It's All Related
columnist: Jahfre Fire Eater

Topic: Social and Cultural Issues
The Difference Between a Suicide Bomber and a Mall Shooter

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One is a strategy; the other an unintended consequence.

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by Jahfre Fire Eater
(Libertarian)
Friday, December 14, 2007

Suicide Bombers are typically not American; Mall Shooters usually are.
Suicide Bombers do not typically come from public schools; Mall Shooters do.
Suicide Bombers do not typically come from broken homes; Mall Shooters do.
Suicide Bombers inspire intense investigation and speculation about their religious and moral beliefs and the culture that instill those in them; I've not noticed a single mention of religious or moral beliefs of a single Mall Shooter.
Suicide Bombers do not have to select a specific person as a target; Mall Shooters do.
Suicide Bombers rarely get their name in the news; Mall Shooters always do.
Suicide Bombers aren't likely to be taking a SSRI drug; Mall Shooters are.

Is there a conspiracy afoot? Could the drug companies and the public schools and the social workers and therapists and the news media all be in cahoots to create a steady stream of Mall Shooters? Yep, they could be. I don't think that is likely though.

I view the creation of the Mall Shooter as an "unintended consequence" of our choices as a society about what kind of culture we have. This is a result of a multitude of individual human actions, not directed behavior or collusion.

It doesn't take an act of congress or any other knee-jerk reactionary big government intrusion into the workings of civilization to change the situation. It takes individuals, one-by-one, deciding to change their own behavior and their own attitudes about what they will accept in their culture. It takes a multitude of human actions doing something different than what they have been doing. This takes time but it also takes deliberate, focused behavior.

The rituals of religion along with the fear of the consequences of non-conformity have kept mankind focused, deliberate and accountable for thousands of years. At various times and in various places religion has had greater and lesser influence but it has always been there.

I'm not a fan of religions but I recognize many ways in which they add value and structure to community life. I don't advocate a return to religion. Instead, I pursue a future where one-by-one; humans take a focused and determined step away from religions. Not away from their faith or their morals or their values or principles, but away from the churches and religions that have arisen among followers of those faiths. This is a long term vision, not something I'll see in my lifetime.

A clearer way of visualizing this is as a step towards something better rather than as a step away from religion. Stepping away from ritual and structure imposed by religion is not in itself a bad or destructive move. The problems we see now are not because of the stepping away from religions but from the not stepping towards something better. We stepped away in an attempt to escape responsibility and accountability but what we couldn't step away from were the consequences associated with shirking these virtues.

As we left the structure and ritual behind we didn't replace it with a better plan, a direction. Instead we replaced the structure with a constant fire drill, a completely reactionary state of being where every new challenge is met as a unique scenario; unrelated to our past experiences. More and more our society is becoming dominated by people who live this way. We're sliding into a predominantly reactionary culture.

Many social problems we face are just unforeseen consequences of this same root cause, reactionism.

The problems such as:

- The Mall Shooters and violence in general

- The over medicated youth

- The devaluation of family structure and community involvement

- The fostering of a vicious us-versus-them mentality rather than a mentality of problem solving and cooperation

- The dumbing down of Americans that results from public education policy

- The ever increasing costs of this ever eroding educational effectiveness

- The political apathy

- The fiscal ignorance

- The financial gullibility

- The expectation of instant gratification for any new passion we experience

- Disregard for the value of human life and the sanctity of the individual

We treat our societies as if they were log rolling competitions rather than canoe outings. We're not getting anywhere this way. We're not seeing anything new, thinking anything new or learning any new behaviors. We're just standing here on our log, waiting for the next challenger to jump on and face us. We're just waiting to react. We don't have a destination. We either react, or we stand at the ready to react; while thinking about reacting or training for reacting.

Humans are fully capable of much more than we have so far achieved. We are capable of evaluating, planning, acting in concert, measuring results, re-evaluating, changing plans and staying focused on a goal. We go to the moon that way. When it comes to the advancement of civilization we resort to the same reactionism/log rolling that numerous civilizations before us have chosen. That baffles me. It is the path of an empire in decline that we are on and the proof is readily available for anyone who care, or dares, to compare today's choices in politics, foreign policy, fiscal and monetary policy, community structure and rituals and our morals and values to those near the end of the Roman Empire, or the Ottoman Empire or any of other lesser empires through the span of history. We are repeating the same actions and expecting different result.

Except "we" aren't, really; not consciously anyway. This is happening, sure as the sun rises fully lit, be we aren't ‘doing' it, and we're not ‘expecting' anything because there isn't a lot of proactive thought given to consequences. No, we address consequences with reactionary rationalizations or legislation. This path is the result of doing nothing but reacting. It is the path of least resistance and effort. This is the default pattern that arises over and over when a society becomes too full of folks who are easily frightened into giving their rulers total control over them. Too many people are willing to succumb to distractions rather than hold their government accountable for the consequences of its actions. Too many people abandon their responsibility to be their own best advocate and adopt a mentality of trusting their leaders to always be benevolent and protective despite their track record for doing just the opposite, all the time.

We all get what is coming whether we deserve it or not. The best we can do is learning from the past what is coming in the future. I don't know if we can change the pattern. It has never happened before and I don't see any reason to believe it will be different this time.

The biggest difference between the Suicide Bombers and the Mall Shooters is that Americans aren't yet willing to declare war on Mall Shooters or their indoctrination centers or their drug peddling doctors or parents or their religion or the government that encourages, allows and subsidizes many of these activities.

Isn't it odd that Americans can be easily convinced to be scared to panicked irrationality about foreign cultures and religions that create Suicide Bombers but they snuggle up the establishment in our own country that creates Mall Shooters?

Jahfre Fire Eater

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2007 Jahfre Fire Eater, all rights reserved.
Published: Friday, December 14, 2007
Last modified: Friday, December 14, 2007

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