America’s Addiction to…Violence
Violence and threats of violence were on full display in our nation’s capital this past week. Not isolated incidents by a long stretch, these occurrences highlight what has long been the true epidemic in this country.
The root causes are far beyond my scope but the evidence of doing nothing to combat this most serious and deadly of mental illness will continue to plague all peoples if we do not acknowledge and treat the problem.
Violent video games, television programs, films, literature and hate speech on social media are not the causes of our addiction to settling conflicts with physical harm. They are all symptoms of a much deeper mindset known to be flawed and detrimental to progress for free, intelligent, loving people. That mindset is namely: Might Makes Right.
Depictions of violence are painless you say. That may be true, but the psychological damage is real. Empaths, upon witnessing even violence inherent in the animal kingdom, feel the pain of its victims. They feel the pain of people even more acutely. Conversely, there are those for whom violent acts release endorphins and a rush of adrenaline they find stimulating at least, and euphoric at worst.
I speak of these things from personal observations of myself. Faced with situations and people who behave in an immoral or unjust way toward people or animals causes a rise in blood pressure relieved only by seeing those individuals suffer the very violence they are inflicting.
In my heart I know this is terribly wrong. I know this because my body immediately feels a nauseating remorse for those thoughts. No, thoughts are not actions, but words can and do incite violent reactions. I leave it to the professionals to figure out why, but this problem must be highlighted and debated by the best minds of our generation.
We encourage people to settle their differences with violence, overtly or subliminally, and then we give them lethal weapons. When heinous acts are committed by those individuals, we decry those persons as “animal” and “criminal.” We other them in such a way as to lay all the blame on the individual while taking none of the responsibility for the role we play in facilitating slaughter.
War, in all its forms, is the single most destructive human failure. We continue to engage in it while never learning anything remotely useful. The only knowledge gained is how to wage a better war.
We have strict laws controlling addictive substances known to cause death in the United States. Narcotics, for example, are in that category. The so called “war on drugs” works tirelessly to keep people from harming themselves with dangerous substances. However, when it comes to limiting a populace addicted to violence from obtaining lethal weapons of mass destruction, guns are passed out like party favors on New Years Eve.
The automobile, it has been argued, can be used as a lethal weapon too. Great example. Cars have to be registered every year and insured. A license involving a written and practical test is required to operate one. That license needs to be renewed every so often. The rigors we demand for the ownership and operation of a car pale in comparison to that of owning a deadly weapon.
The claim is made that guns can be a deterrent to violence, but they are by no means “defensive weapons.” Unless and until we figure out how to deploy a force field to prevent any penetration into our soft, vulnerable bodies, there will be no such thing as a defensive weapon. The gun, again, is only the symptom of the problem, a symptom that worsens the longer we ignore the disease. Bigger, better, more powerful guns are not going to solve anything for our children or our children’s children.
The law protecting a person’s right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed but it is not a license to kill. There are strict laws against murder, but they do not seem to be much of a deterrent to someone addicted to deadly violence. Yet there are no laws I am aware of mandated to find the root cause of why people crave escape from their lives or feel helpless in coping with the world to the extent they need violence, or any other drug, to survive.
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