Culture Of Hate

If anything points to the truth that merely doing background checks on those who want to purchase a gun or limiting the types that can be purchased or the number of bullets a clip can hold will do anything to prevent horror wrought by hatred, the Boston situation should be it. It isn't the case for or against guns  that needs to be studied, but our minds.  What in the world is going on?

We have been witness to what seems an inordinate amount of violence and death lately and it has all stemmed from hatred.  Even the comments on the news sites and blogs are filled with it. Wishing equally horrible ends to the perpetrators as had been the fate of their victims.  It too is hate.  A continuation of it. And really, no less frightening.

Other than trying to fill too much air time with "experts" analyzing the young men, I've seen no one seriously asking what is going on in our collective heads.  If we kill them as they have others it will do nothing but perpetuate the violence without giving us answers.  Just what those answers might be is beyond me, but you see the animosity everywhere.

Look at the world where the religions hate one another.  Many even hate various branches of their own. Shiia and Sunni. It makes believing in a loving, forgiving entity difficult. Countries hate one another.  Pakistan and India.  North Korea and South.

Take it down another level to politics.  There is no love lost between the Democrats and Republicans and lately you've seen more and more division among the ranks of each.  What core flaw in we humans is coming unraveled?

I look at the local blogs and find as much venom as on the national level.  No one can have an opinion without being disparaged by someone with an opposing view.  I take my share of lumps and it can get pretty tiresome.

I think part of the blame, at least, is because of the widespread use of anonymity.  My, we get so brave - and nasty - when our real names aren't attached to our thoughts. The language you often find is an insult.  Just as I don't think one needs to be sexually explicit or gross or mean to be funny, I don't think commenters need to use filth and profanity to make a point though too many obviously don't agree.

I look at these most recent young men along with the one from Sandy Hook and Aurora and so many others with the utmost despair. Not hatred. Despair. What drives these young people to hate their lives so much they are willing to lose them while taking as many as possible with them?  These are only the ones we've put names and faces to.  Think of the gang activity in places like Chicago where the carnage continues on a daily basis where there are no names and faces, just casualties.

Were it only Chicago it might be more easily studied, but what we're witnessing today is world wide. If it isn't a gang it's likely to be a lone wolf. Wanting to make their mark.  Well, they're making it, that's for sure.

Why, though, what has driven them to choose mayhem and death?  There isn't a registry or a deprivation of goods in the world that can answer that question.  Especially when no one is looking for one.