Reason First: The Selfless Marine- The Texas Tower Sniper

“Once a Marine, always a Marine” is a slogan often spouted by members who earned the title in the United States Marine Corps. The only way, properly, for a Marine to be referred to as an ex-Marine or former Marine is if he or she commits an evil so heinous that they ought to be stripped of the moniker. Lee Harvey Oswald became a vicious assassin of the 35th President John F. Kennedy and saw his status as a Devil Dog reduced to the level of a brutal murderer. He would die by Jack Ruby’s firearm. But nearly three years after the murder, Charles Whitman would see a similar punishment.

At the top of the Main Building tower at the University of Texas at Austin, Whitman indiscriminately mowed down 14 people in just over an hour and a half. Law enforcement including hero police officer Ramiro Martinez silenced Whitman forever. Just over a dozen human beings died at Whitman’s hands.

His whole ideology consisted of taking out people because of his own irrationalism. He had been scarred by his parents splitting a short time before the assault. Millions of people emotionally and negatively affected by their parents’ divorce didn’t lead them to gun down people. With no reason and no rhyme attached to his actions, Whitman exemplified selflessness. In his head laid a tumor the size of a walnut pushing into his amygdala. This area of the brain regulates emotions and behavior. But the kicker is that people with this same condition may never gather an arsenal of weapons including rifles, handguns, and a shotgun and do the worst. What was the difference with Whitman?

His parents could have blamed him for their division and that still would not have been license to kill men, women, and children. The former Leatherneck could have had a tumor in his brain the size of a grapefruit and that would still not have warranted for him to be a murderous monster. It would have been much more obvious to diagnose Whitman with a tumor if it had been that size but that doesn’t excuse his monstrous behavior. Maybe that would’ve stopped the whole occurrence, but this is doubtful. Whitman’s troubles ran further than a development in his cranium. Plenty of individuals go through horrific natural disorders and divorces. Whitman was not special. He should not be given a pass for his ugly soul based on a medical condition and a familial break. His brutish ways should be studied to show that he was completely unselfish.

He had to feel (not think) that his actions remained sensible, righteous, and true. Because of the senseless, disgusting, and false moves that he made, they all point to a male who had full control over his actions. The diminished state of his mind resulted in the mass murder of innocents.

With the ideation to destroy swirling in his head rather than rational thinking, Whitman laid down those people because of his failure to face the facts of reality.

By looking only at others instead of himself as the problem, he selflessly and self-destructively caused one of the worst nightmares in American history.

The mentality of someone with a growth in their brain may act in erratic ways as a result. Whitman’s viciousness stemmed from his hatred for life, others and especially his own.

Whitman stood a chance in the sphere of intelligence. He earned a scholarship through the Marines to study to become an officer in the military. He transferred to the University of Texas at Austin to enroll in classes regarding mechanical engineering. So, the guy clearly was no slouch in the smarts department.

What made him into a horrific savage apart from his braininess was not the tumor but his will. He had willed himself to commit those crimes. In his mind he had determined that he could save the planet, save the whales, save himself from the onslaught of what ailed the universe.

At the point of a rifle, Whitman declared to the world that he could have been a man of the mind. In effect, he was like a bloody Peter Keating from author and philosopher Ayn Rand’s novel The Fountainhead (1943). That character sees himself through the lens of other people. He wants fame, fortune, and prestige even if he doesn’t earn it or it means that it is only in the estimation of others that he should receive these items. The prestige part, especially, became evident in Whitman. His scatterbrained ideation to murder people is so selfless because he never for moment stopped to think if his behavior would result in a better life for himself. He just felt that, even in death, his acts would signal to everyone that he did something in this life. This is in disregard of every principle that is proper and good. Never did he realize that he remained anti-mind, anti-man, anti-life.

Unselfishness is not a crime in the real world and it shouldn’t be. But it is moral treason against one’s better thinking. It destroys anything in its path and declares that the individual life does not matter. Whitman bought this ideation wholesale and perpetrated his wicked acts against those who had nothing to do with his disposition.

The motto that Marines greet one another is “Semper Fidelis” or always faithful. Whitman and the Marines should have adopted and might still hold onto, respectively, a new motto: Semper Sui (always selfish).