We're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of the Columbine massacre, and once again, we've seen a spate of awful, inexplicably random shootings. Every time these Columbine-like massacres happen, we devolve into a discussion of gun control and video games -- and in my new newspaper column this week, I suggest that oversimplicity is part of the problem.
In a media environment increasingly dominated by short soundbites, hasty blog entries and twitter feeds, the gun control/video game discussion is perfect -- it's simple, easy to understand, and provides a seemingly logical fulcrum for debate. But what I think we don't realize is that random violence is a product of many deeper and more complex factors than access to weapons and Xboxes.
It's not that gun control or video games aren't important issues to be discussed -- they are (and I fully support reinstating the assault weapons ban, just as I fully support parents regulating the games their kids play). It's that the alienation that originally causes so many of these violent episodes are most likely motivated by deeper societal forces.
I delve into what some of these forces are -- and my column certainly doesn't purport to comprise all of the forces. It's point is to merely begin asking some of the questions that we aren't used to asking -- some of the questions that an increasingly inane and oversimplified media environment seems structurally unable to ask.
If we're so worried about violence, why is so much of our economy and public budget organized around institutional violence? Why, indeed, is our government this week absolving extra-legal violence? If we're so concerned about community, how come we have allowed so much of the connective tissue of community to deterioriate?
I'm sure you have your own similar questions that go far deeper than the gun control/video game conversation. And I hope you use the comments section to let us know those questions.
The column relies on grassroots support - and because of that support, it is getting wider and wider circulation (a big thank you to all who have helped with that). So if you'd like to see my column regularly in your local paper, use this directory to find the contact info for your local editorial page editors. Get get in touch with them and point them to my Creators Syndicate site. Thanks, as always, for your ongoing readership and help contacting local editors. This column couldn't be what it is without your help.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Wilson_(basketball)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sandifer
http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/17/us/gang-gunfire-may-chase-chicago-children-from-their-school.html?pagewanted=all
Whatever though, I am just playing victim when I illuminate these things.
But for Klebold and Harris to exist, we must ask why such people and many more in our society fail to develop Empathy. Empathy is at the apex of the developmental pyramid and it is the last feeling that the child manifests---if he does at all---in the developmental process. It is the highest achievement of human development; so when Rush Limbaugh mocks Michael Fox's Parkinson's disease, it is fair to say that Rush is not too highly developed, despite his grandiose self-claims.
You are right in that the causes of mass murder go far deeper than the idea of guns or video games. I think it is the alienation of individuals from society and their fellows which is the cause. The conservatives have it part right when they say it is the lack of values. Patriotism did give people a sense of belonging to something greater than themselves. The Pledge of Allegiance was written by a socialist who wanted to promote a feeling of kinship and responsibility for ones fellow citizens, as opposed to the dog eat dog ideology of the time. We have had decades of this rampant capitalist get ahead, and screw everybody else philosophy. If people such as the Columbine murderers had no feeling for their fellow students and human beings, they were simply a reflection of their culture.
The solution is to restore the idea that we are ALL in this together and we depend on each other.
got off the bus at my house and beat me to the ground while another student watched. Me 110 Lbs. , he aproxx 190 lbs. That day I would have killed him with no regrets, but I was told the weapon would blow up. The next day another wanna be bully tried to start something with me, but a rather quiet football player with a reputation for not losing any fights intervened and asked if the bully would like to take him on!! This event was suddenly over. I do not know the solution to this but I do know the cause.
I am sixty-two now and have never hurt anyone.
Murder in the Heartland, let the games begin
Murder in the Heartland, it's happened here before
Murder in the Heartland, is knocking at your door
Murder in the Heartland, it dresses like a clown
Murder in the Heartland, is coming to your town
Murder in the Heartland, it's work is never done
Murder in the Heartland, from Hollywood to Washington
Murder in the Heartland, we'll blast it into space
That's why Murder in the Heartland, loves the human race.."
From Murder in the Heartland by TJ Cole
Copyrighted use by permission..
TJ..
Also, when it comes to schools, the teachers are afraid of the principal; the principal is afraid of the superintendent; the superintendent is afraid of the board of education; and the board of education is afraid of the parents. Problem is, the kids aren't afraid of anything! Kids are smart enough to know that if a teacher or staff member looks as if he/she is even THINKING of punishing them, they can scream "lawsuit." Again, if there's no consequences for their actions, and if the rules are not fairly and consistenly enforced across the board, kids can and will get away with a lot that we never did at their age.
in real life, if you fell through that skylight, you'd be heading for the hospital, not frolicking after some bad guy---IT'S A MOVIE--IT'S PRETEND--that's what we need to be teaching our kids
In the old gangster movies, again, law enforcement rarely if ever killed the crime king. He was captured, tried, convicted, and was either sentenced to life in prison or the death penalty. Many times, the crime king was shown crying and cringing as he was led away to the electric chair.
Back in those days, good was good and bad was bad; there wasn't the moral relativity that we see today. Those old Westerns and gangster movies were morality plays, and the bad guys were always caught and paid the price for their crimes.
It's not just a matter of kids being kids. Bullying kills. What's sad is that these are ALL preventable deaths. There's no great mystery about how to preventing bullying in schools, particularly primary schools; all it takes is Consistency, coordination, and above commitment from school staff to doing so. We force our kids to go to school; we owe to them to make the schools they attend safe.
Some law enforcement agencies use profiling as a means to identify an aggressor. According to the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Education’s report on Targeted Violence in Schools, there is a significant difference between “profiling” and identifying and measuring emerging aggression; “The use of profiles is not effective either for identifying students who may pose a risk for targeted violence at school or – once a student has been identified – for assessing the risk that a particular student may pose for school-based targeted violence.” It continues; “An inquiry should focus instead on a student’s behaviors and communications to determine if the student appears to be planning or preparing for an attack.” We can and must assess objective, culturally neutral, identifiable criteria of emerging aggression.
For a comprehensive look at the problem and its solution, http://www.aggressionmanagement.com/White_Paper_K-12/
When I was in public school, we had counselors and nurses who were a part of the staff. They would notice if you had a black eye after PE, would hear from your teacher if you couldn't seem to concentrate in class. budget cuts took those people away from students. It's hard enough being a teen, but it's hell when you believe that you have no one to confide in when you're troubled
Who do students turn to nowadays to discuss their school and social problems with? A chat room?
Just about everything that has been pushed in the media regarding Columbine has since been refuted.... These kids were not bullied, they weren't inappropriately fixated on video games, they didn't intend to kill themselves originally, they weren't "trench coat mafia" members... They were more interested in terrorism then they were in suicide....
The idea that videogames promote violence is a generality that has nothing to do with the thousands and thousands of people who play games with violent themes to detriment to society. The connection, even clinically, is unproved....
It's become just one big killing ground...and this President and our Attorney General still want assault weapons with 30 round clips legal so we can be just like Iraq and Afghanistan...maybe even Somalia some day...!
Ain't Change Great...?