Is There Any Wonder Some People Snap Like in Binghamton and at Columbine?

[laststeamtrain]

Is There Any Wonder Some People Snap Like in Binghamton and at Columbine?
By David Sirota, Creators Syndicate
Posted on April 20, 2009, Printed on April 20, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/137386/

As Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's posthumous infamy turns 10 on April 20, I wish I were surprised that Columbine-like shootings are still happening, or even that our national discussion about violence hasn't yet matured past gun control and video games.

<snip>

These queries satiate two desires. In a country that ascribes hubristic "exceptionalism" to itself and berates self-analysis as "hating America," we seek absolution via scapegoat, and so we upbraid bogeymen like firearms and Xboxes. Similarly, in a democracy increasingly conducting its politics through red-blue filters and 140-character Twitter updates, we crave Occam's razors -- and none are sharper than oversimplified arguments about gun control and video games.

<snip>

For example, isn't violence a predictable byproduct of our economy? When torture victims are waterboarded, they freak out. When a winner-take-all economy tortures society, should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge?

For three decades, we converted our economy into one that enriches the rich and stresses out everyone else. Paychecks dwindled, debts accumulated, health-care bills spiked. We now spend more hours working or seeking work, and fewer hours on parenting, family time and rest -- all while schools and mental-health services deteriorate.

<snip>


Today, one in every three dollars the government spends goes to defense and security. The killing machine and adventurism that money manufactures has delivered 1 million Iraqi casualties, thousands of American casualties and an implicit promise of future wars -- indeed, of permanent war.

Perpetuating this expenditure, bloodshed and posture in a nation of dwindling resources, humanitarian self-images and anti-interventionist impulses requires a culture constantly selling violence as a necessity. It's not just video games -- it's the nightly news echoing Pentagon propaganda and "hawkish" politicians equating militarism with patriotism and "embedded" journalism cheering on wars and every other suit-and-tie-clad industry constantly forwarding the assumption that killing is a legitimate form of national ambition and self-expression. Is it any wonder that a few crazies apply that ethos to their individual lives, and begin seeing violence as a reasonable means to express their own emotions?

<more>

http://www.alternet.org/story/137386/is_there_any_wonder_some_people_snap_like_in_binghamton_and_at_columbine_/

[get the red out]

1. Not to mention the student on student abuse in the schools

Where the socially accepted kids have for generations been permitted to make the lives of those they deem "unacceptable" a living hell.

[Buzz Clik]

4. The logical outcome of perceived bullying in killing as many people as you can?

That's the surprising aspect.

[get the red out]

5. I did not say that

The fact that a very small number of kids who, with other negative factors in their lives, snap and commit heinous crimes under this kind of mental duress in no way excuses it, and I can't understand how you got that from what I wrote. We have to look at all factors involved and not just excuse cruelty in schools by making assumptions that anyone that brings up bullying as a factor is excusing murder. That's just a knee jerk way to shut people down who dare to bring it up. Didn't work. What is the next excuse to allow kids to torment each other like monsters without giving them guidance in being human beings in school? A certain number of kids will use the availability of guns to get their perceived revenge before they kill themselves. Do we really need one more factor contributing to violence?

[zeemike]

2. "Because inequities abound, the love of many will wax cold"

That was a prediction by Jesus about the future. And I think it sums it up nicely.

[Buzz Clik]

3. " I am SO not surprised that I am going to write on and on and on about it."

:eyes:

[laststeamtrain]

7. What? You have something against Sirota?

Or just people who get paid to write?

Is 'Buzz Clik' a cartoon character?

Where you one of the St. Timmy of MTP worshipers?

I think so.

It's all of a piece.

Icky.

[stray cat]

6. People who do terrible things don't always snap - they often plan for infamy

People snapping is sometimes a convenient excuse because we don't admit people choose to make violent moral choices. Evidence is that sometimes the ones doing the bullying also are the ones who do the killing. True for Jonesboro and columbine.

[caraher]

8. They "snapped" when such plans began to seem attractive

You're right that these tend not to be fully spontaneous. But I think anyone who seriously contemplates creating such tragedies is clearly "broken" in some way, and the rate at which that happens surely depends somewhat on the conditions in which people live.