“I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in these positions to block things that you and I need. Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring an end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence.”
—Malcolm X
Lee Harvey Oswald
There are those of us who long for a superhuman intellect and to be as smart as the great thinkers. We tend to forget that ideas cost too. Genius that is the fruit of great industry may be too high a price to pay, especially when a demand is made for unremitting isolation from others.
The attraction of conspiracy theories is that they offer to explain what we fear may be only an act of random violence by an obscure malcontent. They suggest a reason where there may be none. We are inclined to embrace fanciful lies rather than the tragedy of the ordinary. Just ask yourself: who was Lee Harvey Oswald?
