear, they are merely the natural consequences of the absence of our finest qualities. When our expression of these qualities becomes abundant, such tragedies will become less and less frequent. As long as our expression remains greatly diminished, such events will continue by whatever means the growing number of deranged can devise.
Am I suggesting we embrace yet another elaborate system of belief built around the expression of these qualities? Not at all. We need, instead, a transformative, daily experience that directly reunites each of us with the only abundant source of our finest qualities, the source that rests serenely at the very depth of our being. Yes, philosophies, religions, and social doctrines will help some rededicate themselves to the expression of these and similar qualities. But all of us will make the best use of whatever we already believe if we cultivate our finest qualities directly from their single, natural, and abundant source. When we do, each of us will begin expressing our joyfulness, empathy, compassion, generosity, creativity, intelligence, and wisdom more unconditionally in daily life. The abundant and unconditional expression of these qualities will do the rest, and what we presently experience as darkness will quickly begin to fade. The wise tell us that it is always later than we think. With so little time and so much to gain, shouldn’t we begin directly experiencing our innermost source of humanity’s finest qualities … now?
Eric Hutchins is a former member of the Isla Vista community residing in Santa Barbara County. Send comments to the executive editor at rmiller@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 5-12, 2014.
