That is - beyond a contrived 'two-body problem' in physics, say - it is a chimera and, like the comment of Einstein -

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

most often the combination of known/unknown/mis-weighted effects is simply astronomical: for the seeming simplest 'result'. And when talking of the soft-as-cheese arts of Psych (!) IMhO Jung had the idea of scale pretty well down. The others simply had intricately embroidered models and a gift for gab. Everybody's gotta have his own pet model yada. Gets tenure. Then Power.

So as to 'what makes a marlowe' / My Gramma -?- it's usually an unproductive bug-hunt. The ever-popular 'lackofselfesteem' early on? A peculiar knack for pissing off one's peers from the first? [buried resentment forever] Or simply -- YAN of the countless ways in which fear manifests, is rationalized away (blame all those Others, the untermensch) -- then one seeks out the faux-comfort of other fearful==angry ones. Columbine, anyone? Hypatia died from a similar mob.

As to this specimen's current flavour of expanding megalomania? EZ: The Yahoos are currently at the trigger; his little band of brooders - being literal, thinks only of 'Winning'. With guns, natch. [Hell: Take It All!] Being ignorant (and actively resistant to alleviation): confuses a shoo-in Victory of Godzilla over Bambi with.. Righteousness.

So of course, such a juvenile must gloat over this God-given Sign of farRightfulness. Invoking the broodership's comforting faux presence - now he can lecture us all upon the foolishness of trying to resist his mob of moral marauders.

Hey, kids do this crap all the time - part of the symbolic killing off of the parents, remember? Those pesky adults.. insisting upon repecting others, not just your own little clique; tryin to instill a certain empathy for the less fortunate, and all. Hah! The Nike-Eloi are into Just Do It (and all those cute diss-slogans, wherein everybody Else is some kinda nigger.)

WTF - our very own Abnormal Psych experiment, and we don't even have to pay the model for posing!


Good Capitalist Deal, no?


Ashton

I've tended to the comparison with (whatever we think we know about) the 'Arrow of Time'. It seems as reasonable as it is intuitive [Yeah.. I know..] that causality is at least as useful an idea as are Newton's laws.. for mere astrophysical navigation, nearby.

But we are speaking here of the axiomatic closed-System, aren't we? Physics must deal with at least some umm encapsulation.. into a field of references. I doubt that we disagree at this level -- except that you know much more about the entire topic than I (!) (Yes, I think I sorta grokked some of your what-ifs a while back.. re "conservation of energy" -- and what we might suppose next, if we supended that a little bit.)

Where I find causality to interfere with proper reasoning (and esp. Reasoning) - is when we attempt to apply it to human events, all of which actually take place within the individual or collective wetware. There is no possibility of circumscribing That 'field of reference'. IMhO. Maybe above is a prime example: "the 'cause' of criminal mentation" / or criminally inhuman mentation? say. A most unsatisfying pursuit.



Ashton