In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado
shooting news pundits and blogs are postulating causes, conditions and
incidents that may have led to this senseless mass killing.
The normal lunatic fringe is
adding their conspiracy theories to the mix; but few, except their ilk, are
paying attention to them.
There is no one reason that
we can attribute to this particular attack or other similar unprovoked attacks
on the general population. The causes
are unfathomable but many conditions exist that act as a catalyst.
There have always been people
that live on the edge of sanity, and the propensity for violence has always
been there. Conditions that can trigger
these antisocial meltdown include depression, paranoia, extreme stress, sexual
deviance, religious mania, schizophrenia, low IQ, a need for acceptance
(cults,) – and the list continues.
I have lived for seventy-plus
years (and been conscious for most of that time.) Looking back, I perceive a societal trend
that seems to lend itself to the mix.
These kinds of atrocities
were not common fifty years ago. Of
course, the U.S.
population has almost doubled since 1960; so the numbers of people capable of
these actions have increased proportionally.
The main trend I see is that
over the last fifty years we have moved into an era of social isolation. People with problems use to interact with
society in order to function in their daily life. To communicate you had to speak to friends,
family and other people. You had to constantly
interact on a personal basis.
During the fifties and early
sixties there were ‘action’ movies and TV shows, but the violence was
regulated. Interaction with people on a
daily basis kept you grounded so that fantasy worlds were recognized as
fantasy.
Today’s population is
inundated with images of extreme graphic violence and as a results we have
become somewhat deadened in our emotion toward actual killings. Many young men after work or school
immediately plug into video games. Research
has shown that boys by the age of 21 have spent 10,000 hours playing video
games. All of these games are violent,
and participants vicariously kill or be-killed.
These games roll play carnage; and for some obsessed young people the
line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred.
During the fifties and
sixties there were a few mass killings (suicides,) but they were the results of
religious cults. Individual acts of
mass violence were rare; and when these occurred the general population felt a
personal revulsion.
We have been desensitized. It seems that among the general population,
the killings at Columbine High School and in the theater at Aurora have taken on the quality of a reality
show. We have become a voyeur nation.
The feeling of personal loss and compassion would have been much more genuine
fifty years ago.
We live in a world of social
media resulting in social isolation. Young
people’s brains are becoming digitally rewired. Where we once spent hours
interacting directly with people we now spend hours on the computer. Talking to people, even on a cell phone, is
rare – now we text or tweet. I have
seen young people at the local college sitting at a table together texting
rather than talking.
There are catalysts to these senseless
killings. The availability of guns,
fantasy role-play, violence in media, the opportunity for instant fame and
recognition via the twenty-four hour news networks all have their place in the
execution of acts of carnage by unhinged individuals; but they are not in
themselves the cause.
In closing, it is my belief
that society is following technology, and as a result the individual is
becoming more isolated. Because of this
social isolation society has moved to a point of apathy toward others. We are seeing in these killings a Darwinian
adjustment of society and a rewiring of the individual’s brain to function in
the new techno-environment. The result
of this new environment is an acceptance that this type of violence is the
norm, and though regrettable will continue.
Or as Yellow Dog Granny might
say: we’re all fucked.
the Ol’Buzzard
