Newtown tragedy, Part I

I was listening to the views expressed on the television talk show “The View,” and naturally I wasn’t “shocked” by the superficial take on the massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. The shooter, Adam Lanza, was “crazy,” a lone “nut,” “troubled” and “sick.” Those are words we hear quite frequently after such horrible tragedies. Did his mother, Nancy Lanza--who was also killed at the family home—know about his “sick” tendencies? Or did she—perhaps unwittingly—plant the “idea” in his head? 

Nothing was mentioned by the news media that the “trouble” might have started at home. The shooter was, according to a man quoted by the BBC, “wicked smart” and excelled at all his school work. Another person was quoted by CNN as saying he was a “genius.” But he was alleged to have suffered from a moderate form of autism called Asperger’s. Autism causes children to be adverse to physical or social contact, and in severe cases leads to inability to form words in normal conversation. While sufferers of the condition may be intellectually gifted, they can also be more easily irritable. However, psychologists say that there is no evidence that autism leads to violent behavior, and does not necessarily preclude an independent life style.

Lanza also displayed another symptom of autism—an obliviousness to actions that could cause him physical pain or injury; one former classmate remembered being concerned about his “safety” during physical education activities, because he might injure himself and act as if nothing had happened. But Lanza also displayed behavior that seemed more bizarre in retrospect, such as walking close to the wall to avoid contact with other students, clutching his briefcase as if someone was going to steal it. He also apparently suffered from fits of unexplained withdrawals from reality after experiencing various “crisis.” 

But none of this was seen as “dangerous.” CNN quoted the head of security of the school district—who was also an adviser to the Tech Club that Lanza was a member of—as saying that he thought Lanza was more a danger to himself, and seemed more likely to be a victim of other people; he was “a very scared young boy who was very nervous around people.” If he had been one of the victims rather than the perpetrator, there is little doubt he would have been viewed very differently by the public.

The question then is what could have been the trigger for his actions. It is not enough to say he was “sick” or a “nut.” What was his home life like? His mother, Nancy Lanza, seemed to live in her own kind of fantasy world, right out of a Jane Austen novel. Living exclusively on a quarter-million dollar alimony paid by her ex-husband, she liked to invite neighbors over to play “parlor games” and discuss the finer points of backyard gardening. But there was another side to her that that her son came to know quite well: She was a fanatical gun “enthusiast,” and described as a “survivalist” by a relative. She taught her son to “respect” guns, and even took him out to firearm ranges to learn to shoot. She enjoyed talking about guns to acquaintances. 

Much of what has been said about the mother has been positive and sympathetic; yet for a kid with serious social interaction problems and was described by the Rupert Murdoch British tabloid The Sun as a crazed “maniac,” this “upbringing” might have been the missing ingredient in a “recipe” for the “unthinkable.” That chart of guns that the tabloid pictured as his no doubt actually belonged to his mother. “Survivalists” live in their own warped kind of world, and what does such a mother, who supposedly doted on the needs of her troubled son (as opposed, say, forcing him to find his own way in the world), say to the son in order to keep himself “safe” from a harming world—which he clearly was likely to see it as? How does one explain keeping a literal arsenal of weaponry, supposedly for “protection”?  Protection from what in a quiet neighborhood, in a small town far from urban blight? 

On “The View,” audience members cheered when Nancy Lanza was portrayed as a “hero” by “presumably” trying to stop her son from going his rampage, but this was probably wishful thinking in order to avoid another truth: Instead of providing a home life that engendered trust and comfort, it was one that enhanced a sense of isolation and distrust of other people. What ultimately motivated Lanza to commit the killings is something yet to be reported; yet to avoid discussion of how his home life may have had a hand in the tragedy is simply head-in-the-sand mendacity.