We live in a competitive society. In this system we are always going to have winners and losers. There will always be people that are left behind in a society that is structured this way. The current notion is that if you lose not only do you deserve the suffering you get, but you are directly responsible it.
This way of thinking doesn’t take into consideration that some are born advantaged and some aren’t. It also doesn’t take into account that some have a string of bad luck that prevents them from even being in a position to compete. These ‘losers’ are supposed to accept their fate with grace and humility. All the while they are reminded of how the winners live through advertising, entertainment, and media. Our system creates losers and then strips them of all hope and dignity.
Not everyone has the ability or ambition to compete. Hence we create a subculture of despair and hopelessness. This culture is what leads to depression, drug use, and the mass violence no one seems to have an answer for. Our hyper-competitive and consumerist society is what is responsible for our violent nature. The normalization of this activity and the causes for it are as concerning as the violence itself. It seems easier to ignore issues that make one uncomfortable than to face them.
That is also why we’ve had a rise in extremism over the past decade in America. People want easy and comfortable answers to complex and nuanced questions. There are opportunists out there eager to provide easy answers and general scapegoats for your problems. It is easier to create a narrative in which your currently held beliefs are reinforced than to change your beliefs.
So we are living in a time where we have a lot of people desperate for something to hold on to. They are starving for affection, connection, and community. All of which can be hard to find. We also live in a society that fetishizes violence. Whether it be violent movies, television, video games, or most notably our use of violence and military force around the world. There are commercials advertising the American armed forces that glorify war. They show people running through the desert shooting at undefined and unseen adversaries. Join this group and go kill people you don’t know.
I’m not bashing the military, but I don’t support the glorification of violence. I also don’t support the armed forces marketing to young people with the same tactics used to sell sugary cereals to 5-year-olds. A strong military is necessary for any advanced nation in order to protect itself or in America’s case be strong enough to deter even an attempted attack. But I can still disagree with how that military is used and the amount of tax dollars it is allocated.
Point being that we live in a competitive society that has a tendency towards glorified violence. To me the combination of both of these things is what leads people to commit mass violence in America. Some on the Left point to the American gun culture as the problem. When a major mass shoot happens there is a push for gun control from the Left that is met with ire from the Right.
We aren’t getting rid of guns. I’m not a lover of guns, but at this point there are so many legal and illegal guns in the country that it’s an impossible task to outlaw and confiscate them. Guns aren’t the major cause of mass violence either – even if they are often used to perpetrate mass violence. Our fascination with guns is just a branch on the tree of glorified violence.
Some of my earliest memories are of the first war in Iraq being shown on CNN. It was the first televised war. I remember seeing in real time the bombs rain down on Iraq. I remember the tone of the coverage being very positive. I was in college when the second Iraq war began and remember seeing the same type of coverage. I even remember when Trump launched missiles at Syria in 2017. The coverage was positive with a major network anchor even calling the missiles ‘beautiful’.
We don’t think violence through. We don’t see people on the other end of those missile launches. All we seem to see is the might with which we can use violence to shape our reality. And at least in my lifetime that idolization of violence as a means to get what you want has been quite prevalent. It has normalized violence. How can we be surprised when a desperate and hopeless person resorts to violence?
When our popular culture is filled with things that tell us we aren’t good enough unless ‘fill in your own blank here’ then we are going to have people that drop out. When we have hopeless people some are going to seek a perverse form of justice or retribution against a society that has thrown them away. When that society fetishizes violence and uses it to solve its problems then violence will be the way that retribution is too often carried out.
Like almost all of these little writings I don’t have any solid solutions. My default solution is to be compassionate and empathetic with yourself and the other members of your community. We’ve structured society in such a way that there will always be people that get alienated from it. I don’t image we restructure our systems and reorganize its institutions any time soon. Perhaps a bit more compassion and empathy towards our fellow man can start to quell our violent tendencies.
I appreciate your attention and hope you’ve found value in this.
Thanks for reading.
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