Stuart’s Thoughts 2/17/2018

Violence in America - A Personal Opinion

The latest school shooting tragedy in Parkland, Florida has again spawned a flood of opinions regarding possible actions that might prevent more of these senseless and horrible events.  The first “snap” reaction that is usually heard is that we need serious gun control.  Others, digging a bit more deeply, talk about more effective identification and control of the mentally disturbed.  We hear of the need for nurturing a more compassionate culture where the value and dignity of human life is more respected and valued.  There are also concepts of greater security and limitations on the freedom of movement, the coming and going, the entering of public facilities, including schools, and the general open access the public has to all of us.  What is the answer?  Is there an easy answer or even any answer at all?  Therein lies the difficulty in rationally dealing with this serious issue.

My own feeling is that there is no easy answer or single action that will adequately address or substantially resolve this problem.  What is needed is a multi-level approach that addresses all of the above possible solutions as well as some that may not even have been thought about yet.  We need to start with the basics, i.e., the ground floor and I’m hopeful that one of my upcoming OLLI courses this spring, “Why People Kill” will suggest some relevant ideas.  Why does one human being have any desire to kill another, particularly, as in many recent cases, people they don’t even know?  Personally, I have a strong belief in the “Golden Rule” and I think most other well adjusted people also tend to treat others as they would like to be treated.  I think that is the “normal” mode of human interaction and, thus, killing another person is the antithesis of that pattern.  So, why is that antithetic pattern of behavior so prevalent throughout the world and, indeed, throughout human history?  Torture of others and mass killings ought to be so repugnant to us that they should be rare distortions of human behavior, but they are not.  Why?  Why do people kill and why is this so common place in the history of the human species?  Understanding this may provide a basis for establishing effective programs for counteracting this devastating defect in human nature.

Another thing I’ve been aware of and openly critical of is the huge amount of violence that is infused into our sphere of leisure entertainment.  I did a very simple and non-scientific survey of the prevalence of violence in available movies on TV.  By reading the summaries and  viewer warnings for a fairly large number of movies, I was left with the conclusion that roughly 80% warned viewers of violence or extreme violence.  Now, I also believe that movie producers respond to consumer demand so my question is, why do we movie viewers have such an extreme desire to view violence?  I recall seeing, in my younger years, many movies in the category of musicals or musical comedies.  Movies like the Bing Crosby and Bob Hope Road movies, The Sound of Music and That’s Entertainment have all but vanished from the theater listings.  Now we get a plentiful diet of violence and the gorier the better.  Why do so many regard this as quality entertainment?  As an associated question, why do we tolerate violence and killing as a leading feature of many video games, often receiving the focus of our impressionable youth?  Is this the world we want?  Now, I know many will say that mentally well balanced individuals can separate this fantasy world from reality but maybe, there are enough potential “school shooters” out there that are able to be stimulated to create the actual tragedies we want to avoid.  At the very least, continual focus on evil and violence in our entertainment diet will tend, over time, to desensitize us to the horrors depicted.

So where do we start in tackling this difficult issue of senseless violence?  Most importantly, in my personal opinion, I think we need to begin by making appropriate changes in our culture to support and respect the sanctity of life.  We should demand from those producing movies, video games, books and other entertainment media, a focus on good rather than bad, on compassion rather than hatred and violence and on the “Golden Rule” rather than the opposite.  Let’s not support offerings that focus on evil and violence.  We need to do far more in early childhood education to foster compassion and altruism and we especially need to involve parents with this exercise so that it is followed through as much as possible in the home and neighborhood setting.  Yes, Hollywood and the producers of video games supply what is demanded by their customers.  We, therefore, need to soundly reject this and instead cultivate a demand for the good, respect for everyone, love rather than hate and compassion rather than indifference.  This revised spirit will likely need to arise naturally in the young and future generations as they are guided to the bright and promising vision of life and thus, away from the dark and depressing reality we so often see today.  It’s up to those of us in the current generation to initiate this transformation by providing the kind of positive leadership and examples which will stimulate the desire for compassion, love and the good along with simultaneous rejection of those undesirable aspects of today’s culture.

But, what about guns.  More gun control is always the knee-jerk reaction heard from many following mass-killing tragedies.  That reaction is certainly understandable.  However, opponents to more gun laws correctly point out that it is not the guns that kill people but other people.  They say that if someone is determined to kill, there are many alternatives to guns.  Not only are explosive devises relatively easy to make but even vehicles, cars and trucks, have been used by killers.  My response to all of this is to agree that the people who desire to kill are the route problem but I also contend that the Australian experience of banning military style weapons proves that the frequency of mass killings can be reduced by denying civilian access of semi-automatic fire arms and other military style weapons. Even if only one such mass shooting is avoided every ten years, those lives are worth giving up our access to those weapons.  In my view there is little justification for any of us owning those kinds of weapons, particularly compared to the potential for saving even one life. 

Finally, our law enforcement people, police, the FBI, our parents, teachers and everyone else in the community needs to be highly attuned to the potential dangers presented by unmanaged mentally ill or emotionally disturbed individuals.  Not only is it ridiculous for such people to have access to any gun or other weapon but they need to be brought under appropriate and effective supervision, control and care.