Lessons from Joe Stack and the Austin IRS Plane Attack?

"It was totally out of character…" that's what Billy Eli and other friends of Joe Stack keep saying. Nobody saw this coming except maybe Joe Stack; and he did a good job of hiding it.

The likely reaction to the attack on the Austin IRS building will be to try and learn some lessons from this incident, to try and "keep this from ever happening again." Before we spin-off on too many tangents, let's take a focused look at Joe Stack and his motivations.

Stack was a seriously disturbed human being…period. The fact that his closest friends didn't see it is not unusual, in fact it's typical. Even if you know what signs to look for, your natural tendency to see the best in those close to you would likely prevent you from believing that anyone you know could be capable of such a horrific act of violence and destruction.

Stack was also a highly intelligent person. It shouldn't be hard to believe that he could purposefully hide his deepest angst and put a cheerful face on for the public. At the same time, everything was not roses and sunshine as evidenced by his recent divorce. He attempted to murder his estranged family by burning their home to the ground. In hindsight, I am certain that Stack's ex-wife will give us a different portrait of the man than the one his friends and casual acquaintances are painting.

An intelligent, clever, deranged person is capable of incredible levels of deception. In retrospect we'll see that much of Stack's life was a deception. It's already evident from his "manifesto" that he was hiding tremendous anger, resentment and a grave sense of injustice. His writings are that of a self-absorbed paranoid; experts are calling him a narcissist.

That doesn't mean he wasn't a nice guy and it doesn't mean anyone else could have seen this coming, even or especially those closest to him.

It would be typical for those closest to the perpetrator to experience extreme feelings of guilt and self-doubt. Could anyone have prevented this tragedy? Why didn't they see the signs?

These feelings are useless and unwarranted. The family and friends who survive Stack are victims; they are not complicit in his acts. He long ago chose to act alone. In his own words he says:

"Needless to say, this rant could fill volumes with example after example if I would let it. I find the process of writing it frustrating, tedious, and probably pointless… especially given my gross inability to gracefully articulate my thoughts in light of the storm raging in my head."

Stack couldn't sort out his anguish for himself, much less express his feelings to others. His manifesto is a pointless, rambling diatribe that blames society, the government, corporations, politicians and churches for what he perceives as the injustices in his life. There is only one short, but significant example of what might be interpreted as introspection in his 3,000 word suicide note:

"Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn't so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer."

Sadly, Stack reached a point where he genuinely believed this to be true.

There is a clear and present danger in our attempt to understand Joe Stack and the reasons for his attack. Our society is understandably in the midst of a heightened state of sensitivity when it comes to acts of extreme violence. We want to know the reasons behind it; we want to face our enemy and if possible, avenge the suffering and deaths of the victims.

There is no enemy here, but there are plenty of people who will attempt to create one and others who will exploit our sensitivity to exalt Joe Stack to martyrdom. There are organized and institutional enemies out there both outside and within our borders. There is no reason to believe Stack is associated with any of them. His actions were that of a psychotic; not a rebel with a cause.

Commentators have already remarked on the "articulate" expression in Stack's "manifesto." What "manifesto?" (Read Stack's suicide rant here.) This is a suicide note. There are no rational arguments, only attempts to assign blame. Stack rails against the same society and system in which he was able to create what most rational people would describe as a very comfortable, even successful life. Let's not lose sight of the fact that despite his incessant complaints of persecution and mistreatment, this guy flew his own private aircraft into that Austin building.

The danger is that his arguments will resonate with some. He identifies institutions that many will see as common enemies and he is likely to strike a chord with those who feel disenfranchised, particularly given our current economic conditions and our lack of confidence in our political system.

Do not make Joe Stack the leader of the 2^nd American Revolution; he was a violent psychopath. Joe Stack was a nut. This is a sad and tragic story and each of us given should pay close attention to the pressure and stress we feel, particularly if you're experiencing financial hardship or other difficulties. Pay even closer attention to any feelings of resentment and rage you might have, however justified, if your current situation is due to conditions or circumstances beyond your control.

No matter how bad it gets, would you burn down your own home, attempt to kill your ex-wife and step daughter and fly your plane into a building full of innocent people? If you do feel as if doing harm to others would be some kind of answer to your problems, please reach out and get help now.

You may at this very moment be experience some or most of the frustrations that Stack so emotionally expresses in what the media is calling his manifesto. The plain truth is that if you are experiencing financial or emotional challenges, whether these challenges are of your own making or due to conditions beyond your control, the solution always starts with you. You can choose to begin the process of making a better life for yourself, or you can choose to fall into a state of despair that would make you vulnerable to some degree of the insanity expressed by Stack. You can choose to attack windmills, or you can choose to take the first small step toward creating the life and success you want.

Let's be very careful that we don't allow Joe Stack to be transformed into a martyr or a hero. If he is a symbol, he should only be a symbol of our need to accept personal responsibility for creating the solutions to whatever problems we have. Let him be a symbol that we should pay close attention to the people around us and reach out to them if we think they need our help.

Most of all let him be a symbol of the fact that sometimes people simply succumb to the terrible condition of mental illness and sometimes it isn't anybody's fault.

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to the friends and families of those killed in this brutal incident. My sympathy extends to the friends and family of Joe Stack, particularly those who will feel that in some way they should have seen this coming.

My sympathy also extends to Joe Stack himself. It is a genuine tragedy that such an intelligent and seemingly gifted human being could not find a way to reach out for help before he caused so much violence, grief and suffering for so many.

A wasted life is always a tragedy.

"All life is precious and can never be replaced." Shaolin Temple saying




Jim Bouchard is an internationally recognized speaker and author of Think Like a Black Belt and Dynamic Components of Personal Power. Visit JimBouchard.org.

Update: Victim identified...