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[inteuniso]

This thread will mostly cater to American forum-goers, but I welcome all Bay 12ers in order for us to get an international perspective, and possibly fix this problem.

Spoiler: Massive Wall of Text (click to show/hide)

I am writing this in light of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. I do not want to politicize the event, merely reflect on what appears to be only an increasing number of tragedies and massacres.

There is something deeply wrong with American culture at the moment. I do not know the root cause of it, I can only guess that it has something to do with our inability to accept our vulnerability as a nation. I do know, however, that something needs to be changed. Our country is going down a dangerous trail, and one where if we keep going down there might be too much darkness to find the right path.

People will say two things about this tragedy: either that crazy people shouldn't be allowed guns, or that guns should just outright be banned. Why aren't we asking why this person did this? Why aren't we trying to figure out the psychology behind this attack, what prompted this man to go crazy and kill children?

This is not normal behavior. Yes, there are higher murder rates in other countries. There are also many countries where there are lower murder rates. Guns help facilitate the violence, but those who support freedoms to own guns are also right: should you go through enough trouble, you can obtain a gun quite easily, be it through the internet, private purchase, or simply a gun show.

East Asian culture promotes balance. The yin and the yang, good and bad, balance each other out. If life is an equation, good and bad are on opposite sides of the equation, and good will equal bad should the equation be balanced. Notice how I use bad, not evil? American society has become accustomed to the protagonist being a great hero, the antagonist an awful villain. In more recent times, culture has shifted to a bleaker tale: the protagonist, a tortured anti-hero who does the right thing for the wrong reasons. The antagonist, a villain who does evil things for the sake of evil. Everywhere we look, conflict permeates the American atmosphere. Television, Politics, Books, Video Games, Movies, Art, Current Events. We are looking at symptoms of the problems as the problems themselves. Why don't we do a reevaluation of American Culture as a whole?

Let's start at the beginning: The American War for Independence, or the American Revolution. This was a war that started when roughly one-third of the British colonies' population decided that they were tired of living under the tyrannical rule of the British, and were going to declare independence and have their own country. Two-thirds of the population were against it: one-third crown loyalists, and the other third neutrals, immigrants who had no vested interest in either side.

When the American Revolution was won, what happened to the loyalists? Were they allowed to live as they had, owning their property and living the American Dream? No, they emigrated, to Canada and other British colonial possessions as the British government offered them free land. The victors of the war reaped the loot, and redistributed the land, sometimes taken forcefully.

America is a unique country, one founded on the idea of liberty and economic security. We must keep in mind the powers that formed it, however: slave-owning plantation owners, and other wealthy, intelligent minds of the time. A constitutional republic best suited those in power because there were so few in power. 

People opposed the constitution. Known as anti-federalists, they were a faction concerned with the loose wording of the constitution, and the ability to read it multiple ways. They wanted individual rights guaranteed, and these formed the first Ten Amendments to the constitution, known as the Bill of Rights.

Through working together, a constitution that could work for both sides was agreed upon. It is not a perfect constitution: that is why amendments are allowed for the constitution, and have been made.

We have stopped working together. Any place you go to, there is someone complaining about someone else. Conflict, strife, violence. All of these can describe situations everywhere. Children are becoming incredibly cynical and detached, apathetic to the world. Why? If you teach someone something before they're ready, they won't understand what to do with the knowledge. Everywhere, children are learning so much, and their minds are becoming stressed, tense, and unfocused. What do we do when that happens? We give children medication, tell them that they have a neurological disease.

Maybe we should stop thinking of ADD as a disorder and start thinking about it as a warning sign: America's children are becoming incredibly imbalanced, and as they grow up our future leaders are becoming apathetic, cynical, unfocused, and unsure of what they want to do with their lives. These are generalizations, of course, but the problem is still there: Children are learning so quickly that their experience can't help them understand what they know. The only way they learn to relax is by watching their parents, who do so by sitting down in front of their TVs, drinking alcohol, eating junk food, smoking tobacco, or drinking caffeine.

All of the above mentioned substances will kill you if you ingest too much of any one substance, or a combination of them. I am not endorsing that we stop using these substances: if you simply balance out the unhealthy with the healthy, the good with the bad, the temperate with the indulgent, you won't suffer from these effects as badly. America's culture of excess does not help with this balance.

I'm going to stop typing, as I've written and thought a lot about these problems.

In light of recent turmoil in the World as governments are shifting and trying to solve an incredibly large amount of problems at once, I think it's important to look to the past. Americans especially should look back at Washington's Farewell Address, as I think now, more than ever, is his and all of the past's perspective needed. In these dark times, we must not forget our greatest resource: the knowledge and experience of all of humanity, waiting on us to recall and use it.

Please, Bay 12, I implore you. Start thinking about the problems you see about you. Don't ignore them, but don't think about them from your solitary perspective. Become educated, learn as much as possible. If anything, our generation, with it's access and understanding of the internet, has the power to look on the problems of today and fix them for tomorrow.

[RedKing]

Insanity and violent sprees aren't just an American problem. But they're magnified by the ready supply of firearms as a multiplier. China and Japan have both have an increase in recent years of crazy stabbing attacks, wherein a guy will go into a school and just start stabbing kids until he's killed. Thing being (as I said in the other thread), it's a hell of a lot harder to mass stab 27 people.

[Darvi]

As we've already shown, not if you're Hitler.

Now that the inevitable Godwin's in the system, let the actual discussion commence.

[Thecard]

Yeah, I've noticed this too.  There is so little tolerance, because our society has to be too politically correct.  You don't learn about any religion, for one thing. 
I mean, I'll be honest, I think the government is secular and should not align itself with any particular religion.  Freedom is the principle of the U-S-of-A.  Sure, there are others, but we built this country on, for, and with freedom.
But that's what causes all this xenophobia against Muslims.  People assume they're all terrorists.  Hell, I didn't know the Islam faith existed until I moved to Virginia and met one at age 12.

And that's just one example.  America is so isolated from the rest of the world that we rarely teach children about the other side of the pond.  Hell, for the first eight years of my life, I thought America was literally an island (which was kinda sad, most of my friends actually did "swim across from Mexico," and that was confusing as hell for me).  We spend so much time going over two-hundred years of history, we rarely ever cover any other time period until late in high-school.




Seriously, we should all just move to Canada.

[MonkeyHead]

The entrenched and self perpetuating two party political system has got to take some of the blame for what those of us outside the USA see as your problems. It is stagnatory, and has built in negative feedback - look how some of the Repbublicans are blaming Romneys defeat on him not being Republican enough. The fact that the 2 parties polarise, with not much in the way of middle ground, compromise or third way/third party to act as a counterweight is a nightmare. You choose one or the other, and then the 2 parties draw a line in the sand and refuse to budge. Little in the way of diplomacy to sway third parties then takes place, and peoples political opinions are encouraged to allign with one of 2 relative extremes. A lack of a range of parties existing in enough strength to offer people a choice of representation over the whole political spectrum is really remarkable in a modern democracy.

[Taniec]

I agree with the other that this is not strictly a problem seen in the States. 15 mass shootings in the United States in 2012, however. This is now NORMAL, and that is what scares me the most. Too many people with too much time on their hands with too many first-world problems.

[inteuniso]

They're not, but why are they happening? Why is it that the rate of suicide, especially for younger people, has been increasing at a dramatic rate in the last 50 years? Why does a full quarter of America's population live with mental illness every day?

I'm starting to think more and more every day about mental illness. Not because I suffer from it, but because I did. I had suicidal thoughts at the age of 17, but I never actually went through with any attempts. What if "mental illness" itself is a misnomer? Perhaps what we're witnessing is not illness manifesting itself, but simply the brain sending warning signals? Other parts of the body send warning signs through physical pain, what if the brain is simply sending warning signals?

Again, I'm getting distracted by the symptoms of the problem. The more important fact is that something is going wrong with society itself. Something is starting to tear the very minds of humanity apart, and a very large number of those minds.

[kaijyuu]

Too many people with too much time on their hands with too many first-world problems.

Uh, please clarify: Are you blaming these things on too much free time and "first world problems"?

The more important fact is that something is going wrong with society itself. Something is starting to tear the very minds of humanity apart, and a very large number of those minds.

I disagree, simply because I believe this stuff has ALWAYS been the case, and now it's simply coming to light.

If there's anything "going wrong with society" I believe it to be the constant increases in stress and expectations. People are more insecure than ever, because they're expected to not be content with what they have and are expected to do more more more more. You can't just continue on the family business or whatever now; you have to build on it, make it bigger. And if you fail to do so...

We shame people too much for failure.

[GlyphGryph]

Insanity and violent sprees aren't just an American problem. But they're magnified by the ready supply of firearms as a multiplier. China and Japan have both have an increase in recent years of crazy stabbing attacks, wherein a guy will go into a school and just start stabbing kids until he's killed. Thing being (as I said in the other thread), it's a hell of a lot harder to mass stab 27 people.

Although people have certainly tried!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre

(There's actually been stabbing incidents in the high 20s, but this one had a higher fatality rate than them and still seems pretty relevant)

But reduced casualty rate still stands.

I think explosives are still more dangerous in the end, though, so I think there's more about the choice to use guns/swords/knives than one might guess at first glance. Why a knife and not a bomb?

Regardless, I think a core component of the problem is societal. Every society institutes norms as to how it's psychological problems are manifested, and in many ways this has become the norm. Even crazy people want to be normal - or lack the originality to be crazy in novel ways, or are simply impressionable enough that their brain internalizes this as an effective way to express its condition.

And "first world problems" trivializes it, but while the first world has been effective at meeting our basic needs and keeping us ALIVE and COMFORTABLE, it's a hell of a lot worse at providing what people actually need to be HAPPY than some of the third world situations I've been familiar with...

[Jopax]

Because bombs are rather hard to get? Even harder to make (possibly fatal if you don't know what you're doing). Especially in these times considering the whole terrorism thing.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I am writing this in light of the recent tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. I do not want to politicize the event, merely reflect on what appears to be only an increasing number of tragedies and massacres.

Keyword is "appears". Tragedy and massacre are on the decline, not the rise. Our increased sensitivity to these events and communication technology is responsible for your perception.

People will say two things about this tragedy: either that crazy people shouldn't be allowed guns, or that guns should just outright be banned. Why aren't we asking why this person did this? Why aren't we trying to figure out the psychology behind this attack, what prompted this man to go crazy and kill children?

Because it happened hours ago and at least one of the perpetrators is dead, and thus cannot be questioned. Psychology is going to have to wait a bit.

East Asian culture promotes balance. The yin and the yang, good and bad, balance each other out. If life is an equation, good and bad are on opposite sides of the equation, and good will equal bad should the equation be balanced. Notice how I use bad, not evil? American society has become accustomed to the protagonist being a great hero, the antagonist an awful villain.  In more recent times, culture has shifted to a bleaker tale: the protagonist, a tortured anti-hero who does the right thing for the wrong reasons. The antagonist, a villain who does evil things for the sake of evil.

You are oversimplifying this to an extreme that I cannot put into words.

We have stopped working together. Any place you go to, there is someone complaining about someone else. Conflict, strife, violence. All of these can describe situations everywhere. Children are becoming incredibly cynical and detached, apathetic to the world. Why? If you teach someone something before they're ready, they won't understand what to do with the knowledge. Everywhere, children are learning so much, and their minds are becoming stressed, tense, and unfocused. What do we do when that happens? We give children medication, tell them that they have a neurological disease.

High stress is a part of modern culture that we cannot avoid. It is an intrinsic consequence of an industrial lifestyle.

Yeah, I've noticed this too.  There is so little tolerance, because our society has to be too politically correct.  You don't learn about any religion, for one thing.

This is the most tolerant generation to ever exist. The number of socially acceptable prejudices can be counted on one hand, and the number of the prejudiced (whether still accepted or not) is low and declining.

We do not need religion in schools, other than the current historical education on the subject. As you said, we have a secular state.

[penguinofhonor]

Oh hey, a "back in my day things were better" thread. This is the country that was hugely pro-eugenics and antisemitic until the Nazis ruined those things.

[DJ]

High stress is a part of modern culture that we cannot avoid. It is an intrinsic consequence of an industrial lifestyle.

Is it, though? I think the core issue is that people are simply overworked. There's simply no energy left after a workday for something active and creative, so people just plop themselves in front of the TV and vegetate. More mentally engaging pastimes would help a lot with the mental health, and physical as well if it's something like sports. This requires shortening of the work week (which would also do wonders for unemployment) The cost of course is productivity loss, which means less luxury goods to go around. IMO it's still a good trade, and the net happiness would increase.

[EnigmaticHat]

I can't speak to the mass shootings, but last I'd heard murders have in recentish years become less common in the US, they've just been massively over-reported because dead people make good television.  Honestly I think its weirder that we've grown to accept a constant string of food scares (diseased meat, that kind of thing) than that shootings have become normal; its not like we haven't all known that there are a few crazies out there.

In any conversation about largescale problems in America, I have to bring up education.  Partly because I personally have a strong dislike of the US education system, and partly because in the long term education leads to everything else.  The way I see it, the US education system has a few largescale problems.

First, its essentially a factory system.  All kids are arbitrarily grouped together by year of entry, and moved in an identical path through the system.  Sure, there are a few levels of classes you can move up and down in, but in general these are largely exactly the same curriculum speed up or slowed down.  Very little attempt is made to accommodate kids; there's a special education system, but its only really there to handle the kids that obviously can't be handled through normal methods, many more subtle issues kids have are simply ignored.  So you have a system were kids from all over America, with very different backgrounds and mental states, are fed exactly the same cirriculum.  That's just not how good education works.

Making that problem worse, the system is extremely centralized.  Curriculum, discipline, testing, and even to a lesser degree class and schooling assignment are all handled by higher-ups that aren't anywhere near the classroom.  This makes the above factory system problems much worse because teachers have very little leeway in adapting to their specific students.  Its also why congress's attempts to reform the system are never, ever going to work.  No Child Left Behind more tightly dictated how schools should be run and attempted to standardize a single aspect of them (testing) across the entire system, and as such is part of the problem instead of a solution.  The fact that all students were expected to test well was based on the impossible ideal that all kids should be above average, this ties into what kaijyuu just said. If that wasn't bad enough, schools are being funded based on these standardized test scores, instead of something sane like "need for funding" or "amount of students enrolled".  If congress really wants to be useful they should let go of some control, and this is coming from someone who's more accepting of government interference than a lot of Americans.  Not that I expect congress to give up anything.

On top of all that, there are some weird cultural issues that get in the way of schooling.  First of all, many Americans stubbornly refuse to believe that mental health (or capability to perform common school tasks, which is not the same thing as intelligence) is an issue.  ADHD is just doctor speak for lazy, right?  Apparently if something isn't immediately visible to the human eye, it doesn't exist.  This is especially bad because US teachers, as a group, totally think that way.  As someone who's been both a "problem child" and a successful student (the change happened when they let me type assignments instead of handwriting them, a simple change that required way too much of my mom yelling at people), teacher's attitudes towards students change massively towards you depending on whether you're doing well or struggling.  As a result, teachers don't really try to help kids who are struggling, because in the USA if a kid isn't doing well in school, it is always 100% their fault, which not only entirely untrue but also a fucking insane attitude.

Lastly, in our schools cultural issues are handled, well, badly.  This is especially evident in health class.  I could go on on this point for a while, but I think most already know what I'm talking about.  An example: teaching the female students how to avoid being raped, while not telling the male students not to commit rape (or how to avoid rape, either...) and simultaneously making sure that everyone knew not to commit minor crimes like smoking weed.  At least we have our priorities established.  Furthermore, the different cultures in the US are not explained even though the history is kind of touched on; I made it out of high school with an understanding of why there are black people as white people in American but no understanding of how African American culture is different from my own (or even that it is acceptable to admit that it is different).  Cultural differences within the US are almost entirely ignored, differences between the US and other countries even more so.  This leaves kids in the US to navigate a huge, potentially dangerous web of cultural conflicts and differences with very little knowledge.  Its probably why Americans as a whole are so damn ignorant.  If you ask me, prejudice against Muslims picked up so fast after 9/11 because many Americans likely knew almost nothing about the religion.

[Thecard]

We do not need religion in schools, other than the current historical education on the subject. As you said, we have a secular state.

As religious as I am, that is my point.  I think there should be a general education of it, to avoid generalizations.  But the state has no business in the matters of a church in any way.  Unless it breaks laws, but that's a secular thing.


Also, suicidal thoughts are not necessarily mental illnesses.  My brother had them at one point, and I did, in a way when I was younger.  They can be brought on by mental illnesses, but not always.  Sometimes, it's just a bad choice someone wants to make.  I don't think all criminals have a mental illness, some do, but most just made really bad decisions.