Having already spent far too long rambling about how any political discussion can be railroaded, deflected, conflated, and otherwise avoided, it distresses me that the same techniques are still being used rather flamboyantly in both social as well as mass media circles. The notions that bullying or violent video games are somehow the causes of mass school shootings are not only nonsensical, but they belie a tendency of an increasingly ignorant and insular population to find a simple solution to a complex problem.
CBC Radio recently ran a piece on the enormous pressure piled upon food and nutrition in terms of human health. Every food marketing campaign will have you believe that removing meat (or dairy or gluten or whatever) from your diet, or adding a portion of kale (or ginkgo biloba or quinoa or freekeh or whatever) to every meal will miraculously change a person's life. Exercise, psychology, and genetics be damned, these foods will fix whatever ails you. Or so quacks like Dr. Oz would have you believe. Why do people subscribe to these quite obviously stupid recipes for a panacea?
Answer: they want a single, simple answer given to them in such a way that they do not need to invest or commit anything of their own, other than to blow their money on whatever is being advertised and flogged at them. Eat (or omit) substance X from your diet and all of your problems are solved. No work, no effort, no muss, no fuss.
The same principle applies to really horrible and complicated problems. Abortion? Anyone who says that there is a simple solution is, quite simply, an idiot. I don't care what "side" a person tends to advocate, it's an awful surgical procedure that literally and figuratively scars a woman for life. That being said, anyone who reckons that outright banning the procedure in every conceivable circumstance [sic] is somehow socially responsible is an ass. Equally idiotic are those who reckon that the procedure should be made readily available without accompanying counselling and support structures.
In terms of stopping school shootings in the United States, since that's the only place where it seems to manifest as a chronic problem, the application of such policies as transparent backpacks, armed teachers and support staff, dissuading bullying, or supplying buckets of rocks to classrooms are manifestly stupid approaches. Again, it is the simple-minded thinking that leads people to believe that one action or policy will fix an enormous issue in the same way that eating quinoa will cause your metastasizing pancreatic cancer to go into remission.
But what if I said that all of these moronic ideas had something in common. Transparent backpacks that rob citizens of their right to privacy, legitimizing violence as applied by public officials, escalating violent encounters, recognizing an inherent antagonism within social structures...
Let me suggest that if one really wants to remedy violence and militancy with a society, one should start at the top down. Violence in the United States is not fundamentally legitimate because films and video games are violent, it's because the Unites States as a political entity is violent.
When did the following become acceptable?
- A standing, mobilized army during peacetime.
- Maintaining 800 military bases worldwide in over 70 countries.
- The Department of War renamed the Department of Defense
- Mercenaries became Military Contractors
- Declaring war and deploying troops and equipment without Congressional approval
- Unauthorized surveillance of American citizens and their communication.
- Daily drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somalia.
All of these ongoing policies establish the United States as an international bully with no regard for civil or human rights. The racism inherent in "stop-and-frisk" policing, mass incarceration, and the bizarre war on drugs shows that the American government has no more regard for its own citizens than for the peoples of the world at large. With this sort of role model, little wonder that dissociated people purchase some readily available assault weapons and pull the trigger in the direction of a congregation of other people. Churches, movie theatres, schools, whatever. Since the highly mythologized westerns of the early 20th century, justice always seems to be delivered from the barrel of a gun within an exceptionally American [sic] context.
So here's my deal. If you want fewer incidents of mass gun violence in the United States, start with the government as an international player. Pull the troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq. Prevent the creation of more PTSD patients, and reduce the burden on the Veterans Administration to cover the medical cost of wounded veterans.
Then, start acting as though civil and human rights are important. Universal health care and an increased emphasis on education would be a good start when creating new federal budgetary strategy. Active programs to examine and remove institutionalized racism would be another fantastic initiative.
Why are these things so tough? Because the U.S. has already driven a long way down the militarist and nationalist road. Luckily, there are some trends that provide encouragement. In 1994, only 10% of the U.S. population had passports. If that isn't evidence of a closed and insular social mindset, I'm not sure what is. Luckily, that percentage has now risen to over 40%. There is hope that Americans can see that there is a world outside their window, and that there are other ways that they can live their lives other than under the heel of the military-industrial complex.
Musical Interlude
Find the common factor:- Hey Ya - Outkast
- Rescue - Echo and the Bunnymen
- Jealous Guy - John Lennon
- Eight Miles High - The Byrds
- Monster Mash - Bobby Pickett
- Free Bird - Dread Zeppelin
- Everybody Needs Somebody - The Blues Brothers.
That's it for me.
Cheerio and good night England and the colonies.
—mARKUS
