Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Gun Violence in America


The 74th school shooting incident since Sandy Hook happened yesterday. When schools are in session, shooting incidents happen 1.37 times per week! Of course, this is only a small but highly visible part of gun violence in America.

The annual toll of deadly gun violence in most European and other developed countries is near 100. America distinguishes itself with a total over 10,000 gun-related deaths per year! Are we proud of this?

It is not surprising that our government does nothing to stop this because by and large our government has become completely ineffective in doing anything for the common good. So called law makers have mostly been bought off by the NRA in combination with manufacturers of guns and ammunition. 

But I really am skeptical that guns are the problem anyway. Obviously, mental health is a big problem too --- yet another problem that we seem incapable of dealing with. But I believe a far greater problem exists and that is the character of the American "melting pot" itself. Frankly speaking, the "melting pot" was a foolish experiment, one that virtually guaranteed cultural disaster. Americans gathered under the banner of "free for the taking" throughout the frontier era. Gradually, this moved into the era of hard core Capitalism, upward mobility, and profit at any price. The central element of American culture is greed --- our one distinguishing value. But something has changed in a couple generations. Most of my older friends will tell you that they worked their way up from small jobs by hard work and eventually "made good." And they did that. But young people don't do that anymore, at least not with the reliability that was possible generations ago. I think people are frustrated today, and picking up a gun and shooting someone has a real cathartic feeling.

Don't get me wrong. There are lots of great people out there who do fine things for one another. But they are not the majority and they have little cultural influence over the majority.