- Joined
- Jan 7, 2013
- Messages
- 8,751
- Reaction score
- 5,359
- Gender
- Undisclosed
- Political Leaning
- Independent
The one thing I'll agree on is that the solutions are all going to be garbage. The reason I think this is that the root of the problem is actually very deep and insidious in our culture. It comes part and parcel with obsessive consumer capitalism and materialism; unattainable "American dreams" built upon predatory economic practices; and standards that are impossible to live up to. We are loaded with distractions and dangling carrots yet we are expected to suppress our essential selves in pursuit of we know not what. It's a culture that is excessively lavish yet self-repressed at the same time. Then you have a government (Federal and State) that turned their back on the mentally ill from the 90's onwards by closing all the advanced care facilities in favor of chemical straitjackets.
Yes, arming teachers, school security and even select students may be the only way, because we sure as hell are not going to overcome our collective denial about the rot that is at the heart of our culture. It's not liberals or conservatives either, it's the society as a whole. I'm not saying this to tear down America either; our ability is potentially awesome, but right now our reach exceeds our grasp. Other countries have toxic masculinity and social problems - they even have gun ownership - but people do not solve their problems with gun violence as much as we do. Why is that? I agree 100% that we should figure out why before we start arming more people. Yet we can't do the necessary government level research because the gun lobby feels too threatened.
We can't even have these conversations properly in most public forums because the polarized culture crisis prevents people from doing anything but superficially examining the problem. I admit that even I have succumbed to emotional reactions at times -- it just kills me to see children dying. However, we won't be able to have an honest discussion unless we can look inside ourselves and ask what it is we're really doing as country. What is our individual and collective purpose? What is the meaning of our life and what are we here to do? Is it just to tear each other down and climb over each other in pursuit of the top, or something else?
We have lost our way.
Yes, arming teachers, school security and even select students may be the only way, because we sure as hell are not going to overcome our collective denial about the rot that is at the heart of our culture. It's not liberals or conservatives either, it's the society as a whole. I'm not saying this to tear down America either; our ability is potentially awesome, but right now our reach exceeds our grasp. Other countries have toxic masculinity and social problems - they even have gun ownership - but people do not solve their problems with gun violence as much as we do. Why is that? I agree 100% that we should figure out why before we start arming more people. Yet we can't do the necessary government level research because the gun lobby feels too threatened.
We can't even have these conversations properly in most public forums because the polarized culture crisis prevents people from doing anything but superficially examining the problem. I admit that even I have succumbed to emotional reactions at times -- it just kills me to see children dying. However, we won't be able to have an honest discussion unless we can look inside ourselves and ask what it is we're really doing as country. What is our individual and collective purpose? What is the meaning of our life and what are we here to do? Is it just to tear each other down and climb over each other in pursuit of the top, or something else?
We have lost our way.