Aging Capriciously

One of the things that I think most of us try to do is make sense out of the senseless. To do this, we apply various types of reasoning. From economic to political to psychological explanations, we attempt to fashion a purpose or logic for the senseless that helps us to see some logic to seemingly random and violent actions. Religious people use the term sin to cover many such acts. Some say it is the work of the devil. Psychologists use terms like paranoid schizophrenic or sociopath to convey some idea as to motive and underlying rationale. More practical minded people look to motives like revenge, money, jealousy etc.

I have heard that Bertrand Russell said that fear was the main motive for all evil that is done. This has a great deal of merit to it as an underlying or foundation problem to explain many senseless acts of…