Mono-Causal Explanations (was Re: Accused Killer of 3 Is Linked to Racist Writing (fwd))

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>At 01:56 PM 3/3/00 -0500, MD wrote:
>>In a message dated 3/3/00 10:34:06 AM Pacific Standard Time, sokol at jhu.edu
>>writes:
>>
>><< All I see is a deranged individual whose actions are being transformed
>intoa political icon and imbued with political meaning by the media.>>
>>
>>All I see is another Hate Crime made easy by lax gun laws.
>
>C'mon, do not try to put a liberal spin to counter a conservative one.  In
>all likelihood, the guy was a nut-case, guns or no guns (he could have
>easily used an ax or a chain saw instead). His actions are the case of his
>madness and NOT of:
>- racism
>- access to fire arms
>- ethnic relations
>- failure of the US mental health care system
>- capitalism
>- or the general failure of the US society.
>
>wojtek

Wojtek, you need re-training in social sciences: "Charles, I have a rather
thorough training in social science - far too thorough not just to dismiss
the importance of social conditions in explaining human behavior, but also
to fall for mono-causal explanations, especially ones that ignore human
agency" (Wojtek).  What happened to the failure of mono-causal explanations
for social phenomena?  Suddenly a mono-causal explanation has to become a
valid explanation, since it's convenient for your present whimsical
argument?  "Madness" as such independent of social relations does not exist
either.  The case in question obviously raises the question of how mentally
ill working-class individuals are treated in Kapitalist America (often left
to their own devices, only to end up in prisons).

BTW, I wonder what the paper means by "racist writings."

Yoshie