We often hear about mass murderers and terrorists who wish to “go out in a blaze of glory” and earn an infamous place in history. From what we can gather, this is a known pathology in forensic psychiatry. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
In forensic psychiatry, the term pseudocommando has been used to describe mass murderers who commit premeditated murder-suicide mass killings driven by revenge fantasies,[1][2] typically involving the stockpiling of weapons followed by a heavily armed commando-style attack.[3][4]
They typically see their actions through a narcissistic lens as being morally justified in revenge against their unfair treatment by an uncaring world, and wish to “go out in a blaze of glory”.[5]
Some observers have divided mass killers into three categories: pseudocommandos, family annihilators, and hit-and-run killers.[6][7]
While we don’t think that Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are mass murders or terrorists, their behavior does have some similarity with the pseudocommandos.
Boris has decided to suspend Parliament so that he can get his no-deal Brexit. Virtually all reasonable discussion on this issue suggests it will be a complete disaster for the United Kingdom, leading to chaos in the economy, violence and instability on the Northern Ireland border, and furthering the case for Scotland leaving the UK. Boris will certainly “go out in a blaze of glory”.
Donald is urging his followers to break the law by appropriating private property to build his wall and promising them pardons should they be convicted. His appointees to the Environmental Protection Agency are rolling back every effort to protect the environment. This can only seriously hamper global efforts to reduce climate change, which Donald believes does not actually exist and in any case, is of secondary importance to corporate profits. As his popularity seems to falter among many of those who voted for him in 2016, he too will “go out in a blaze of glory”.
Sadly, we’ll go out with them, but not in a blaze of glory.