7 Dead, Including 18 Children In Elementary School Shooting In Newtown, Conn.
12-14-2012, 05:19 PM
Quote: (12-14-2012 02:15 PM)IQVX Wrote:
Quote: (12-14-2012 01:54 PM)Roosh Wrote:
27 people, 100 people, it no longer matters. There will not be a single change to the foundation of America's values and culture that will halt these events. The media loves these stories because it gets them page views, the politicians love it because it distracts the populace and scores easy points with their base, and both the right and left love it because it allows them to strengthen and test their policy arguments. The president will come out to say some somber words and his approval ratings will go up. Everyone has something to talk about this weekend, about how horrible the event was and we'll pretend we care about these unlucky kids so that for one minute we'll feel compassion for our fellow man, and then Monday will resume as normal and no one will care. I'm not sure what's worse anymore, American mass shootings or the response to them.
How else do you expect people to respond? To ignore them completely or to forever feel personally bad? People feel legitimate sadness about the deceased and their families - at least I know I do. It's not "pretending" - But I think we all acknowledge it's impossible to relate directly to them, so yes, we will continue back to living our lives. How can you let something stay on your mind, no matter how horrid, if you're a busy person and said event didn't relate directly to you?
I feel like you have a gripe against human nature, and are just looking for a fight where there doesn't need to be one. Honestly I feel like common sense can explain all the problems you have with America's response to mass shootings.
I agree. But my caveat is that it's a good thing that people will get over it and continue on like normal in a week. This is not some flaw endemic to callous American consumerists. It's human nature. And it's a requirement for us to be able to function, psychological and as a society. Just as something pleasurable won't make you happy for ever, something sad won't make you sad forever. Your brain's equilibrium re-balances itself and makes the situation the new normal. Roosh has actually discussed this phenomenon on his blog before. So what would society be like if we didn't quickly get over these sort of things and return to our normal routines? Tragedies on some scale happen every day in the world. We'd be psychologically paralyzed from morbid obsession to the point that we couldn't function. So I think it's good that we have the ability to move on with our lives, which isn't the same thing as forgetting or not caring. I don't think it'll be forgotten, at all. People will be talking about this years from now like we still do with Columbine.
As for the reactions, of course there will be more debate on gun control and some public statements. If Obama makes a public statement it's criticized as being the predictable same-ol same-ol, and if he didn't make one, he'd be criticized for not giving a shit. I think the cynicism is a bit much. Are presidents and politicians only supposed to react if it's a 9/11 scale tragedy?
It's hard for Americans to come to terms with problems like this because it's in our culture to want quick solutions that work. They want to sign a piece of legislation that will somehow stop such a tragedy from happening again. Truth is nobody really knows what to do about it. You can control guns but that doesn't address the root problem of why someone would even want to do something like this in the first place. Why is our society producing more of these individuals that are like powder kegs waiting to go off? Like some of you suggested, I'm willing to bet the guy was a loner, socially estranged, wasn't getting laid, etc. At the center of this may be increasing social alienation. Fewer people know their neighbors or know anything about them. We're more private our lives. We do more shit by ourselves. Family ties are looser. More broken homes and single moms. Something is causing autism/Aspergers to rise. And of course more and more guys have less access to the sedating effects that sex, marriage and family brings. This stuff is far more difficult to address than signing a piece of gun control legislation. So don't hold your breath for any rapid solutions.