Since WWII, The Number Of Mass Killings Has Been Growing Exponentially
[Editor’s note: The following is a 2016 commentary from Notes From Disgraceland’s Bjarne Knausgaard with whom regular readers are familiar. We feature it here this weekend in light of the events that unfolded in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, as details begin to emerge about the shooters and their possible motives.]
The Tropic Of Chaos
Three years ago (in 2013), I came across an interesting book, 1913: Der Sommer des Jahrhunderts. The original (The Summer of the Century) and its Engl
Well written.
My county has an old history of gun violence not mass murder, just multiple murderers 1870’s – late 1880’s. Outlaws killing good folk, outlaws killing outlaws, families killing their own murderous outlaw kin, ranchers killing sheepherders, ranchers killing nesters, ranchers killing free rangers, ranchers killing disloyal cowboys, displaced cowboys killing unfortunate town folk, the law killing displaced cowboys for killing fowl, sheepherders killing cowboys looking for a fight, and so on. Too remote for the press to find interest, it is occasionally referenced but still mostly unknown.The eventual hero of this country was a rancher who brought education and kept the bad element from impacting the civilization he was fostering.
Not sure I have a point to make except I see similarities in the violence.
The United States is a victim of a series of intertwining complexes complicated by its history. The nation is rooted in violence: colonialism, slavery, genocide. The Revolutionary War was the first civil war. Then there was the Civil War. Then there were the “Indian Wars.” Then there was violent labor suppression. Then there was the evolution of the slave patrols, the Black Wall Street pogrom in Tulsa, and eventually Jim Crow. Gun lobbies taking advantage of the private financing of elections and race paranoia made for lax gun laws. The prison-industrial complex militarized the police and initiated a largely race-based, two-tiered criminal justice system. The military-industrial complex push defense budgets ever higher, looking for conflict to justify the expense, leading now to perpetual global war. The stresses of combat on troops and their families are not treated well enough, as shown by a suicide rate for veterans over double the national average – almost 20 per day. The private insurance industry prevents others with mental disorders from getting appropriate help. Surplus guns and gear made their way to local police forces. The wide availability of guns made police ever more twitchy and trigger-happy, leading to a police state with virtually no accountability.
Corporate power over political decision making. Lots of guns. A history of hatred. Economic and combat stress. Poor access to mental health providers. A uniquely American cocktail.
So true Cotton. Many veterans killing themselves have given up. They know glory from combat is a myth they are expected to perpetuate, they hit a wall in their treatment, and where the VA and private health can document everything has been wash our hands tried, many times progress ends. They find it hard to be honest about their experience because it would be viewed as un-patriotic. Sure the “war is hell” gets lip service and is always couched dramatic images and music, but when one tries to say the country is at fault in any way; why that is unacceptable by civilian consumers of the nostalgia and pride associated war and combat. My Drill Sgt. woke us up 2:30 am one morning to give us a political lesson “we fight for flag burners, and anti war protesters too”. I rarely see that message anywhere, It was a life lesson to me, it made me feel that my service provided an even bigger purpose. I got in on some very fulfilling Cold War era missions, but my service in Desert Storm I now believe was on behalf of the economies of my country and our evil Saudi friends, more than anything else.
In the mean time Bell Helicoptor could not have ask for better (Iraq Afghanistan) proving grounds for their civilian version of the V-22 Osprey, thaa in many cases will be carrying the profiteers and evil hands who promote and foster war. Doctors lobbying for more privitization of veteran healthcare have a profit motive in mind and have the political connections to get their $$$$$ from future combat. The war cycle will be fully $$$$ incentivized at that point.
Harvey, good comment/analysis. You missed the ‘Drug War’, another disaster,
Well i was going to comment about the perpetuation of the myth that their is any glory in combat.
I would rather not.
Suicide by veterans has a lot to do with the fakeness of everything except the actual experience of combat and deployment. It is difficult to move on when your expected to be dishonest about how you feel about the wasting of your body, mind, and soul, on behalf of the profit margins of the few. That patriotic civilian red white and blue you signed up to protect, does not want to hear about any of that, nor do their fat cat elected leaders that need that defense contractor to turn over their inventories as tech demands more capital. I could go on, but i am stopping here.
Cotton. Well stated and true.
Billy,
The military-industrial complex (that President (General) Eisenhower warned us about) fund politicians who approve massive miltary funding while under-funding Veterans’ Affairs to give support to returning service men and women who risked their lives for America and democracy, only to live with untreated post traumatic strss syndrome.
PTSD TBI Amputations all. We want to take care of vets; let us stand against the patriotic mythology surrounding combat.
I did not mean to hijack the comments with the military, but it is intertwined so much with our violent nature in this country.
The biggest gun fetish person I know is a civilian and obvious veterans supporter. He is a good guy, but the AR 15 decal on the back of his truck that says: “Get Some” or something other tells me he is lost when it comes to gun violence. My buddies all gun voters, are not today contemplating Trumps rhetoric and the affect thereof, they are readying themselves to fight against the calls for gun control that will come. They are just as pissed about the effect this mass murder will have on their right to own choice weapons, as they are about the loss of life. These are my lifelong friends they are hard working and decent people, their brains are wired to preserve their toys.
Words will not change it. Only what springs forth from the heart can change it.
Robert F Kennedy Announcing The Death Of Martin Luther King