I know… not exactly an inspirational title to run across on the humor topic wall… but I tag everything as humor, and I might just be able to make this funny… we will just have to see.
But I do mean it as a serious question. This all started yesterday when all the news shows were carrying stories about that shooter at the LA airport. They mentioned that the guy had been shot and taken into custody. And I actually heard myself say, “good” inside my own head.
I was pleased that a human being had been shot.
Yeah, I know he was doing something horrible. I know that he had been stopped from doing more horrible things. But the news is turning violence into a spectator sport where we cheer for the good guys and don’t feel bad for the bad guys. We have become inured to the violence, like we are just watching a football game. Is anyone else troubled by this?
When school shootings happen, it is almost impossible not to hope that the shooter is killed quickly before he can gun down more children. And terrorists or pirates, nobody wants them to do well. So what choice do we have but to hope that men in Kevlar body armor and black suits terminate them with extreme prejudice?
And that brings up another point about the news that troubles me… and it is something that the politicians have become masters at… the double talk… the slang… the code words… the euphemisms of death.
This started in Washington. I first noticed it because I study military history. Since World War One, shell shock has been changed to battle fatigue, and now post traumatic stress disorder. I think there were a few other stops on the way. It is like they think that if you come up with a nicer sounding name for something, then that thing isn’t as bad. And now we have nice terms like ‘collateral damage’ to describe innocent civilian victims caught in the path of war.
So now, the shooter ‘turns the gun on himself’. Because that sounds much nicer than ‘he blew his brains out all over a wall.’ But while we try to make the words sound less violent, the news programs are in a race to show the most sickening footage of these outrages. It is all very confusing.
So back to my first point. When is it okay to want someone to die, or to be glad when someone does? I am a Berkeley hippy born and bred. I don’t own a gun. But I could kill someone to protect my family. I like to think I would feel bad about it after it happened.
I grew up watching the Vietnam war on TV. I honestly thought it would still be going on when I reached draft age. I ended up missing it by a couple of years. But I went into the Navy when I was 17… it’s a long story… and it was the height of the cold war. We were still worried about the Russians. If I was on a ship and it was attacked by enemy planes, would I have cheered when we shot them down? If I had been alive during World War Two would I have celebrated when Hitler killed himself? And is that wrong?
I know I am not offering any answers with this post. I guess I am just hoping that it will be one of those rare instances where I start a meaningful conversation about something… because I do live for those moments.
Hey… maybe we could even talk about gun control… what?… oh… sorry… the NRA says it is too soon, and we are too wound up from the last shooting to have a calm, emotionless conversation about people being gunned down in cold blood.
The only problem with that is this: It happens so often that according to that logic, we can never have this conversation… ever… at all…
Pouring My Art Out 
I think you know how I feel about gun control because it’s one of my rants. Even though we should love everyone, I think we have to hope & work toward an end to this madness!
I like hope…
This is a serious post so and I am too miserably full from lunch to read it appropriately so I am coming back to read 🙂
Don’t forget… my blog is like swimming… you should always wait an hour after you eat…
Good advice!
I stole it from you.
It’s only “okay” when it’s the only way to stop them.
I don’t think it makes you a bad person if you want anyone dead though. The same way some family members can ruin people’s lives and you can be unaffected by their deaths you shouldn’t feel guilty about not caring.
Not even sure what I’m saying, it’s a hard question with no answer.
The more I typed the more I realized I wasn’t going to answer anything.
I hate violence.
Take a stand!
Where should I put it?
(Looks around….)
And where do I plug the mic in?
Ha
‘People cause violence,’ you said to Krishnan. That’s so very true. Guns do make it easier, but guns aren’t necessary for violence to thrive. Heck, actual weapons aren’t necessary. Anything can be used as a weapon. You could flatten someone with an ironing board. You could whack someone with a WeedEater. You could string up someone with a telephone cord … that is, of course, if you could actually still find a telephone with a cord on it. You can use just about any everyday device and kill someone with it. Violence is endemic in humanity. That doesn’t mean we need to glorify or glamorize it as we keep doing, or allow ourselves to become so desensitized to it that we consider it entertainment. That will be our downfall as a people, I’m sure.
Thank you for a thought-provoking post.
Nobody argues that people could kill other people without guns… but try to kill 30 or 40 people, some of whom are standing far away or in other rooms… with an ironing board.
That would certainly be a good work-out, though, wouldn’t it? The Ironing Board Slaughterhouse Work Out! Get Slim and Trim Butchering your Friends and Neighbors with your Ironing Board! Who knows, it might sell like hotcakes.
You would need to find really slow victims…
DJs on a radio program used to call the gunman who killed himself “doing society a favor”. I never watch the news. If not for reading about it here, I would have been ignorant of the incident.
I love to read your serious thoughts.
Thanks… I have them now and then…
I think there are people who deserve to die. But I have a really high bar for that. I hope the shooter survives and gets prosecuted according to the law.
P.S. Did you actually go to UCB, or just lived in Berkeley?
I grew up just North of Berkeley. I spent a lot of time there, but not as a student.
I spent only a couple years there, but as a student…
My wife did too.
There are so many things I want to say to this… actually I need to make a post. I’ve been intending to for awhile now.
We never know what is going on in someone else’s life… their mind… their emotions and their ability to cope with situations that no one outside of that situation may be aware of.
As for the media… the media is congrolled by the government so what does that tell you…
*controlled… jeez. I try to have an intelligent conversion and my fingers + my smartphone = stupid looking words that aren’t even words… sigh.
It’s all good…
I think it is controlled by big business… which is worse…
This post is news several times over. I never knew you thought serious. Also, also, I didn’t know you er…Um…I mean…watching vietnam war on TV…you know…so experienced. Yeah. That’s it. Also, I think a certain level of morbid curiousity is present in all humans. And from a distance, violence becomes just something you read about. I suppose the experience would have been different for people present there. Great article.
Thanks… and you can say I am old… it isn’t a secret… so maybe your home is just a little more civilized than my home is.
my home is more civilized because you are old? I do not see the connection. 😀
I meant that you might just have less random gun violence… because you are all too busy running from cobras and wishing you had elephants… HA!
Actually, let me tell you about a news that ran on today’s paper. A mother let her lover rape and then helped kill her own daughter. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/131031/news-crime/article/mom-lovers-kill-four-year-old-girl
This was today. I really don’t think weapons have anything to do with violence. Some people are just plain twisted. Period.
That was horrifying…
I agree that people cause violence, I just think that a gun makes it easier for them.
Agreed.
Good.
I was watching the news last night and saw this and asked myself,,How many times does this have to happen until the Americans figure it out??
Or is it just going to get worse… sigh…
Sadly my friend I think it will get worse alot worse before your fellow country men realize when the forefathers said you had the right to bear arms they didn’t mean,,,high powered machine guns.
We need more muskets…
I feel like a freakin Roman at the Colosseum when I watch the news. A few days ago a kid in Mesa AZ killed his mother while his friend watched, helped him clean up the mess and store her body. There was another school shooting this week, I have no recollection of where it was, although I do recall a teacher/veteran was shot to death as he shielded his students from the kid with the gun. People are not as horror stricken by violence as they used to be. The generation after ours has never known a world without mass shootings.
Yesterday, someone told me that US television is geared toward an 11 year old’s intellect. There’s a bunch of horrific crap on TV that was not there when I was a kid. We have become a society that accepts random killing and endorses violence. I remember the US bombing the shit out of the Iraquis and feeling justified because of 9/11. I’m always relieved when the shooter is caught. It disgusts me to acknowledge those feelings in myself. Life is priceless. It should be taken only in the most extraordinary circumstances and with enormous reservation.
It sounds like we are on the same page… as usual…
Did I get sarcastic enough at the end?
It was the epitome of successful snark.
That’s what I was shooting for… uh… so to speak…
Good questions. Sad questions. And I would be writing chapters to respond to it. Good post PMAO.
Thanks… sometimes I don’t know what comes over me…
Shock. Dismay. Sadness.
well obviously those.