Desperate Acts

[Winstonm]

AP writer Ted Anthony goes beyond the gun control argument and asks the more troubling questions:

 

Even in a media-saturated nation that encourages short memories, these numbers are conversation-stopping: Forty-seven people dead in the past month in American mass shootings and their aftermaths.

 

Put aside for a moment the debate over guns. This isn't about policy. It's about asking the urgent question: What is happening in the American psyche that prevents people from defusing their own anguish and rage before they end the lives of others? Why are we killing each other?

 

The strangest of contradictions hangs over the Binghamton shootings. The shooter and many of the victims were immigrants — part of the pool of human beings who look to America as a place of opportunity and take often anonymous steps to realize their dreams here. On Friday, the idea that had beckoned them betrayed them.

 

The man believed to be the shooter, Jiverly Wong, had lost his job at an assembly plant, was barely getting by on unemployment and was frustrated that the American dream, so highly billed and coveted, wasn't coming through for him. Early reports suggest that the suspect in the Pittsburgh officers' killings, too, was angered at being laid off from a glass factory.

 

People are of course responsible for their actions, but it's hard to avoid wondering what's afoot in the darkest recesses of what we like to call American exceptionalism. For so long, the national narrative has been so bullish about equality of opportunity, so persuasive in its romance of possibility for all. Is it so subversive to speculate, then, that when the engine of possibility runs into roadblocks, people can't cope?

 

On Friday, the federal government announced that 663,000 Americans lost their jobs in March. What's truly unsettling in America's new era of gloom and dead ends is wondering how many of those 663,000 might be deeply, irrevocably angry about it — and might have a gun.

 

Because the American tragedies that haven't happened yet are the most terrifying ones of all

 

Has the U.S. as a country lost its way?

[Lobowolf]

AP writer Ted Anthony goes beyond the gun control argument and asks the more troubling questions:

 

Even in a media-saturated nation that encourages short memories, these numbers are conversation-stopping: Forty-seven people dead in the past month in American mass shootings and their aftermaths.

 

Put aside for a moment the debate over guns. This isn't about policy. It's about asking the urgent question: What is happening in the American psyche that prevents people from defusing their own anguish and rage before they end the lives of others? Why are we killing each other?

 

The strangest of contradictions hangs over the Binghamton shootings. The shooter and many of the victims were immigrants — part of the pool of human beings who look to America as a place of opportunity and take often anonymous steps to realize their dreams here. On Friday, the idea that had beckoned them betrayed them.

 

The man believed to be the shooter, Jiverly Wong, had lost his job at an assembly plant, was barely getting by on unemployment and was frustrated that the American dream, so highly billed and coveted, wasn't coming through for him. Early reports suggest that the suspect in the Pittsburgh officers' killings, too, was angered at being laid off from a glass factory.

 

People are of course responsible for their actions, but it's hard to avoid wondering what's afoot in the darkest recesses of what we like to call American exceptionalism. For so long, the national narrative has been so bullish about equality of opportunity, so persuasive in its romance of possibility for all. Is it so subversive to speculate, then, that when the engine of possibility runs into roadblocks, people can't cope?

 

On Friday, the federal government announced that 663,000 Americans lost their jobs in March. What's truly unsettling in America's new era of gloom and dead ends is wondering how many of those 663,000 might be deeply, irrevocably angry about it — and might have a gun.

 

Because the American tragedies that haven't happened yet are the most terrifying ones of all

 

Has the U.S. as a country lost its way?

I'll take the "No." Over 3 million people live in the United States. Over 663,000 thousand of them lost their jobs in March. For systemic representation of the State of the Union, I'll extrapolate from the 662,995 who didn't kill anyone; not the 5 who did.

[Winstonm]

These kinds of results may have something to do with it as well:

 

All of the income gains in 2005 went to the top 10 percent of households, while the bottom 90 percent of households saw income declines. (EPI Snapshot, March 28, 2007)

 

Unprecedented levels of capital income are fueling inequality in the current business cycle. In the third quarter of 2006, the share of corporate income going to capital (profits and interest) hit an all-time high of 23 percent, with the remaining 77 percent going to employee compensation. Since capital income disproportionately goes to the top of the income scale, this shift towards capital income increases the income gap. (EPI Snapshot, Jan. 17, 2007)

 

More than jobs, but perhaps a building hopelessness based on loss of control?

[PassedOut]

Over 3 million people live in the United States.

Way over.

[luke warm]

These kinds of results may have something to do with it as well:

 

All of the income gains in 2005 went to the top 10 percent of households, while the bottom 90 percent of households saw income declines. (EPI Snapshot, March 28, 2007)

 

Unprecedented levels of capital income are fueling inequality in the current business cycle. In the third quarter of 2006, the share of corporate income going to capital (profits and interest) hit an all-time high of 23 percent, with the remaining 77 percent going to employee compensation. Since capital income disproportionately goes to the top of the income scale, this shift towards capital income increases the income gap. (EPI Snapshot, Jan. 17, 2007)

 

More than jobs, but perhaps a building hopelessness based on loss of control?

what do you suggest?

[kenberg]

Have we lost our way? As Lobo points out, most of us do not kill anyone. I think I read somewhere that violent crime decreased during the Great Depression. Whether that is correct or not I would say that it is a leap to go from laid off to berserk gunman.

 

I do worry some about our future as a country but then I have reached the age where that is an expected attitude. These young people, what are they thinking...

[barmar]

People react to frustration in their lives in different ways. Some buck up and live with it, maybe it energizes them to try even harder. Some get depressed and turn to drugs or alcohol and ruin their lives further. And a few become violent, resulting in tragedies like this.

 

I don't see this as representing anything about our society's psyche. You can just as easily find examples of selflessness to show how great we are; during natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes, or during the 9/11 attacks, there have been countless examples.

 

And why single out America? Perhaps we have more incidents like Binghampton and Columbine, but other countries have civil wars over elections and sectarian issues. I much prefer to live in a country with an occasional, limited acts of personal violence than one of the countries where many people are afraid for their lives on a daily basis due to suicide bombers and other terrorist acts.

[Lobowolf]

Over 3 million people live in the United States.

Way over.

lol Good catch; that's 300 million.