Remember Anders Breivic, the Norwegian mass killer of 77? Ali Sonboly, the Munich born teenager who shot up a shopping mall did, and he acted out his tribute on the same day, 5 years later. He used a 9mm Glock pistol despite Germany's strict gun laws and fell far short of Breivic's "score" which was aided by the use of a bomb.
The Norwegian mass killer was, like many Republican candidates a right winger, obsessed with stopping immigration. The victims of Sonboly were Eastern European immigrants, many from Kosovo.
Is "score" a bad way to look at it? Yes, and deliberately so, because there's a whole lot of evidence that some disturbed people feel attracted to a mass killing culture and dream of making a new high score like video game enthusiasts do.
Are we paying any attention to the psychology of such people, mostly young and impressionable and pathological? They can be hard to pick out of a crowd and perhaps hard even when you know them to predict they'll act out a dream of going out in what they see as a blaze of glory.
These aren't the same people who rob banks and shoot people, or who traffic in drugs and shoot people and sometimes they're not all that politically or religiously motivated, They seem to find a way to do it within the limitations of law and circumstance. But at this point, these acts of terrorism were motivated by the same hatred that motivated the Nazis, and that motivate the Republican party, currently pandering to the fear and hysteria and xenophobia of the American Lumpenproletariat; that disaffected, alienated and fearful segment of our gun and bible clinging peonage.
Funny it is, to hear them trying to disassociate themselves from what essentially is their own philosophy and somehow associate it with Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Not so funny to see it work so well.
Germany has adopted many of the "sensible" gun control policies advocated for the US and far more, yet Sonboly, who may have been receiving psychiatric treatment, managed to obtain a semi-automatic pistol and several boxes of ammunition. More stringent controls were enacted in 2003 after a school shooting massacre of 16 by a student.
Has Germany (or Norway) with far fewer guns in private hands and far more comprehensive and well thought out gun control, rid itself of rampage killers? No and it's my opinion that no "cure' based on guns alone will do that in the USA with it's centuries old affinity for firearms, it's huge number of guns and the equation of guns with security against government excess that passes for patriotism. That's not an argument against gun control, but it's a caution against simple solutions that will disappoint and frustrate and radicalize us all.
It's complicated and yet the most passionate promote the most simple solutions, some informed and objective, others wilfully and obstinately uninformed and cling to them through failure after failure. Unless we study the various subcultures of violent revenge unless and we study the alienation and radicalization that's going on around the world as modernity spreads and prosperity abandons some and benefits others and religion fails to change anything for the better. -- unless we learn and accept what we're dealing with, we're not going to make these things go away any more than Nancy Reagan and the DEA made Marijuana or opiates or amphetamines go away.
But we're too damn stubborn, aren't we? We're too satisfied with our opinions and too willing to reject anything from "outside" without listening. And so it goes on and on.
The fact that this attack occurred five years to the day since Anders Breivik killed 77 people in Norway makes this a copycat crime. The relationship between culture and gun violence is a subject I have been studying for years, as stated in this recent op-ed column:
ReplyDelete“We find examples of delusional thinking across a range of mental illnesses, from anti-social and psychotic disorders to developmental disabilities. Delusions are personifications of internal torments and external stimuli.
My research reveals this: Delusional thoughts are as much a reflection of culture as a descent into madness. Simply stated, culture shapes the way disturbed people perceive and respond to their delusions.”
Needless to say, the latest massacre adds one more script to an already gruesome inventory of bloody crimes for madmen to follow.
And that was one hell of an editorial, and I say Fair and Balanced without a trace of irony.
ReplyDeleteSo this morning we have another copycat crime in Ft Meyers and more fodder for the mourning and weeping and cry all night cycle which some person will look at and feel inspired. Seems many of would-be mass killers feel a sense of competition as though this were a test or a rite of passage.
Part of our culture indeed and we're even inspiring more of it it in our political advertising. Saw a TV commercial this morning for a woman running for Congress and among other abominations like "protecting children from Obamacare" it showed a group of angry men carrying rifles while the voice promised to protect us from immigrants. If that's not incitement, I don't know what is.