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Columbine Questions We Still Don't Ponder
As Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold's posthumous infamy turns 10 on April 20, I wish I were surprised that Columbine-like shootings are still happening, or even that our national discussion about violence hasn't yet matured past gun control and video games.
I wish I were surprised, but sadly, I'd be surprised if it were any different because we still refuse to ask the most uncomfortable questions.
Columbine was the "Pulp Fiction" of violence: not the first of its genre, but the model to which all contemporaries are compared. And lately, Columbine derivatives have been coming at a faster clip.
After each tragedy, it's the same thing. Liberals want us to wonder why gun laws let anyone access deadly weapons. Conservatives insist we question why video games supposedly turn down-to-earth kids into murderers.
These queries satiate two desires. In a country that ascribes hubristic "exceptionalism" to itself and berates self-analysis as "hating America," we seek absolution via scapegoat, and so we upbraid bogeymen like firearms and Xboxes. Similarly, in a democracy increasingly conducting its politics through red-blue filters and 140-character Twitter updates, we crave Occam's razors -- and none are sharper than oversimplified arguments about gun control and video games.
But what about the questions and answers that aren't so simple?
For example, isn't violence a predictable byproduct of our economy? When torture victims are waterboarded, they freak out. When a winner-take-all economy tortures society, should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge?
For three decades, we converted our economy into one that enriches the rich and stresses out everyone else. Paychecks dwindled, debts accumulated, health-care bills spiked. We now spend more hours working or seeking work, and fewer hours on parenting, family time and rest -- all while schools and mental-health services deteriorate.
Considering this, shouldn't we expect the recent Associated Press story telling us "the American home is becoming more violent" because of the recession? Shouldn't we expect the new Department of Homeland Security report saying that "the economic downturn" is "invigorating rightwing extremist activity, specifically the white supremacist and militia movements"? And, ultimately, shouldn't we expect the deep alienation that may lead the occasional troubled kid to turn video-game fantasies into real-world terror?
If these questions don't make you uneasy, then how about this one: Are those video games fantasies, or are they representations of real violence that we willfully organize our economy around?
Today, one in every three dollars the government spends goes to defense and security. The killing machine and adventurism that money manufactures has delivered 1 million Iraqi casualties, thousands of American casualties and an implicit promise of future wars -- indeed, of permanent war.
Perpetuating this expenditure, bloodshed and posture in a nation of dwindling resources, humanitarian self-images and anti-interventionist impulses requires a culture constantly selling violence as a necessity. It's not just video games -- it's the nightly news echoing Pentagon propaganda and "hawkish" politicians equating militarism with patriotism and "embedded" journalism cheering on wars and every other suit-and-tie-clad industry constantly forwarding the assumption that killing is a legitimate form of national ambition and self-expression. Is it any wonder that a few crazies apply that ethos to their individual lives, and begin seeing violence as a reasonable means to express their own emotions?
Sure, the assault weapons ban's expiration is an abomination. Absolutely, some video games are appalling. But we could ban all guns and video games and there would still be mass murders because neither the availability of firearms nor of Grand Theft Auto creates the original desire for violence.
Until we face that complex reality -- or at least ask different questions -- we'll continue being terrorized by Columbine killers.
- Posted in
45 Comments so far
Show All"Sure, the assault weapons ban's expiration is an abomination. Absolutely, some video games are appalling. But we could ban all guns and video games and there would still be mass murders because neither the availability of firearms nor of Grand Theft Auto creates the original desire for violence."
This may very well be true, but this also begs the question: Should we allow violent people to have access to semi-automatic weapons that are designed to kill people? Also, do we allow them the weapons with which they can randomly, and at a distance, and without warning, kill people who are going about their lives?
No, gun control is not the answer to the question of why Americans are so violent. However, it is a tool to be used to slow down the march of mass-killings. And, each time we have another mass-killing, it sets the stage for yet another. We become inured and figure, "What the hell, we can't stop it anymore so may as well get used to it." We will become another Israel - isolating ourselves through fear and reacting with increasing levels of violence.
Finally, I believe Americans have swallowed the lie of "exceptionalism" touted by Big Media and all our institutions. We believe and expect that things will always be good for us, and when they are not, we react violently. In short, we are a nation of entitlement. When that entitlement ends, by God, someone will pay!
Weren't the Columbine shooters whacked out on Prozac and Ritalin (speaking of bogeymen)?
Yes indeed. You also notice that never seems to be brought up much in the news either.
Yes they were, as were a number of the other shooters when these events were less common. Analysis showed some of them had been taking these drugs as prescribed too. Which makes Great Britain's decision to ban use of these drugs in kids and teen agers look much wiser than the FAD's decision to allow use of the drugs on kids and teen agers in spite of the lack of research on how these drugs affect kids and teens.
Mr. Sirota leaves out the wacked Fundamentalist Christian movements like The Fellowship of the Sword and others. And example: One Bite, One Bomb, One Bullet at a Time http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/2/10/92629/8909/war_on_public_education/One_Bite_One_Bomb_One_Bullet_at_a_Time
Its disturbing to know that the Obama Administration has expanded the Office of Faith Based Initiatives to over 100 million dollars, and leaves me wondering how much of our taxpayer cash is funding propaganda of this sort coming from any pulpit, not just wackos.
Great piece, but no suggestions on what questions to ask to change our national ambition and self expression for killing.
Sioux Rose
JKFIELDS: Are you new to this forum?
Everything mentioned in Sirota's well-written article substantiates a phrase and concept I often bring to this forum: That Mars rules. Taken from mythology, this symbol that champions war also emphasizes individualism at the expense of a communal society. It signifies the raw ego and all of its self-centered impulses. Mars is fed by contests, and the mantra, "We're number 1!" It's all about winning and laying to waste. It's all about giving the nation's money to the military to ensure more conflicts, and fancier weapons systems that can take out more human beings in one clip. Now it's unmanned drones and computer-style attacks. SICK SICK SICK SICK.
The antidote is written in the language of the heavens. No principle exists as a completely separate entity when we take into account the holistic paradigm of the Holy circle. It holds 12 positions (Jesus referred to these as his disciples, Abraham as his tribes), and the mathematical "angles" between these suggest the path to reconcilation among any two that appear opposed. Venus, the Goddess that symbolizes romantic love & marriage opposes Mars and is his intended counterpart. She also "governs" Libra, the sign where the scales of justice balance. Venus relates to art, culture, music, sculpture, pleasure, sensuality, diplomacy, law, and negotiation. SHE is the great secret, the balance to Mars... we cannot fight Mars directly. The answer is not to FUEL Mars by investing in those aspects that are his.
Jesus taught to "cast thy net to the other side." Noted metaphysician Emmet Fox explained we must "build new mental equivalents." The I ching teaches we can never take on a direct battle with evil (force/violence) and win since we tend to get embroiled in a struggle that forces us to take up evil's own ends. Thus we must "make energetic progress in the good." Or as the World Social Forum wisely puts it, direct our efforts towards the ideal that "Another World is Possible."
For every dollar put towards art, music, cultural programs, diplomacy rather than war and weapons, we DEFEAT Mars. For every moment ANY individual turns from naked self interest to a GENUINE concern for other, or endeavors to arrive at a win: win compromise, we defeat Mars. So for those in the forum who are utterly convinced it's all about the self, the quintessential "inside job," I say yes, that is PART of it. But we are also organic extensions of a larger society, and we must also demand of that society that it invest LESS in these monstrous things that accord with Mars, god of war. We must insist that our money is spent on VENUS, that which makes of this rich earth a garden, THE garden bequeathed to all sentient beings. At present with so much blood and treasure alloted to Mars it has been run to the ground, ripped, burned, bled, and polluted all in homage to the incorrigible leanings of the god of war. We ALL pay a price for this imbalance.
Taking the energy away from Mars means deconstructing the idea that war is holy or conotes bravery. It means deconstructing the glamour around soldiers and those that use force. Hollywood's images of men toting weapons, brazenly shooting at crowds (especially when these characterizations utilize the "good guys"), or otherwise glorifying gigantic explosions in scenes like car wrecks... all NORMALIZE these expressions. And when thousands sit in stadiums and sing the national anthem, "the bombs bursting in air," or project enormous passion into sporting events where a mentality of "teams" infuses their consciousness even at subliminal levels that then feed into a national "race" for president, the "commander and chief" of the armed forces, one who--as shown by Bush's outragious trespasses--takesn on MORE power when he declares war (as congress has abdicated its responsibility in that realm of late).
These are but SOME remedies. The cause goes back far into time, and the blood stains of centuries of wars impact us all; but we must begin where we are to alter these graven images that have held lives hostages for centuries. IF a new time for mankind is to rise from the ashes of the present COLLAPSE, it begins with ideas, concepts, and ideals that NURTURE humanity. Mars is the enemy to that process. And inasmuch as Mars breeds the warrior/warrior culture, Venus breeds the culture of caring. A caring society, imagine that. If this world is to continue to host human life, it's our ONLY chance.
Some may not appreciate the mythic or religious symbols you used to convey your point. I am not one of them. I think what you said is as nearly perfect as can be. Don't buy war toys. Encourage a new understanding of honor and courage that doesn't include violence. The use of violence to end violence validates only more violence, not reason and compassion. The most severe threat to mankind is mankind. We become that which we claim to struggle against.
Sioux Rose
KOGWONTON: Thank you very much for the validation. Many have been conditioned to see mysticism as fantasy rather than as a profound way of "connecting" those dots most are not equipped to connect. Seeing the big picture is a helpful way to transcend the madness that has led to redundant historical outcomes century after century. So I will keep on relating this higher more inclusive perspective in this forum. Persons such as yourself make that "quest" worthwhile.
Most gun owners are responsible people. As long as they don't use guns to commit a crime, I don't care. The people who fire into crowds have emotional problems. People know about these problems and often do nothing.
A prohibition on guns is just as effective as a prohibition on drugs, alcohol or tobacco.
Not really. Modern firearms can't be grown in the basement, mixed in the bathtub, or harvested on a farm.
"Not really. Modern firearms can't be grown in the basement, mixed in the bathtub, or harvested on a farm."
That's right. Firearms, including weapons meant for killing people, are manufactured by companies, many here in the US. They are then sold, legally or not, to people. Whether those people who receive the weapons are lawful or not matters little. Many "lawful" people are also emotionally sick, and are a breakdown away from picking up their weapons and shooting others.
The Michael Moore movie, Bowling for Columbine, connects the dots between the shooters behind the mass-killings in the USA, and the sheer amount of weaponry we create and sell, be it guns, missiles, or F15 fighter jets. We are a violent nation with a warrior mentality (some would call it, ruled by Mars). It is little wonder why we shoot each other and others.
Gun control is not the answer, but it is a small part of the solution. However, along with laws that affect citizens, we must have laws to stop producing so goddamned many weapons, and this entails control on how much weaponry US companies can produce. We have flooded the whole world with weapons, and it's all coming back to shoot us in the foot...or worse.
I really hate the term used by gun rights people, 'law-abiding citizens'. Everyone is a law-abiding citizen...until they're not. And have those law-abiding citizens ever littered, run a red light, parked in a handicapped spot? If they have, they're no longer law-abiding, are they?
And yes, Russia has felt the effect of flooding the world with cheap and easily available weapons...and got their asses kicked by their own weaponry. I'm sure that will happen to us sooner rather than later.
KeLeMi, I agree. I used to be a strong gun control advocate until Hurricane Katrina, Blackwater, and a few horror experiences in my life changed my mind. While I don't think an AK-47 is necessary to defend oneself, I'm glad to keep a pistol with me just in case I'm in a dire situation such as getting mugged or raped. Thank you for making it clear that most gun owners are generally responsible. A few bad owners need not ruin it for the rest of us who are trying to defend ourselves and even one another the best we can.
Not sure what you're saying; I can only think that you're supporting the people outside of New Orleans who stood at the bridge and turned back refugees at gunpoint, and that you support the whole spectrum of violence-as-solution (which includes threatened violence)like the use of Blackwater paramilitary thugs in New Orleans. It turns out looting was exxagerated, the gun violence like these 2 examples was largely unreported, and so the fears that propel gun-buying were ramped up while the true problems--too many guns and too many fearful, angry, hate-filled people, were ignored and worsened.
Of course I don't know what horror you've suffered personally; and I shudder to think of what it might have been, but if you've suffered violence at human hands why would you want to compound the problem? Wouldn't it make sense instead to insist on education, health care, and other real help for the poor and desperate that will change our society to a peaceful one where people can walk and sleep free of fear at any time(as they do in Japan, for one of many examples)?
Don't forget that town of racists who used the hurricane as an excuse to hunt down and murder blacks...a story on it was posted on here a few months ago. It almost made me physically sick to read it.
"Is it any wonder that a few crazies apply that ethos to their individual lives"
"should we be shocked that a few lunatics go over the edge"
Many of these folks are neither crazy nor lunatic. they are humans just like you and me. the truth is we are all capable of this given the right combination of stressors and desensitization. Until we recognise this fact, no solution will be found.
Well, I thought this was a fairly decent article . . . for a start. But I don't think Sirota made a strong enough case for the obvious and massive underlying love of violence, aggression and imperialism at the heart of American society . . . as has been chronicled by Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, John Perkins, and many others.
OK, all good points but I still don't get it. Other than those directly making a killing from selling machine guns to teens, why are you all so keen on churning out these things?
How is it different than having a "right" to bear "nuclear" arms? Should all law abiding citizens have the right to hunt ducks with atomic bombs (just little ones, alright?)
Americans say they like to "collect" guns as a "hobby", why not collect tanks!
...in short how do you decide that machine guns are OK, but your own personal f16 fighter, is not?
...once you have answered this, tell me why not slide the limit on killing machines down to, say, water pistols or something, hey, they are fun to collect too!
In times of old the answer used to be
"Because the citizenry in a free democracy cannot allow themselves to be out-gunned by their government"
heh it's impossible to out-gun our government now.
Their are people who do collect tanks by the way. I saw a story about a fellow in London who drives his tank around town. Unless you have a Lic. from the goverment, no one can own a machine gun. Now you can own a semi-auto that may look like a machine gun, but they are not fully auomatic. It is unlawfull to make or own a Bomb and atomic bomb is a bomb not a small arm. We have the right to keep and bear arms not bombs. You can own a tank, that is if you could afford one.
Heh, does he have the ammo for the main and machine guns? And what kind of tank is it?
WELL,
The television set is one long homocidal fantasy machine running 24/7 , it just seems like sillyness to be so shocked, SHOCKED! that the world we have created is a nasty one.
patience... it's almost over. The die is cast, the extnction event is upon us and a new world is here to those that have the eyes to see it. but for the culture of domination the great withering of our fantasy is hard to take.
If you've never seen Michael Lesy's 1973 book "Wisconsin Death Trip", by all means check it out. What's happening to the United States now defies words but Lesy's book captures it, and captures it perfectly, even though it's about something that happened in the 19th century. The book is a nightmare; it is very disturbing but in those pages is the dark, violent, feverish "thing" that roils us now and in the end may very well destroy us.
"But we could ban all guns and video games and there would still be mass murders because neither the availability of firearms nor of Grand Theft Auto creates the original desire for violence. "
THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! THANK YOU ! Blaming guns for the killing is like blaming an auto for the accident. Our society is completely dysfunctional not only politically but socially as well. Our way too individualist mentality and our refusal to take sharing, love, and respect for one another is the reason we live in such a violent and restless society. I was able to handle my being cast aside and isolated in my younger years just because I was fat and was more interested in studying because I felt that I was lucky to have a loving family never let me down but make sure that I'd overcome my inferiority complex and wipe those tears away. My parents and relatives may have been conservative but deep down they were caring and loving and would see to it that my brothers and I were not letting anything in life bother us to the point of feeling completely depressed. They even helped me overcome my feeling of loneliness and loser's mentality just because I never dated until my mid 20s. I also had some friends despite our differences because they and I were interested in helping one another out in life. The only issues I had with my parents were not getting married and accepting the city life but nowadays they have gotten over it thanks to the bad economic times and the horror hell I had a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, not every kid is even remotely as lucky. Harris and Klebold are the victims of society's failure to put love and respect for one another first on the agenda. The parents, the teachers, and the community are collectively responsible for ensuring that no child is actually left behind and we don't need the NCLB garbage to do that for us. Maybe homeschooling might have helped those two, maybe not. Maybe, teaching discipline, basic interpersonal communications skills, and enforcing kindness and respect should be made mandatory in all schools. Any of these would have most likely worked out for not only D&K but most likely countless others who had the urge to kill not only in school but even outside of it such as at parties or even at work.
I can certainly understand, in fact I agree completely with, the view that we have to get to the root causes of violence to have a healthier society. Violence doesn't just come out of something in a one-to-one relationship--whether that's video games or anything else; it's one effect of problems with our childhoods--lack of touch, attachment problems, etc etc etc.--[complicated somato-psychlogical stuff goes here but if you want, you too can read about it and know much more about the species to which you belong].
What I can't agree with is the fetishizing of weapons--the complete unwillingness by some people--afraid, angry, and/or hatefilled--to see that while guns are not the root cause of the murder problem, nevertheless getting rid of guns would reduce the opportunities to kill and therefore would reduce the numbers of people killed--drastically. There are few drive-by stabbings and almost no schoolyard sawed-off spoon sprees. I can't think of a single US president assassinated by pencil, and there are many easy-to-learn non-gun defenses against being held up at needlepoint.
The guns being made now are overwhelmingly NOT hunting weapons but are only for killing people--in fact are made specifically to kill many people, indiscriminately. They are bought to feel powerful, that is, to give the illusion of safety or wholeness whose real counterpart should be our birthright, given inalienably by parents and society to all children. Let's work on that, and meanwhile not allow blind people to drive cars, toddlers to operate chainsaws or people to own machine guns.
A couple of jackass kids, turned over to some mind-bender psychiatrist-priest by gullible parents, who, in keeping with accepted norms of his calling, prescribed some chemicals guaranteed to magnify and intesify their cycle of nuttiness,is what led to the craziness of Columbine. In another era, their fathers would have slapped the piss out of them and turned them over to the marine recruiter long before they carried out their fantasy. No thanks to the cops who stood around sucking up coffee and donuts and collecting their pay whislt those little bastards went merrily about shooting thier classmates. Harrrumph!
If you don't mind, could you please go easy here? Look, those kids were bullied in life and ended up going mad. But for parents to beat their kids and send them off to the military will only ruin their lives even further. I don't support D&K but let's please try to understand that our hate and beat attitude towards kids is not how you solve problems. Do you ever stop and think that just maybe our rotten system of allowing school bullying needs repair ? And the gullible parents were obviously deprived of communications skills that they needed to communicate with their children, another area that needs educating.
smipypr
OK - the shooters were bullied, put-upon suburban white kids. On top of everything else, they were, what? 5 weeks from graduating? Their heads were just as bent from morbid navel-gazing as they were from their dipstick parents and the dipstick classmates who used the shooters for psychological punching bags. Bullies are kids who never hear the word "NO" from their parents. Bullies learn early on to exploit weak parents; the exploitation of the other kids comes easy. Privilege in youth, at any level, grows into predation as adults. George W. bush and John McCain were the "black sheep" of their families. Look how they turned out. How many of the hotshots at AIG. Merrill, Lehman, etc. were "losers" growing up? The damage they've done will take years to assess, and at least a generation to put right.
For a thorough analysis of the underlying causes of the Columbine shootings, and the motives of the attackers, see this:
Dissecting Columbine's Cult of the Athlete
By Lorraine Adams and Dale Russakoff
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 12, 1999; Page A1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/june99/columbine12.htm
The article by Sirota is fine as far as it goes, but the Post article by Adams and Russakoff is the definitive analysis. (If anyone has seen a better one, let me know.)
From my point of view, in light of the evidence in this Post article, Columbine was a microcosm of the world, with the HS administration and their favored hero/athlete/warriors in the position of thugs and bullies, micro-mirror images of the greatest purveyor of violence in this world—my own government.
"From my point of view, in light of the evidence in this Post article, Columbine was a microcosm of the world, with the HS administration and their favored hero/athlete/warriors in the position of thugs and bullies, micro-mirror images of the greatest purveyor of violence in this world—my own government."
The football and basketball "heroes" at my high school were routinely allowed to bully anyone they wanted anytime they wanted without ever more than a slap on the hands. I guess thats one way that high school athletics "builds character". If one did fight back, it was usually one of the "hoodlums" and it was that individual who would be punished regardless, usually without any sort of investigation of the incident other than the authority figure asking the "athlete hero" what happened. If you were not athletically inclined you were definitely WAY DOWN in the pecking order established by students and enforced or ignored by the administration. I suspect not much has really changed in 42 years.
Once again Kerala, India. Population the same as California. In 2000 16,000
armed police officers. Same year, California 180,000 armed officers. Murders in California 2170, in Kerala 401. Burglaries in Kerala 4668, in California 288,847. Rape 564 in Kerala, 9777 in California. That same year the gross domestic product of California was One trillion three hundred million dollars. The GDP of Kerala eighteen billion dollars. But everyone in Kerala has affordable health care. No one goes hungry because of school lunch programs and fair share food stores within walking distance in every village and town. The literacy rate in Kerala is about the same as California. Day care and public education through college is free or affordable based on income. Men and women live as long in Kerala as in California and the birth rate is lower. Google WHY KERALA, GRAMPA? for more.
Mr. Sirota, also left out an important question about the killings at Coloumbine? How can schools, parents even society continue to allow the bullies of our society to continue to get away with their methods of torturing others? This is the same argument we need to look at when viewing larger issues such as the torture that was allowed by the Bush Administration during the past 8 years. I contend that one of the reasons this event and the actions of the Bush years went on was because we in the Country do not protect the weak in our society, in fact, we strive to recognize the strongest in our society as being the best and the brightest. We neglect those are "less" and it depends on different factors and times for whom "less" is viewed.
Until we can protect the weakest in our society, these kinds of killings will continue, until we help those who may or may not snap, the violence will continue. Until our society recognizes that the downtroddened need help from all aspects of our society, these acts will continue and more innocent people will be mowed down. Its not the guns, its not the video's, its our attitudes and actions to our fellow human beings that cause society to be more violent, cold and uncaring.
"Mr. Sirota, also left out an important question about the killings at Coloumbine? How can schools, parents even society continue to allow the bullies of our society to continue to get away with their methods of torturing others?"
tommytoons-I agree with you. It's a question that needs to be addressed in regards to the adult workplace also. However, there was an article on Yahoo (and I can't seem to find it) a few days ago that debunked the theory via the two killers' diaries that they were not outcasts or loners. Most of the people they wanted to kill had already graduated. They were privileged psychotics who only started shooting (pretty much at random) because their plans to bomb the school misfired. I mention "privilege" because these kids were able to afford the tools they needed to carry out their massacre. The article ended with someone saying something to the effect of "they were only limited by their income" and if they had more money, they could have been as murderously successful as Tim McVeigh.
One other thing, I may have missed the articles if they appeared here on CD, but I haven't seen any articles on the police shootings in Oakland,CA and Pittsburgh,PA. I have my own opinions, but I would like to read a progressive's take on those incidents. I'm not pro cop-killer or pro killer cop.
Sirota talks convincingly of a CULTURE OF VIOLENCE. Why do we lead the world in the extent of citizens incarcerated? Why are we the only nation on earth to have droped an atom bomb on oihers. Why did we slaughter Native Americns? The culture of violence manifests itsef in mane ways.
Sirota talks convincingly of a CULTURE OF VIOLENCE. Why do we lead the world in the extent of citizens incarcerated? Why are we the only nation on earth to have droped an atom bomb on oihers. Why did we slaughter Native Americns? The culture of violence manifests itsef in mane ways.
"Why did we slaughter Native Americns?"
The British and Spanish slaughtered far more than we ever did. Not to mention all the European powers that carved up Africa. America has yet to live up to the bloody history of European colonialism...but remember, we were a colony.
Coming to you straight from the pen of U.S. Major Ralph Peters:
"... We WILL DO A FAIR AMOUNT OF KILLING.
We are building an information-based military
to do that killing.
The informational dexterity of our average middle-class kid is terrifying to anyone born before 1970. Our computer kids function at a level foreign elites barely manage, and this has as much to do with television commercials, CD-ROMs, and grotesque video games as it does with the classroom. We are outgrowing our 19th-century model education system as surely as we have outgrown the manned bomber. In the meantime, our children are undergoing a process of Darwinian selection in coping with the information deluge that is drowning many of their parents. These kids are going to make mean techno-warriors."
cited from: U.S. Major Ralph Peters, "Constant Conflict," published in "Parameters" (Summer 1997), pp. 4-14.
On the hyperactive cultivation of violence in the United States and on its relationship to other aspects of the life and ways of this nation, I highly recommend the reading of the above paper, which may be found at
http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/97summer/peters.htm.
For those of you who do not feel like going to the Web site where the article is posted, I have excerpted the following striking passages from it:
"We have entered an age of constant conflict. […] Those of us who can sort, digest, synthesize, and apply relevant knowledge soar, professionally, financially, politically, militarily, and socially. We, the winners, are a minority.
For the world masses, devastated by information, they cannot manage or effectively interpret, life is 'nasty, brutish . . . and short-circuited.' […]
We are entering a new American century, in which we will become still wealthier, culturally more lethal, and increasingly powerful. We will excite hatreds without precedent. […]
He who warns of the "clash of civilizations" is incontestably right … […] More men and women will enjoy health and prosperity than ever before, yet more will live in poverty or tumult, if only because of the ferocity of demographics. There will be more democracy -- that deft liberal form of imperialism -- and greater popular refusal of democracy. One of the defining bifurcations of the future will be the conflict between information masters and information victims. […]
Contemporary American culture is the most powerful in history, and the most destructive of competitor cultures. […]
Our cultural empire has the addicted -- men and women everywhere -- clamoring for more. And they pay for the privilege of their disillusionment. […]
The films most despised by the intellectual elite -- those that feature extreme violence and to-the-victors-the-spoils sex -- are our most popular cultural weapon … . They feature a hero, a villain, a woman to be defended or won -- and violence and sex. Complain until doomsday; it sells. The enduring popularity abroad of the shopworn Rambo series tells us far more about humanity than does a library full of scholarly analysis. […]
We use technology to expand our wealth, power, and opportunities. The rest get high on pop culture. If religion is the opium of the people, video is their crack cocaine. […]
As more and more human beings are overwhelmed by information, or dispossessed by the effects of information-based technologies, there will be more violence. […]
The have-nots will hate and strive to attack the haves. And we in the United States will continue to be perceived as the ultimate haves. States will struggle for advantage or revenge as their societies boil. Beyond traditional crime, terrorism will be the most common form of violence, but transnational criminality, civil strife, secessions, border conflicts, and conventional wars will continue to plague the world, albeit with the 'lesser' conflicts statistically dominant. In defense of its interests, its citizens, its allies, or its clients, the United States will be required to intervene in some of these contests. We will win militarily whenever we have the guts for it.
There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.
We are building an information-based military to do that killing. […]
The informational dexterity of our average middle-class kid is terrifying to anyone born before 1970. Our computer kids function at a level foreign elites barely manage, and this has as much to do with television commercials, CD-ROMs, and grotesque video games as it does with the classroom. We are outgrowing our 19th-century model education system as surely as we have outgrown the manned bomber. In the meantime, our children are undergoing a process of Darwinian selection in coping with the information deluge that is drowning many of their parents. These kids are going to make mean techno-warriors. […]
Hollywood is "preparing the battlefield," and burgers precede bullets. The flag follows trade. […] [T]he image of US power and the US military around the world is not only a deterrent, but a psychological warfare tool that is constantly at work in the minds of real or potential opponents. […]
Everybody is afraid of us. They really believe we can do all the stuff in the movies. If the Trojans "saw" Athena guiding the Greeks in battle, then the Iraqis saw Luke Skywalker precede McCaffrey's tanks. Our unconscious alliance of culture with killing power is a combat multiplier no government, including our own, could design or afford. We are magic. And we're going to keep it that way. […]
The advent of this new information age has opened a fresh chapter in the human struggle for, and with, freedom. It will be a bloody chapter, with plenty of computer-smashing and head-bashing. […]
The next century will indeed be American, but it will also be troubled. We will find ourselves in constant conflict, much of it violent."
A pretty damn poor article.
The usual manichean digital us vs then, 1 vs 0, dichotomy infects the whole analysis and pretty much renders it worthless.
His point about the information dexterity of Amercan kids vs foreign elites is an example of this rubbish analysis. Has the writer ever met any foreign kids? They have the same computers, use the same technology, the same hand phones, the same digital cameras, the same ipods, similar websites as American kids. American kids do not have anymore informational / technological dexterity than non American kids of similar ages.
"Privilege in youth, at any level, grows into predation as adults.
Good post.
Okay, anybody for reducing the gun murder rate by 80%, without infringing Americans' right to bear arms?
According to ATF stats, 81.5% of gun-related homicides (not suicides or fatal accidents) are done with guns the original purchaser didn't control-- he (or she) left it under a pillow, in an unsecured display case, lent it to a friend, gave it as a gift, put it up for sale at a gun show, pawned it, left it in his coat on the restaurant coat tree, forgot it in the motel room, and so on.
Owners serious about their constitutional rights to bear arms will have no problem treating their weapons as the killiing machines in the name of liberty that they are: You won't find them handling their means of defense like a second-hand appliance. It's the wannabes, the kid brother who wants to pretend he's one of the big boys, who don't know how to take weapons seriously.
So, here's what we do: We have a law that says, sure, you can buy as many guns as is currently allowed-- but they are yours for life. You don't sell them, leave them unguarded, give them away. If you want to get rid of them, you break them into little pieces. If they leave your possession in any other form, you're responsible for how they are used, even if you don't flash the piece or pull the trigger yourself. King Arthur didn't give away either of the swords he was entrusted with, and no samurai worth his salt ever let go of his fighting weapon.
The bumper sticker for the NRA member of the future will say, "I will surrender my weapon when you unglue it from my cold, dead hands."
Did anyone notice the ABC news story that said there's a shortage of ammunition in the country? So much so that people have to bring their own ammo for practice sessions - and that includes cops, some of who use some kind of a simulator that doesn't use live ammo. Apparently people have been stocking up on guns and ammo ever since the election of Obama due to a fear of possible legislation outlawing certain weapons. I am not surprised. I know the right-wing nuts are a paranoid bunch who constantly need to look out for danger, even from fellow citizens.
Mexico has been complaining about all the weapons flowing into their country from up north - may be to cover for their own corruption. But take away the gun industry, the military weapons industry, Hollywood, sports "industry" and porn "industry" - oh, let's include the finance and insurance "industries" as well, since most of them do not produce anything of real value - I'm pretty sure USA's "GDP" will take a big hit. This is a pathetic and a scary situation - that there's so little of what's made in the USA that the rest of the world truly needs and is willing to pay for.
Gee, what are my choices here? Do I start saving bullets and beans to defend against brown hungry people, or maybe against UN/Blackwater/Executive assassination teams (good luck). Do I just give up and put my head on the block for the corrupt criminals who now control the largest war machines ever seen on this planet (paid for by the frightened populations of at least three continents in the name of the cold war)?
What a choice.
Our culture is sick and suicidal. We do not recognize our own flesh and blood when we see them cold, hungry, or left bleeding. We don't recognize our own faces in those we demonize.
Whether you call for laying down your guns (as lambs to the slaughter) in the name of liberal humanitarianism, or whether you call for it because Christ commanded differs only slightly, and both are matters of faith. Man's law certainly seems to be a failure - no, it is a lie. We are left with natural law, or with God's law. Eat or be eaten. Liberals offer no reason other than some hollow hope that laying down weapons will finally break the hearts of the cruel and ruthless. Christians claim that God is their defender. I don't know which is worse. Sometimes I think I'd prefer just not to be in this world anymore, the more insane things become. I used to think this verse at least offered some hope, and even now it certainly seems more rational than just offering your neck to the beasts without any resistance, in hopes that doing so will reveal some mercy in them. Victory? please. Isaiah at least had a source of hope that didn't rely on human decency.
For anyone whose hopes rest on something higher than mankind (rational or not)
Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness [a] will go before you,
and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.