According to an AP article on Monday "A man carrying a gun and declaring 'I am the emperor' was shot and killed Monday outside the offices of Gov. Bill Ritter by a member of the governor's security detail.... Before he was shot, the gunman, who was dressed in a dark tuxedo, said, 'I am the emperor and I'm here to take over state government.'"
There is something charming and innocent about this poor unnamed man who believed he was an emperor. His delusion of grandeur seems almost quaint. There are no emperors in the world anymore, and so they seem fantastical, even childlike. He might as well have said, "I am Merlin the Magician," or "I am a Tyrannosaurus Rex." The non-existent is always pure. If he had said, "In the name of the Ku Klux Klan I’m taking over the State" the story would be sullied because we would know that his delusions were shared by other people. Believing you are a dinosaur is a unique belief, and therefore rare and precious. Racism is commonplace, and therefore cheap and nasty.
But we should not be fooled by these distinctions. All delusional people are dangerous and all people are delusional. If Don Quixote had been a strong young man, he would have probably killed many innocent people in the name of chivalry. If he had his hands on any explosives, the windmills would have all been demolished. I know a psychologist who worked with schizophrenic patients and she asked them if they ever had any warning signs that they were about to suffer from a psychotic episode. One of them replied, "When everything starts to make a lot of sense, I know something really bad is about to happen."
If conviction and sense are so dangerous, should we all live our lives as skeptics? A skeptic is unlikely to kill anyone. But this is a miserable existence, an existence of fear and doubt and confusion and paralysis. For the skeptic, no decision is a good decision, and the world is a place of tricks and traps. The skeptic lives in a nightmare. The skeptic will never know the incredible pleasure of being an emperor.
What is the solution to this quandary? I think the solution is to be weak. The reason we love Don Quixote is because he was an old feeble man with a helmet stuck on his head. Only if we are powerless may we enjoy the fruits of our convictions and madnesses. So let us populate the world with impotent emperors. And the next time you march into the gold-vaulted Denver Capitol Building, do not bring a gun. But keep the tuxedo. It is befitting of your status.
