All that exists right here in Costa Rica, too, and yet, I’ve never heard of a mass murder. And that goes for many other countries. So why is it so commonplace in the States? Do we just accept it as part of our world?
Every time I hear of insane events like the one that happened in Connecticut yesterday, I'm truly dumbfounded. Call me naive, but I simply just don’t get why people hurt each other. When I started delving for answers in college, I learned that rapists are mostly about sick power and control. I learned that serial killers get the psychological thrill of cat and mouse power, and most especially, the reward of notoriety. They want to live to see the whole world looking at them. But mass murderers in the workplace? What’s behind their actions? What do they get out of taking innocent people’s lives before their own?
For this, I Googled “profile of a mass murderer”. On deathreference. com they generally described it like this:
Although many people experience job loss without becoming mass murders, they (sic) have frequently experienced chronic or social isolation. The only factor in their lives that is meaningful to them is their job or career... Typically many years of frustration have occurred before this fatal event... They are incapable of coping with their problems in adaptive ways by changing their behavior...
An inability to cope in adaptive ways by changing one’s behavior. Years of frustration, meaning those around them could probably see it, or at least something, coming. I’d say that’s the key to all criminals. When I was teaching, I could see that potential in the few profoundly behaviorally disordered children I encountered. Not even the minefield of ever-stretched and dysfunctional social services could help. A futile battle. All I could do was pray that I wouldn't be reading about them in the paper. Multiply that by a whole country.
So, how do we prevent any child from growing up to be a murderer? Here are my "what-if’s" for the day:
What if the country made a pact to glamorize do-gooders? Make real-life, authentic goodness cool?
What if we made a pact not to subject our children and ourselves of the daily onslaught of sex, violence, and stupidity every day? Media jams it down our throats and says that’s what the public wants. Is it really? What if we railed against it and let them know that it isn’t? What if we just turned them off?
What if we all took some social responsibility to nurture all children into a secure and nurturing world? What if our government actually threw some money at that for a change?
Our country used to pride itself on pride. Now we seem to pride ourselves on not having any. Rights without responsibility. Bad guys win, victims are schmucks. A government no longer for the people. Is our empire falling?
And yet, the fact remains, we still have hope. We voraciously eat up good news stories - especially of every day heroes like the Captain Sully’s of the world. So why don’t we demand more? Why don’t we put money and media into investing in goodness for a change? Let's make it cool - on Facebook, Twitter and everywhere else. I just might want to return to my country again.
Okay, enough of my railing. What do YOU think?
I think that a major cable provider in Costa Rica ought to broadcast something other than FOX news. PUKE! How embarrassing for people around the world to think Americans are like those featured on that station. I wonder how many other countries see the same thing?
ReplyDeleteI agree that it would be nice to get some positive messages from the media. We deserve to hear that we are mostly doing our best. The headline grabber shouldn't be about the worst part of society.
Absolutely. It's so hard to keep perspective. It just seems like society is "going to hell in a handbasket" as my father would say, but then again, every society from the beginning of history is known to have said the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThere's a lot wrong with this world, but there's a lot right. The media loves to thrive on the inane and insane almost to the point of it all sounding "normal". No wonder we're desensitized. And yes, FOX news is just plain scary. They don't even try to hide the fact they're manipulative. Fair and Balanced. Yeah, right. If only that were true.