Sunday Ramble: Just Another Weekend of Mass Shootings and Online Trolls...
"Oh my God! Did you hear the news about the mass shooting?"
I look at that statement and...
(pauses to think)
... realize that it's a sign of "our times" that the first thought that goes through my mind isn't just horror at the fact that there has been a mass shooting, but the inclination to ask the question "WHICH mass shooting?"
Grasses in the evening sun
Something horrific and (at one time) unthinkable has happened and now I suddenly have the realization that the "unthinkable" has become commonplace enough that I actually need to ask for clarification...
WHICH Mass Shooting?
In case you've been living under a rock, on Saturday, August 3rd, a 21-year old male walked into a crowded WalMart in El Paso, Texas and opened fire, killing 20 and injuring another 27.
I'm not going to spend time on the "how/when" because it's all over the news and you can just Google it, if you want to know more.
What alarms me is that I live in a world where it's necessary for me to actually ASK which shooting an acquaintance I am talking to is referring to. Because there was more than one! More about that, later...
What alarms me is that a "mass shooting" seems to have moved from the realm of unthinkable horror to just a somewhat-normalized very sad news story.
I am struggling a bit with what to do with that, from an emotional and psychological perspective.
Crow, the eternal trickster... what is the lesson, here?
Sanctity of Life and the "Who Cares?" Culture
My mind is doing double duty as I contemplate the dilemma at hand.
I'm trying to rationalize to myself that we have always been violent and prone to killing each other, and we are simply more aware of these tragedies because we now live in the age of instant information where every person with a smartphone is a newscaster. When I was a kid (in the 1960's) we had to wait till the evening TV news or tomorrow's paper before we heard about events like these.
A quick search of a number of online databases will reveal that as little as 30-40 years ago, "mass shootings" were something that happened every few years or maybe once a year.
I think back to my college days at The University of Texas in Austin during the early 1980's, and how it was a *'distant legend" that in 1966 Charles Whitman had ensconced himself in the UT Tower and shot and killed 16 people and injured another 31.
Apple Blossoms
At the time, such a thing was still "unthinkable," and more or less the stuff of history, not reality. And we were suitably horrified when six people were shot and killed at a Dallas nightclub in 1984.
Meanwhile... we have had the Gilroy Garlic Festival shootings on July 28th, the El Paso WalMart shootings yesterday (August 3rd) and even while that's still active news there has been another mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio today (August 4th), killing 9 and injuring 27.
And so, we find ourselves asking "WHICH Mass Shooting?"
Trolling, Rage and Lack of Restraint
Meanwhile, here in our own microcosm of online social media, we contemplate things like online bullying, trolling, vengeful behaviors and other toxic acts.
Some write these off as people being "snowflakes" and "too sensitive."
I don't care to get into whether or not that's an accurate characterization; I'm more interested in the fact that we are needing to have such a discussion; that antisocial and sociopathic behaviors are increasingly being passed off as some form of "normal."
So I sit with that for a while...
Ducks on the bay...
I think back to a conversation I had with a colleague (who worked in the mental health field) maybe a decade ago, in which we explored the possibility that we — as a culture; as the human species — aren't actually becoming any more violent or unstable... what has actually changed is our expectations of how much we "should" experience life turning out THE WAY WE WANT IT TO.
In other words, we haven't really changed much, we just feel far more entitled to have things OUR WAY and have far more severe and immediate reactions to things NOT being "our way."
Of course, that's just a working hypothesis, with very little to back it up but gut feeling...
When I Was a Kid...
... I was pretty much brought up to believe that "getting things my way" was not only not something to expect, but it was a bonus and a privilege when it actually happened.
So being "told off" or "getting passed over for promotion" or "having your girlfriend dump you" was pretty much incorporated into the fabric of my reality as "part of normal life," rather than reasons to have a total emotional meltdown; and the thought of resorting to (fatal) violence was not even on the table.
Of course, waxing philosophical about a distant past that will never return doesn't help the dozens of people who lost their lives in the course of the past eight days.
A rose for those who are gone...
But I keep thinking about what feels like a "Who Cares Culture," and I have a hard time shaking the possibility that we have actually managed to create a world in which we HAVE SO MUCH TO TRACK that we simply don't have much bandwidth left over to "care."
I say that against a backdrop in which I personally found my breaking point recently... and much of that was related to simply feeling overwhelmed by the constant demands of a world that seems to have ever more "content" for me to deal with. And then I think about that childhood of "lower expectations," and how we DID have "more time" to pause and "lick our wounds" when bad things happened... rather than being immersed in a world that constantly demanded that we MOVE ON without ever pausing to process those things that hurt us...
Meanwhile, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those who lost loved ones recently, and who are trying to make sense of it all.
Thanks for reading!
(Another "Creative Non-Fiction" post for the #creativecoin tribe)
What do YOU think? How has the world changed in the past 40+ years? Have we lost touch with the sanctity of life? Have we grown too entitled to things turning out our way? Or have we just run out of time to care about others? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
(As usual, all text and images by the author, unless otherwise credited. This is original content, created expressly for this platform.)
Created at 190804 21:10 PST
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I must be living under a rock. I had no idea this happened, again, a few more times.
I stopped giving my attention to the news. I haven't even watched TV since the final game of the NHL playoffs.
I can't change these things. I don't want these things to change me. I live in my own world.
I remember quite a few years ago, a young kid shot a few other kids. I received a lot of flak for writing something that got spread around social media. All I said was this kid doesn't deserve any attention for this. I said I didn't want to know his name. I said hearing about it once was enough. It seemed all the locals wanted a media circus. All that does is create copycats. We know the families are sad. That's a given. Why force people to cry in front of cameras? Ratings and ad revenue. Rather than reporting the events, they turn it into something political. While people are upset, putting their kids in the ground, two groups of people are arguing, again, for ratings and ad revenue. It goes on like that for days. Nothing ever gets solved. These tragedies are often the Superbowl for news networks. I can't buy their product. Feels like I'm getting ripped off.
Then the alternative media spins it. They create their conspiracies, again, for views and ad revenue. More people argue. Rather than consuming content, the content consumes them. Six months later they're still on the same story. It's the Superbowl for them as well.
People shoot people. Everyone knows that. Social media caused how many riots recently, because cops shot people. Instead of getting the facts, they went straight to being outraged. Thousands upon thousands of murders happen every year. No riots for that?
I should probably stop rambling.
I mostly keep to myself, as well. It's a little easier, now that I no longer have a retail store that deals with the "General Publick" and all that entails... sad that what it failed to do was sell enough art to keep its doors open.
I left most mainstream social media some years ago, precisely because it seemed like most people were "addicted" to being outraged at something. And if they couldn't find something to be outraged at, they would create something to be outraged at.
I won't speculate on how many of these event happen because some slightly deranged person sees the potential to have 15 minutes of fame and how many happen because of some sincerely rageful individual snapping and going over the edge. Do I really care? Not so sure, anymore...
I had spent some time awhile back looking into one of these mass shootings. Of course, there has been so many, I can't remember which one. I know it was a young guy, scrawny kid. I saw some of his social media posts before, where he was acting like a big shot tough guy. I don't know if people actually encouraged it with their stupid 'like' button or what. I'm not sure if he was simply delusional and felt famous for having a few followers, I don't know. Nobody stepped in though. Nobody gave a dose of truth and said, "Listen, kid. You're f'n psycho and you need help." Knowing society today, I'm sure those watching this kid lose his mind on social media were lapping up the drama, waiting for what's next. There's reality there and people are disconnected from it, treating it like a television show. So the kid eventually went out and shot people. Then I watched the interrogation. Not sure if he knew he was being recorded. Biggest coward I had ever seen in my life.
I care but there's nothing I can do. Certainly won't waste my time allowing the stories to consume me. There's no way I'm going to sit around arguing about what needs to be done with people who know damn well all they can do is talk. The only thing I can do is walk with my head up, instead of to the ground and buried within a device like you'll see when you walk down a busy sidewalk. I can at least protect myself by being part of the real world, aware of my surroundings. Most of these people don't even see it coming, sitting there taking life for granted.
No blood equals no shooting(s). They can't even be bothered to show fake injuries for these two fakeries. Just another day of lies to make Americans afraid of themselves. So sad...
I can't honestly say that I have been looking for blood... but I imagine you DO get an interesting perspective on events like these, living in a different country!
Yes, they actually show the injuries here for catastrophes, which makes the bs in the states look even more fake. Another clue is that if they have the entire online history of the perp in 30 minutes - they already had it ready to go.
I see these reports with no small amount of dismay at the frequency of their occurrence. People going about their daily lives killed, injured or traumatized because one person wants to take their anger out on others.
I learned this morning that the shooter in Ohio killed his younger sister. She was believed to be his first victim.
I think you are hitting on a truth about the generation(s) who have grown up believing they should not experience disappointment because their parents didn't allow it.
Some kids grow up not knowing they have had a good day simply because they have never had a bad day. We rob kids of perspective when they don't experience the failure and success.
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It's funny (ironic) how sociologists talk a lot about the effect of "Helicopter Parents" when it is actually the "Snowplow Parents" that are the real issue. You know the type... they fight ALL their kids' battles and hardships for them, so the kids never have to actually experience that the consequence of staying up all night gaming on exam night means a poor result on the exam... because "Mom and Dad" will pitch a fit at school till the F miraculously turns into a C+. And in the process, the kid learns that if you're just enough of "a pain in the ass" you can negotiate your way out of ALL sorts of bad and antisocial behaviors...
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OH I have a sibling that did a lot of that with his kids. I still chuckle at the exchange my dad told me about when my brother was telling him he was heading over to his kid's school the next morning to tune up one of her teachers for yelling at her. Dad took the wind out of his sails by asking, "Did it occur to you the teacher had a reason? Maybe she's not the angel you'd like to think she is."
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I am leaving my voice out of the upset over shooting, the gun violence rates have stayed about the same for 15 years it is the reporting that has changed.
Can you imagine what would happen with the wars if the media focused on every military death for 4 days and personified it.
Or Teen driving accidents. If every time there was a Teen Auto Accident... they went over every detail for days..
Yes they are horrific and upsetting, but I think the coverage and the amount of conversation we have about it actually creates new situations.
I'm less worried about gun violence rates and such than about the fact that we seem to increasingly be "normalizing" these types of incidents; we're becoming more and more desensitized... makes me wonder what's next.
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