Another school shooting and another social media debate about what to do with the same old same old solutions proposed by different sectors of “the society.” But your solution is as good as you diagnosis of the problem, and your diagnosis is as good as the knowledge you use to diagnose the problem. Let’s look more closely at what kind of knowledge do people actually use when they try to diagnose some public issue. Whether they are aware of it or not (and usually they are completely oblivious to it) most people use the oldest human knowledge there is to diagnose their moral issues and troubles, namely, their common sense moral knowledge of good and bad (of course by now their common sense is sprinkled by aura of “science” becoming a kind of common sense with scientific halo. Still it is common sense). The common sense procedure is very simple (if you are a naturalist you might even think it must be natural to think this way) you assume that there are human agents of order, let’s call them conformists who obey the moral norms and duties of their “society,” on the other hand, there are human agents of disorder who consciously undermine the good order that conformists work so hard to create, let’s call them by the morally neutral sociological term as deviants (that is those who deviate in their actions from some moral norm or duty for which they are either evaluated positively as geniuses or negatively as evil agents).

According to our common sense knowledge of good and bad the moral order is maintained by primordial struggle of good against evil, in which not only ordinary human beings participate, but also all kinds of extraordinary humans as well as all kinds of non-humans agents with magical powers (from spirits of the dead, witches, human magicians, wizards, priests, sacred kings, and all kinds of human heroes who are heroic precisely because they are endowed, even if momentarily, with sacred magical powers, to our celebrities, and builders of great fortunes, including our presidents (for surely their practical success is a mark of gene the genius, that extraordinary sacred spirit within us), to all kinds of non-human agents with extraordinary powers increasingly concentrated in the single god, the creator of all world order). You see, according to our common sense all moral order is consciously constructed by agents of order and all moral disorder is consciously created by relatively or even absolutely evil agents of disorder.

If so, what do conformist think and do when they are faced with some serious issue and trouble within their “society”? They try to do everything in their power to counteract those evil actions of all those agents of disorder. Here of course there are two problems, if they live in a liberal society their hands to some degree are increasingly tied by the liberal law which tends to protect non-conformists from the righteous wrath of conformists (it has become increasingly more difficult to meet out forms of “popular justice” like lynching with impunity all non-conformists). Now the law tends to interfere and there are all kinds of legal niceties that “protect” deviants. Of course the law remains in the hands of conformists so it is always possible to interpret it and carry out “justice” in a way that pleases our moral common sense. That’s the story our “justice” system. On the other hand, slowly but surely, those nice liberal protections have to be weakened and all kinds of exceptions have to be created with Guantanamo as the crowning achievement of all our law abiding conformists. “We are in a state of war. Do you want terrorist to enjoy the same rights as you do?” “Do you want evil criminals to enjoy the same rights as you?” And if you liberal, “do you want radicals of the right and of the left to be left alone with their devious plans to destroy the moral order?” And if you radical leftist, “do you want misogynists and white supremacists to be protected?” And if you American “Do you want foreigners to enjoy the same rights as you?” And on and on go on the good conformists to their moral order. After all every conformist to some moral order (radical or mainstream) sooner or later comes to see the law as instrument of their common sense justice: evil has to be combated by the good; it is the moral duty of all conformists to do so. Look for instance how our conformist threat the international law that wants to constrain their activities to combat evil all around the world; it is seen as obstacle to be combated or ignored or used instrumentally for our common sense justice for “we” are always good.

The second problem is to identify who the agents of disorder are (they can be internal or external or both, they can also be ordinary or extraordinary humans or even non-human agents with magical powers, or even god himself). Of course sometimes this task is easy for agents of disorder act in nonconformist ways and reveal to conformists their true color (sometimes you can see evil as marks on their body or their dress), other times agents of disorder act in clandestine ways never revealing their true evil colors, but in any case one has to be suspicious of all moral nonconformity. And when all efforts fail, and they never do, it could be that it is god himself who is consciously punishing us for our departure from the divinely ordained moral order.

Once the agents of disorder are identified the solutions to our issues and troubles are easy in principle: all the conformist have to do is to counteract their evil action by all kinds of well established methods, from destroying them to, neutralizing, correcting, or incarcerating them. Increasingly all kinds of bureaucratic apparatuses are used by conformists for this purpose from federal, state and local gov’t bureaucracies, the military, schools, hospitals, prisons and there is always the army of mental health practitioners and social workers with their own way of diagnosing and treating deviance.

Will the conformist succeed? Will good triumph over evil? Our progressive think it will thanks to the new fusion of their religious common-sense with natural and social science. The religious are less skeptical that they themselves will finish the struggle, waiting for signs and help from the almighty. But both are determine to carry on their struggle on; after all it is their moral duty. But are there alternative ways of diagnosing our contemporary issues and troubles using some other knowledge then common sense? There are, but common sense thinkers are hell bend at continuing with their primordial means and ways, and the science necessary for the task, cultural science, is in infancy with those who suppose to cultivate it themselves are very much involved in the old struggle of good vs. evil. Who knows as this goes on, the enlightened and the rational ones might even rediscover god and begin asking for god’s help. And if so god help us all for our conformists by now have weapons that could bring about the final judgment the religious are hoping for.