Orgy of Monday morning "mourning"...sadly and sickeningly predictable,

[Surya Gayatri]

an assault of feigned sorrow and fake concern--all wrapped up in convenient 7-minute, commercial-friendly segments. Such is the Monday morning corporate NOOZ coverage of only the latest US gun outrage--ever more egregious than the one before.

One obvious conclusion is that a lot of Americans must really get off on this collective mea culpa shit, at least to judge from the fawning "interviews" of victims, survivors and eye-witnesses.

Otherwise, why would the same sorry scenario be allowed to repeat itself--year after awful year, time after terrible time? Every attack more murderous than the last.

Looking on from abroad, one comes away with an obscene but inescapable impression. Some secret frisson, some "scary-movie" thrill keeps the American public on-board with this crap. Gun porn, indeed...

[Democracyinkind]

1. The disconnent is hard to convey to Americans who never lived outside of the states...

I've come to the point where I don't even know what to say. Living in Europe, not having to deal with such tragedies on a monthly/yearly basis has really opened my eyes to the fact that something is fundamentally wrong either with our culture or our people. Not that Europe is some kind of paradise - alot of the problems that I've seen in the US are also prevalent here. But there's something about living in a society that doesn't has to deal with such shit on a regular basis that makes you critically examine the culture "left behind".

[Surya Gayatri]

4. Thanks for adding the last relevant paragraph to my post, DiK...

Couldn't agree more. You never see something so well as when you leave it behind and look back.

There's something profoundly unhealthy about the America of today compared to the country I left years ago.

By the way, I see you're in Switzerland. So, hey there, neighbor! I'm in France.

[Democracyinkind]

8. you wrote:

"There's something profoundly unhealthy about the America of today compared to the country I left years ago."

That's where I'm at an explanatory loss:

Was the country I left truly different? Or has the widening of perspective (achieved by living outside) simply opened my eyes to something that was there all the time?

This question keeps me up at night. At least some nights.

Hy back there at you, neighbor! I even get to speak some french where I live now, something I love about living exactly on the language barrier of Switzerland (Language barrier - another word I simply had no use for in the United States... Is it even called that?)

[Surya Gayatri]

10. Excellente question, mon chèr voisin...est-ce simplement

un changement de perspective de notre part ou une évolution pour le pire dans notre pays d'origine ?

Hard to say, but since the election of Raygun, I've observed a perceptible coarsening of American attitudes towards material wealth.

Literally anything goes and screw you, as long as I've got mine. I see it in my own family.

[Fumesucker]

2. If we aren't going to do anything to change the situation, and we aren't..

Then the least we can do is put on a proper show of public grief, much like the North Koreans when Kim whatever died..

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Excellent analogy, Fume. The obscene outpouring

of manufactured grief and public self-flagellation is nauseating.

[EnviroBat]

13. I couldn't agree more.

We celebrate mediocrity in this country, and we sensationalize tragedy simply so that our corporate "News Media" has an endless supply of fodder for the slack jawed masses here. One in-escapable thought I couldn't shake this entire past weekend was the number of children and entire families that are annihilated almost daily in the middle east, and we give such events as much thought as a cloudy day.

[Surya Gayatri]

15. Great and pertinent commentary, EnviroBat...

Why can't the media-consuming masses see how callously they're being manipulated?

If only they could get a "meta" vision of the whole thing--something like we ex-patriots do.

[EnviroBat]

25. My wife and I have been considering joining the ranks of the ex-pats.

It's just a matter of where, and some career training to increase my marketability. My wife is finishing her masters degree right now, and we are awaiting the outcome of this coming November, and hoping this country hasn't completely gone over the cliff.

[Cestode]

3. 91 people were killed in Iraq recently

Does anyone know that this happened?
The Colorado shooting is all over the news, it's everywhere, it's all I hear about.
Enough with narcissism, 9/11 was enough for me.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. Yeah, but their families and friends aren't media-friendly...

they can't be stuck in front of the cameras and interviewed endlessly.

[malaise]

7. Any candles or teddybears in those commercials?

It's actually a business - and don't forget the preachers...it's gawd's will - never forget that.

[Surya Gayatri]

9. Oh, there's a huge pile of them building up

at the obligatory "improvised" shrine outside the venue, and there'll certainly be a lot more once the funerals get started.

Wow, what a business model...flog the weapons to create the chaos and then sell all of that kitschy shit to comfort the victims.

[malaise]

16. Don't forget the black ribbons

with the name of the city or town. And never forget network and cable ratings.

[Surya Gayatri]

18. As the latest outrage just begins to break on the screen crawl,

the media bigshots call their ad sales staff, yelling: "Sell, sell, sell--it's jackpot time!"

[turtlerescue1]

11. So what does America do with its shock and outrage?

[Surya Gayatri]

12. Get mad, go to the streets, strike, boycott,

do whatever it takes until this insanity becomes so expensive, both politically and economically, that the PTB finally get serious about stopping it.

[99Forever]

20. But will enough do it?

Nope. The gun lobby is said to be one of the richest and most powerful there is. One more in the line of corporate machines that has bought and corrupted our "government" to the point that mass protests in the streets just feed the weapons machine by equipping the jack-booted thugs with badges, through public funds to beat down We the People, should we dare complain. The circle is complete.

[Surya Gayatri]

24. For sure, 99Forever, the situation looks pretty dire...

But, I wonder if you remember a movement founded by two women, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan, during the murderous violence in Northern Ireland. They were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work.

During the awards ceremony, the presenter said:
"Williams and Corrigan have shown us what ordinary people can do to promote peace. They had the courage to take the first step. They did so in the name of humanity and love of their neighbour; someone had to start forgiving. ... Love of one's neighbor is one of the foundation stones of the humanism on which our western civilization is built. It is vitally important that it should shine forth when hatred and revenge threaten to dominate. Theirs was a courageous unselfish act that proved an inspiration to thousands, that lit a light in the darkness..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mairead_Maguire

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Williams_%28Nobel_laureate%29

Where are America's women on this issue? Why aren't they organizing and demonstrating their disgust out there in the streets. After all, it's their families and friends that are being massacred by male maniacs.

[EnviroBat]

14. We do nothing with it.

We sit closed up in our houses in front of a giant, flat-screen T.V. stuffing our faces with what ever garbage they are advertising during the dinner hours of the day. We don't talk to each other, but hide behind our anonymity in inane Facebook postings where we feign our "concern" over the tragedy of the week. And we pretend we are exceptional...

[Surya Gayatri]

17. Wow, EnviroBat, this post is so full of wisdom

that it deserves to be posted as an OP. Why don't you do that?

The wider debate needs to be had...

[turtlerescue1]

19. So how do we take the passion and emotion out of discussions?

How do we relieve the rants and anger, how do we communicate "effectively" with the shock we all get slapped with? Sometimes ya gotta wonder if the "shooters" aren't looking for the amount of disruption their "act" can produce-so how do we reduce or eliminate that?

How do we take away the "benefits" of these behaviors and decisions?

You are right though, we have no way to impact the choices of others. MAYBE if we actually attempt to start teaching about "Values", not mandating them, but challenging students to define them instead of defending them. We're not a stupid nation of people, we have potentials and abilities, we have insights and consciences -how do we stop the insanity?

[Surya Gayatri]

22. I think, turtlerescue, to remove the passion you have

to remove the secondary benefit.

As the saying goes: "Follow the money...". Who's really profiting from this insanity? Media outlets? Gun manufacturers? Political demagogues?

Limit the use of name and and the creating of instant fame, curtail media coverage, prevent political figures from exploiting fear and profiting from panic.

Those may be some places to start...

[SoCalDem]

21. Yoo-Essssay..Yoo-Esssay.. We're Number 1

We do "post-trauma, televised public grief" better than anyone in the world..

They even dragged the 12 (Columbine) crosses out of storage & dusted them off to add to the display (were there any Jewish victims who might not appreciate the cross?)

The old adage "If it bleeds, it leads" seems as apropos as ever..and now we have the adjunct ribbon-makers, balloon, candle, stuffed toy purveyors as well, for the post-game trauma tributes.


Soon this too will fade into the "oh-well" column, and media will find its next-new-shiny..

[Surya Gayatri]

23. +1,000 ! American exceptionalism reigns!

"We do "post-trauma, televised public grief" better than anyone in the world..."

You said a mouthful there, SoCalDem!

When I saw those god-awful recycled crosses, I didn't know whether to howl in laughter or yowl in outrage.

Expect the tee-shirts shortly:
I SURVIVED THE AURORA MASSACRE AND WHAT DID I GET FOR IT? ONLY A PAID TRIP TO THE "TODAY" SHOW!

[snot]

26. To me it seems like rubber-necking.

And, I have to wonder if the extreme emotion expressed by remote onlookers in the US isn't partly a displacement. Maybe along the lines of, "it could have happened to us; it should have happened to us, because through our failure to stop our military-industrial machine, we're making it happen to people in other countries all the time . . . . "

And for all the reams of related posts that DU'er's have cranked out since the event, it's remarkable how little actually constructive discussion has taken place. Like, assuming we're not going to ban guns altogether, what are the particular changes to our gun laws and reg. system that would actually have made a significant difference in the real-life, particular incidents we've seen?

Or is this really a health-care issue? I.e., the killers are, to my mind, utterly insane and clearly have not gotten the help they needed. And perhaps their parents, ditto. Could mental health services have helped? Are there mothers of killers who might have been helped by family planning services or other health services?

Incidents like these arise from a combination of many factors; calm exploration of possible causes is helpful, before insisting on particular solutions.