The recent tragedy in Newton, Connecticut has already sparked a number of idiotic attempts to prove human beings have more control over reality than they ever possibly can, will, or should. From Mike Huckabee's Old Testament style fear mongering to the as yet unconfirmed "Morgan Freeman" quote, the United States, at the very least, is buzzing out every media orifice with statements about how we can control our world; That if we allowed more god into our lives we'd be protected from this kind of depravity or if we didn't let the news media seemingly glamorize these killings, it wouldn't happen. Such statements aren't really practical solutions. They ignore the fundamental reality at hand: human beings do not control the universe. We only like to think we do.
Let's dissect two of the most common assertions currently being made.
The first is that media attention glamorizes this type of violence while simultaneously numbing society to it increasing the likelihood it'll happen again. Criminologist Grant Duwe, who works with the Minnesota Department of Corrections, has documented the history of mass killings in America. According to him, while "mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929." His data shows there were "32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s, and 26 in the first decade of the century." Furthermore, not to detract from this grotesquery in Connecticut, but the worst school massacre in US history occurred in 1927 when Andrew Kehoe set off three bombs killing 45 people and wounding 58 others.
Here's another thing to consider. Do you know what happened in San Ysidro, California on July 18th 1984? Probably not, although 22 people died. What about Dunblane, Scotland back in 1996? 17 people murdered. Here's an easier one: what happened in an Edmond, Oklahoma post office in 1986?
I'm not trying to be glib. These are three instances some have probably never heard of yet a total of 54 people died. Now, there's no connection between them save for the fact they're all instances of mass shootings; and every instance involves a lone gunman who was mentally unstable. What drives people to the point their illness mutates them into monsters is open to so endless a range of possibilities no one can ever really know. For some Catcher in the Rye provoked Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon; The music of KMFDM and Marilyn Manson was believed to be a prime motivator in the Columbine shootings; but blaming any of these things is simply an attempt at censorship. For the good of all, someone proclaims, If we only got rid of this in time none of these tragedies would have occurred. Yes, of course! The penny dreadful Sweeney Todd most likely whipped up Jack the Ripper; and before climbing that tower at the University of Texas, Charles Whitman must have come across a lurid account of Walter Seifert who killed 11 people with a homemade flamethrower in 1964.
This isn't to say the media handles these situations particularly well. There's something decidedly loathsome about seeing a camera shoved into the face of a third grader who is then asked, "What did you do when shots rang out?" But the idea we can prevent another such instance -- all we have to do is present things in the right way. Which is? Doesn't simply putting it on television glamorize events to some degree? And if there's even the remotest possibility we'll limit if not outright prevent similar killings shouldn't we catalogue every form of media and entertainment in this particular shooter's life then censor the content most likely to have caused his madness? In short, should we censor/ban/restrict everything that could possibly contribute to a mass killing?
Ultimately, blaming the media is another way of saying we could have prevented this if only... a hindsight insinuation of our control over reality.
Which brings us to god.
When Neil Cavuto asked Mike Huckabee why God would allow something like Newtown, Mike Huckabee said, "We've systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools have become a place for carnage because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability?"
Read that statement very carefully.
Without knowing anything about the shooter, Mike Huckabee automatically presumed godlessness made it possible for Adam Lanza to kill. Huckabee then went on to assure people God had nothing to do with the killings -- He, the omnipotent almighty, wasn't there for that part of the tragedy -- the Lord, however, is now with those who need love and comfort during this horror. What's particularly troubling about this is Mr. Huckabee's assertion he knows what God thinks and how He acts; that although the all loving Lord, God, Father of all creation would permit these children to be gunned down, it's okay because:
1. Those children are now in heaven.
2. God is sending people to provide love and support to the families in need.
3. Adam Lanza will burn in Hell for what he did.
Some might say I'm reading into Mr. Huckabee's statement, however, I put forward these inferences come from his closing declaration, "Maybe we ought to let {God} in on the front end, and we wouldn't have to call Him in when it's all said and done." An interesting conclusion to his view since it puts forth the concept God will answer your prayers provided they're timely and in advance of your nightmares. Again, there is the idea of control: faith in god affects reality itself.
That said, this is a terrifying vision of god that encompasses the full paradoxical view most religious groups, particularly Judeo-Christian, possess. In it, god is a being who is all loving and viciously wrathful in the same instance. Not to be jokey, but this implies god's tagline is, "I love you unconditionally, so don't fuck with me or I'll kill your children." Furthermore, this statement asserts no human being can comprehend ethics or morality without a religious base to such concepts -- only the faithful are capable of being good. Oddly enough, it then goes on to suggest that without the prospect of eternal consequences, typically some kind of forever-torture, no human being is capable of doing anything decent; it is necessary to instill fear in order to ensure people act properly. And what's worst is the most vile proposition the dead are better off.
I understand the comfort of faith. In this instance, it would be nice to believe the dead are merely separated from the living, one day to be reunited, and I would not want to take that comfort from any of the grieving parents. There is a sense of safety one can have believing a god is watching over you and a solace in thinking that even the darkest times are meant for your best. But at the end of the day, this is all about feeling in control of your reality. The idea you can pray to something which will answer you, changing things for the better.
Everyone in this country has an opinion on why this shooting happened. Many can be lumped together like the two sides in gun control. But they're all really arguing the same point. How can I control the world around me? Because most people want to make the world a better place. Humanity doesn't always agree on what that means, but it tends to be the intention. However, events like Newtown painfully remind us how little control we really have over things. What little actual influence we have, well, hug someone you love. Because there's no telling what happens next, but at least you'll know you did that.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
Statement attributed but as yet not confirmed to be from Morgan Freeman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-steven-sieden/morgan-freeman-article-pr_b_2309869.html
Mike Huckabee
http://now.msn.com/huckabee-blames-school-shooting-on-no-god-in-classroom?ocid=ansnow11
School shootings
http://listverse.com/2008/01/01/top-10-worst-school-massacres/
Bath school Massacre
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103186662
Charles Whitman, University of Texas massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_massacre
Dunblane, Scotland school shooting -- lone gunman kills 16 children & their teacher.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm
San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre -- 21 dead.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/years-later-san-ysidro-mcdonald-s-massacre-remembered/article_2ba4343e-7009-54ce-98df-79a23ff8d0d7.html
Mother Jones mass shooting map
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map
Let's dissect two of the most common assertions currently being made.
The first is that media attention glamorizes this type of violence while simultaneously numbing society to it increasing the likelihood it'll happen again. Criminologist Grant Duwe, who works with the Minnesota Department of Corrections, has documented the history of mass killings in America. According to him, while "mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929." His data shows there were "32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s, and 26 in the first decade of the century." Furthermore, not to detract from this grotesquery in Connecticut, but the worst school massacre in US history occurred in 1927 when Andrew Kehoe set off three bombs killing 45 people and wounding 58 others.
Here's another thing to consider. Do you know what happened in San Ysidro, California on July 18th 1984? Probably not, although 22 people died. What about Dunblane, Scotland back in 1996? 17 people murdered. Here's an easier one: what happened in an Edmond, Oklahoma post office in 1986?
I'm not trying to be glib. These are three instances some have probably never heard of yet a total of 54 people died. Now, there's no connection between them save for the fact they're all instances of mass shootings; and every instance involves a lone gunman who was mentally unstable. What drives people to the point their illness mutates them into monsters is open to so endless a range of possibilities no one can ever really know. For some Catcher in the Rye provoked Mark David Chapman to kill John Lennon; The music of KMFDM and Marilyn Manson was believed to be a prime motivator in the Columbine shootings; but blaming any of these things is simply an attempt at censorship. For the good of all, someone proclaims, If we only got rid of this in time none of these tragedies would have occurred. Yes, of course! The penny dreadful Sweeney Todd most likely whipped up Jack the Ripper; and before climbing that tower at the University of Texas, Charles Whitman must have come across a lurid account of Walter Seifert who killed 11 people with a homemade flamethrower in 1964.
This isn't to say the media handles these situations particularly well. There's something decidedly loathsome about seeing a camera shoved into the face of a third grader who is then asked, "What did you do when shots rang out?" But the idea we can prevent another such instance -- all we have to do is present things in the right way. Which is? Doesn't simply putting it on television glamorize events to some degree? And if there's even the remotest possibility we'll limit if not outright prevent similar killings shouldn't we catalogue every form of media and entertainment in this particular shooter's life then censor the content most likely to have caused his madness? In short, should we censor/ban/restrict everything that could possibly contribute to a mass killing?
Ultimately, blaming the media is another way of saying we could have prevented this if only... a hindsight insinuation of our control over reality.
Which brings us to god.
When Neil Cavuto asked Mike Huckabee why God would allow something like Newtown, Mike Huckabee said, "We've systematically removed God from our schools. Should we be so surprised that schools have become a place for carnage because we've made it a place where we don't want to talk about eternity, life, responsibility, accountability?"
Read that statement very carefully.
Without knowing anything about the shooter, Mike Huckabee automatically presumed godlessness made it possible for Adam Lanza to kill. Huckabee then went on to assure people God had nothing to do with the killings -- He, the omnipotent almighty, wasn't there for that part of the tragedy -- the Lord, however, is now with those who need love and comfort during this horror. What's particularly troubling about this is Mr. Huckabee's assertion he knows what God thinks and how He acts; that although the all loving Lord, God, Father of all creation would permit these children to be gunned down, it's okay because:
1. Those children are now in heaven.
2. God is sending people to provide love and support to the families in need.
3. Adam Lanza will burn in Hell for what he did.
Some might say I'm reading into Mr. Huckabee's statement, however, I put forward these inferences come from his closing declaration, "Maybe we ought to let {God} in on the front end, and we wouldn't have to call Him in when it's all said and done." An interesting conclusion to his view since it puts forth the concept God will answer your prayers provided they're timely and in advance of your nightmares. Again, there is the idea of control: faith in god affects reality itself.
That said, this is a terrifying vision of god that encompasses the full paradoxical view most religious groups, particularly Judeo-Christian, possess. In it, god is a being who is all loving and viciously wrathful in the same instance. Not to be jokey, but this implies god's tagline is, "I love you unconditionally, so don't fuck with me or I'll kill your children." Furthermore, this statement asserts no human being can comprehend ethics or morality without a religious base to such concepts -- only the faithful are capable of being good. Oddly enough, it then goes on to suggest that without the prospect of eternal consequences, typically some kind of forever-torture, no human being is capable of doing anything decent; it is necessary to instill fear in order to ensure people act properly. And what's worst is the most vile proposition the dead are better off.
I understand the comfort of faith. In this instance, it would be nice to believe the dead are merely separated from the living, one day to be reunited, and I would not want to take that comfort from any of the grieving parents. There is a sense of safety one can have believing a god is watching over you and a solace in thinking that even the darkest times are meant for your best. But at the end of the day, this is all about feeling in control of your reality. The idea you can pray to something which will answer you, changing things for the better.
Everyone in this country has an opinion on why this shooting happened. Many can be lumped together like the two sides in gun control. But they're all really arguing the same point. How can I control the world around me? Because most people want to make the world a better place. Humanity doesn't always agree on what that means, but it tends to be the intention. However, events like Newtown painfully remind us how little control we really have over things. What little actual influence we have, well, hug someone you love. Because there's no telling what happens next, but at least you'll know you did that.
SOURCE MATERIAL:
Statement attributed but as yet not confirmed to be from Morgan Freeman
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/l-steven-sieden/morgan-freeman-article-pr_b_2309869.html
Mike Huckabee
http://now.msn.com/huckabee-blames-school-shooting-on-no-god-in-classroom?ocid=ansnow11
School shootings
http://listverse.com/2008/01/01/top-10-worst-school-massacres/
Bath school Massacre
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103186662
Charles Whitman, University of Texas massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_massacre
Dunblane, Scotland school shooting -- lone gunman kills 16 children & their teacher.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/13/newsid_2543000/2543277.stm
San Ysidro McDonald's Massacre -- 21 dead.
http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/years-later-san-ysidro-mcdonald-s-massacre-remembered/article_2ba4343e-7009-54ce-98df-79a23ff8d0d7.html
Mother Jones mass shooting map
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map
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