Las Vegas, October 2, 2017 – 59 dead, with over 500 wounded by a lone gunman. Welcome to America! This kind of dark, violent pathology appears to be woven into our DNA in a way that doesn’t seem to be present in other societies. All humans are potentially violent, but we really seem to have carved out a special niche as a deep outlier on the bell curve of what’s “normal.” The really disturbing thing about these mass shootings is not that they happen, it’s that we seem to accept them as normal. We make no attempt to change gun laws, unless it’s legislation designed to make guns more easily available.
Nothing will change, because we clearly don’t care. We are so nihilistically violent that we eagerly assume the role of our own existential threat. We apparently do nothing not because we are paralyzed with fear, but because we are so comfortable with the expression of violence. The media coverage begins to look uncomfortably like entertainment, feeding the masses desire for the spectacle of carnage. We have taken the French’s theatrical tradition of Grand Guignol and remade it in our own fashion. Why stage fake murder when you can do it for real?
In light of our long record of doing nothing in response to these tragedies, the hypocritical hand-wringing and proclamations of concern are nauseating. Our President comforts us: “In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one. And it always has…” Oh we come together alright.
Together as one murderous, bloodthirsty mob. A very unpleasant and tragic truth to face. Unless each one of us become agents of change, I’m afraid we all have blood on our hands…