Why With All The Mass Shootings
Jul. 24th, 2015 08:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wingedbeastDisclaimer: I am going to talk, with some tone of authority, about something I have absolutely no authority on.
Why do people keep on going into public places and purposely killing as many people as possible?
I think the answer lies in something I brought up with regards to the Duggar scandal, and that's moral hubris.
This latest mass shooting was by John Russell Houser, a man who hated feminism, praised the WBC, and reportedly admired Hitler.* If you read the linked article, you'll find the writings of a man not given to self-doubt.
We can't let our understanding of Houser start and end with "mentally ill", because, while there are some signs, mental illness does not lead, automatically, to violence. It's a rare thing. Besides, it may not be the case for Dylan Roof.
Dylan Roof was the shooter in Charleston, NC. What we know of Dylan Roof includes that he enacted his mass shooting while wearing an apartheid flag and after having been in contact with white supremacist organizations. White Supremacist organizations don't tend to be inviting of self-doubt.
Neither do fundamentalists of any religion, including that of those who killed 14 people at the magazine Je Suis Charlie.
But, let's go farther into history and look at other, more well known, mass killings.
Salem Witch Trials, Inquisitions, Crusades, and the Holocaust.
Each of these happened in a culture that had a... less than inviting attitude towards doubting the prevailing narrative. You could get killed even for voicing the possibility that what the government was doing was, perhaps, less than moral.
Each of these happened in mindsets that divided the world into moral binaries. "Us" is good. "Them" is evil. "I" am good. "Anybody who disagrees with me" must be either intellectually or morally deficient... or both.
Moral complexity. Personal complexity. These are not allowed. Whatever complexity, particularly in the form of conspiracy theories, is all in service of eliminating the moral complexity.
We can discuss matters of a toxic view of masculinity or aggrieved entitlement. We can't ignore them. Elliot Rodger, the shooter who assaulted a sorority, doesn't fit easily into the narrative I've presented. But, given his own words, toxic masculinity and aggrieved entitlement are the best words to describe.
We can talk about gun control. We can talk about a society, in general, that views violence as glorious. We can talk about a view of masculinity that is defined in violence and the expression of power over others.
But, we must also talk about cultures that give an allergic reaction to any hint of moral ambiguity.
* http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/louisiana-gunman-was-a-confederate-flag-flying-tea-party-kook-who-hated-obama-and-admired-hitler/
Why do people keep on going into public places and purposely killing as many people as possible?
I think the answer lies in something I brought up with regards to the Duggar scandal, and that's moral hubris.
This latest mass shooting was by John Russell Houser, a man who hated feminism, praised the WBC, and reportedly admired Hitler.* If you read the linked article, you'll find the writings of a man not given to self-doubt.
We can't let our understanding of Houser start and end with "mentally ill", because, while there are some signs, mental illness does not lead, automatically, to violence. It's a rare thing. Besides, it may not be the case for Dylan Roof.
Dylan Roof was the shooter in Charleston, NC. What we know of Dylan Roof includes that he enacted his mass shooting while wearing an apartheid flag and after having been in contact with white supremacist organizations. White Supremacist organizations don't tend to be inviting of self-doubt.
Neither do fundamentalists of any religion, including that of those who killed 14 people at the magazine Je Suis Charlie.
But, let's go farther into history and look at other, more well known, mass killings.
Salem Witch Trials, Inquisitions, Crusades, and the Holocaust.
Each of these happened in a culture that had a... less than inviting attitude towards doubting the prevailing narrative. You could get killed even for voicing the possibility that what the government was doing was, perhaps, less than moral.
Each of these happened in mindsets that divided the world into moral binaries. "Us" is good. "Them" is evil. "I" am good. "Anybody who disagrees with me" must be either intellectually or morally deficient... or both.
Moral complexity. Personal complexity. These are not allowed. Whatever complexity, particularly in the form of conspiracy theories, is all in service of eliminating the moral complexity.
We can discuss matters of a toxic view of masculinity or aggrieved entitlement. We can't ignore them. Elliot Rodger, the shooter who assaulted a sorority, doesn't fit easily into the narrative I've presented. But, given his own words, toxic masculinity and aggrieved entitlement are the best words to describe.
We can talk about gun control. We can talk about a society, in general, that views violence as glorious. We can talk about a view of masculinity that is defined in violence and the expression of power over others.
But, we must also talk about cultures that give an allergic reaction to any hint of moral ambiguity.
* http://www.rawstory.com/2015/07/louisiana-gunman-was-a-confederate-flag-flying-tea-party-kook-who-hated-obama-and-admired-hitler/
no subject
Date: 2015-07-31 07:13 pm (UTC)It seems kind of relevant to the discussion.