Starbucks, iPods, School Shootings

Chuck Norris actually just published an interesting column about school shootings. The url is www.creators.com/opinion/chuck-norris.ht....

"And yet, I can’t even begin to make sense of what happened at NIU last week...After all, how do you make sense of something so utterly senseless"

By connecting the dots. This society has been rebelling since the 1960's and is now reaping what it's sowed.

Look back to the 1950's and see how children were raised and see how they are raised today. When you have a society where divorce is practically in vogue, where "My baby's daddy" has replaced "My husband", where kids run loose in restaurants disrupting people while their parents do nothing about it, and of course a society that celebrates gang culture, Britney Spears, and through the latter-day interpretation of the Constitution has all but made God illegal, you are going to have the sense of systemic desparation you have today.

I was born in 1961 and came of age just after these changes started, and apart from the honorable efforts of the civil rights pioneers, the social changes made in the U.S. have been more or less a throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater movement of rebellion. Sadly, they won't teach this in school since many of those who do the teaching are the ones who have instituted these changes.

Road rage, gangs, schoolyard shootings, didn't happen en masse half a century ago. There is a reason why this was the case.

I don't know if I agree that "rebellion" is a cause of the violence, or if it is a result (and always has been). People have been ganging up together, and beating one another, since the Dawn of Man. Today, we have more reasons to be fearful and hateful towards one another, and also have less resistance to picking up a weapon to settle an issue.

Also, is it not possible that the 1950's were not so much more peaceful, but that indifferences between people actually COULD be settled with a little fighting? That is, a simple fistfight could allow two people to come to terms with one another, without escalating to a stabbing or shooting?

Our 'hormonal youth' probably needs this type of physical outlet, in order to release the pressures they endure at the time. And, as much as I believe that we should be tolerant and peaceful towards our fellow humans, it may have to wait for adulthood. Besides, a bloody nose is much easier to deal with, than a bullet wound.

Please note, I have not taken the time to address that some people can't take the damage to their Pride, and would not be able to take a beating with dignity. These are the type of people who have never learned about Honor, or at the very least, Sportsmanship.

Also, I am not considering any truly, mentally ill kids in this, as that's a whole other issue.

Oh, wow. I didn't know that rebellion DIDN'T EXIST before the 1960's. Well, that explains everything.
For someone who was born in 1960, you sure are naive. I know the '50s looked all peachy keen and wonderful, and divorce rates were low, but why do you think things changed in the first place? Are you really decieved by the 1950s' image?
Believe it or not, people cheated, lied, stole, and (gasp!) even rebelled before the 1960's.
And though I can clearly see how kids being allowed to run around restaurants influences said children to murder others (cue sarcasm), I really don't see how this is "connecting the dots."

Now, in response to the column itself, I think Mollie has said all she can possibly say-- and beautifully.
I don't really think there is much of an explanation for this, and I believe in each case the reasons vary. It's incredibly difficult to pinpoint why, and why now?
I think, in theory, this is something mankind has always had to deal with, though this is a new outlet. A new manifestation of another one of society's glitches. It's really a matter of someone taking the lives of some innocent people, plain and simple.

I do think our generation-- with the media and depression and anxiety-inducing cultural habits-- may be more inclined to do something like this.
I also would like to mention the drugs this person was on. You mentioned it briefly, since it wasn't exactly your focus, but I think it is incredibly significant.
Psychiatric drugs can leave a person senseless, out-of-control, and completely unaware of themselves and others. It's astonishing how many people (especially young people) are on these drugs that transform the brain's chemistry.
Yes, they help a lot of people, but they do a lot of harm as well.

I guess that's really just one facet of the issue, but definetely a remarkable one.

Also, what about the common youth lifestyle? Watching TV all day long-- progams showing some of the most vapid, superficial, depressing people in the world; video and computer games all about shooting, killing, dying, only to restart the game with the press of a button.
The mainstream values of this generation-- MY generation-- are so sad. Now, I'm what most people would consider an "atheist," but I have stronger morals and values than 99% of people my age, most of who assign themselves to a faith.

Well, I could go on and on and on, but I would need my own weekly column for that. I guess my point is that each and every person in this country needs to think about themselves and how they are contributing as individuals to this society, and that would fix a lot of the problems that people blame on "media, society" and blah blah blah, while practicing all these behaviors without any self-evaluation.

In the meantime, I hope we find a more short-term way to somehow prevent anymore tradgedies like this.

Critterchels,Let me quote you:"The mainstream values of this generation-- MY generation-- are so sad."

How do you think it got this way? What road did this culture turn down to get to this point. That is what I pointed out, but of course you attack me personally rather than address the point I raised.

You also wrote: " but why do you think things changed in the first place? Are you really decieved by the 1950s' image?"

Moreover, if you actually read what I wrote--with your mouth closed--you would see that I addressed that issue when I brought up the subject of the civil rights movement so OF COURSE I'm not saying all was well in th 50's.

If you had rad the part about the "throw-the-baby-out-with-the-bathwater" mentality, you would see that I was connecting the two points.

Learn about history, and not just from what they teach in school. Observe the bad and the good in all cultures and ideologies. See that the Liberals make some good points, and so do the conservatives and take the good from each.

You take the typical approach which is leading us down the path of destruction: You recognize there is a problem, but you fail to have any solution other than treating it symptomatically--an approach we see in the form of anti-gun and anti-drug laws, as well as social programs that treat symptoms of poverty but not the root cause.

On the other hand, Equus brings up an interesting point about allowing us to blow off steam before worse things happen. While I do not condone fistfighting, Equus's point addresses the greater problem of how we all have been told to bottle in what we are really feeling until it blows up.

billclausen, I'm sorry I didn't read your comment thoroughly enough, but I was a bit amazed from a couple of statements that you said which became a bit distracting. I was only really responding to those points-- not to your overall comments.

For that, I apologize, I just read your comment the wrong way, I suppose.

I would like to make a couple of things clear, though.
I am the last person in the world who would excusively believe what the nice people in school have told me. Furthermore, I've completed expansive research projects on the 1960s era, and I don't think the whole "equality, freedom" movement had everything right, either.

I'd also like to point out that I really take care to avoid extremes, especially when it comes to politics. Like you said, I do really believe both liberals and conservatives possess both good and bad attitudes, values, and solutions.

I think you may have read my comment the wrong way, too. My whole point was that putting metal detectors and telling people to "watch out" for potentially dangerous students isn't going to solve anything. I mentioned that this is just another manifestation of one of society's innate problems that has roots far deeper than the original Columbine shootings. What I was really trying to get across is that, while I'm sure the media and today's culture has some influence over school shootings, we can't really blame one particular thing for such a nebulous problem.

Hope that cleared things up. I didn't mean to attack you at all, so please don't take it personally. I only attacked some of your words.
The fact that you even care to analyze and discuss issues like this one shows that you are a remarkable person.

"The fact that you even care to analyze and discuss issues like this one shows that you are a remarkable person."

I'm not remarkable at all, in fact, I'm rather average and boring. All I am is someone who has been around the block a few times and sharing my life experience with Mollie to at least give her another angle on what is going on.

Clearly, the generations before her made a big mess of things in a lot of areas. Let's take physical illnesses that are so prevalent today. Most kids grow up eating junk food and don't know any other way and they wonder why their moods swing up and down. (In my opinion, another BIG contributor to the social problems we have) They don't know that a few generations ago people ate the food they would consider tasteless.

Our ethical situation is much the same. Look at so many of the people in the entertainment industry who are blessed with good looks, incredible wealth, and the world at their feet. In spite of this, they can't stay married, they often end up in rehab, and sometimes end up offing themselves. All the while, they are surrounded by people who keep telling them how great they are rather than tell them the truth. (That they're messing up their lives)

This is the point of my message.

A few months ago, Mollie wrote of her visit to her grandparents' back in (as I remember) the state of Georgia. She mentioned how her grandparents are great people except that she cannot stomach their support of racial segregation. In response to that, I wrote in effect that they seemed to have it together except for their racial ideology. In short, it would be a mistake to totally reject all their views because of their racial attitudes.

What I see is that modern culture is so obsessed with rejecting the values of the distant past because of attitudes from that time that you and I would agree are unacceptable, (To Wit: Racism) that the idea of having children within marriage and raising kids with the right combination of love and discipline have become antiquated ideas.

With the advances in medicine that are taking place, I think it's realistic to think that barring anything unforeseen, Mollie's generation can probably expect to live to be 100 or more. That's a lot of time to either make things better, or dig themselves even deeper into the hole created by the previous ones.

You can take or leave what I say, but for what it's worth, that's the way I see it.