Tragedy should give us pause to think

My personal condolences to all of the families of all of the victims of the latest tragedy in Connecticut. I am truly saddened by your loss.

This shouldn't have happened, and I shouldn't feel like I have to say something about it. But, I must for this is not a singular incident, nor is it a one-issue event. It is a systemic, cultural tragedy, one that runs deeper than most Americans are willing to think or feel. Yet, what is most tragic about this event, what saddens me the most, is that it is not, by a long shot, the last one, nor will it remain the worst one. None of this is going to go away soon.

The American journalist and writer H.L. Mencken once wrote "There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong." That was over a hundred years ago, and a quick look at Facebook and a quick zap through the news channels will assure you, it's every bit as true today.

My fellow Americans, you are a superficial, quick-fix society. You don't want to be bothered, you don't want to have to actually do anything other than pursue your own self-interest, make as much money as possible and just do your own thing. And what won't be said by any public figure in any public venue is that you all share the guilt of the shooter whether you realize it or not, whether you like it or not. The howling and finger-pointing have already started, the tragedy is already being used for political gain, the victims and their families instrumentalized for more reasons than I care to think about.

You can't find single solutions on the surface. You have to follow multiple issues deeper and deeper; you must recognize connections and relationships between attitudes and values and laws and beliefs; you must follow the branches down to the trunk in order to get to the root of what makes events like Connecticut even possible. When I look at what happened, I can tell you what I see. I see America.

This isn't about gun control, security, healthcare, police oversight and screenings, domestic terrorism, video games or any other red herring that every so-called journalist and expert is going to trot out for review. No, all of this is just distraction. It's part of the illusion that Americans love so dearly: the illusion that it was someone else, from somewhere else who is responsible, who is to blame. It's not. It's about you, too.

The United States of America is not just the allegedly richest country in the world (and I say alleged, because it may have the most monetary wealth, but one can easily get the impression it is morally bankrupt; in other words, what "rich" means is up for discussion). More importantly, it is the most violent country in the world. And I would maintain that Americans love their violence more than anything else. It is the only solution to problems that Americans know. Violence defines American culture. It is the only answer that Americans have for any pressing question: violence. I'm exaggerating? Hardly.

Military violence.
A defense budget that is breaking your fiscal back. Two full-fledged wars that have brought only death, pain and destruction to everyone involved, and for what? Don't do what we say and we'll bomb you back to the stone age. Violence.

Psychological violence.
Spreading fear and suspicion, allowing your rights to be taken away so you can be sent to Guantanamo on suspicion, where you can be tortured for the blandest of reasons, like we do to other detainees, like we do in secret interrogation (read: torture) centers the world around. Violence.

Political violence.
Did none of you see the last presidential campaign? Hate, bile, vitriolic aggression, an obscene amount of money spent in hate and anger, while real people still suffer in real places everywhere. A winner-take-all mentality because you shouldn't just beat your opponent, you should destroy him.

Social violence.
Poor people should simply be eliminated. Lazy welfare folks should be forced to work, for nothing if necessary. After all, it's their own damn fault that they're takers. Ever more draconian measures with ever fewer results. The highest murder rate in the world. The highest rate of violent crime in the world. Denying healthcare to those who need it because they can't pay. Opposing universal healthcare because it would impinge on others' right to exploit and extort.

Legal violence.
The (non-deterring) death penalty. Money talks, everybody else walks, and this is directly related to the increasing environmental destruction that follows in its wake; the use of force, violent force, to remove protesters, to prosecute opponents, the sheer brutality of the police in so many Occupy situations: pepper-spraying women and children with impunity, the suppression of due process; stop-and-frisk laws. The passing of special-interest laws that simply take from others at the expense of the public good.

Environmental violence.
Disproportionate over-consumption of natural resources. Pollution that need not be cleaned up (see legal violence above). The forceful takeover of water and air supplies in the name of financial gain. Factual manipulation, lying, suppressing, and threatening opponents to escape having to take responsibility for the pain and suffering (e.g. BP in the Gulf of Mexico, fracking, the Keystone pipeline, just to name the most visible).

Financial violence.
Predatory lending practices, forced evictions, unregulated speculation that cost millions of people worldwide their homes, their businesses, their retirements, and more. Banking activities that put the entire world at risk and we know there were untold numbers of people who were killed as a result, who were wiped out and saw no other way out than a heart-attack or suicide. The widespread feeling of desperation, and of course, none of the guilty were ever called to task (see legal violence, above).

Workplace violence.
From below through mobbing, and bullying. The successful professional is the one who can elbow his or her way up the corporate ladder, any method is accepted as long as it works. Employer violence toward employees: paying non-livable wages, even if the company is making record profits, short-timing employees so that benefits need not be paid. Suppression of wages in the name of competitiveness (instead of producing something better than everyone would want). Inhuman working conditions (often outsourced work), substandard facilities and ignoring of OSHA regulations in search of profit.

Entertainment violence.
(My personal favorite.) Where did violent video games originate? Who produces and sells them to this day? What about the movie industry: so many people haven't seen enough people hacked, chopped, tortured, blown apart, dismembered and there just hasn't been enough blood flowing to satisfy our insatiable thirst. (How many voyeur-vampires do you know?) Not to mention America's favorite sports pastime: football -- it can't be brutal enough, violent enough, you can't stomp your opponent enough, and we celebrate the most brutal of the players as our heroes. Idols for our children.

Ever more force, ever bigger weapons, ever stronger tactics, ever more brutality, thuggery, arbitrary suppression ... had enough? I'm sure I could find some more if I took some time to think about it. This is simply what immediately came to mind.

I'm sorry, my fellow Americans, but you live in a society that allows, accepts, encourages, promotes, at times demands, idolizes, welcomes, perhaps worships, and exports violence. It may not be the American Dream, but it is the American Way of Life. It is such a part of the culture that it is most likely simply taken for granted, but as long everything is about "me", and as long as it is about what I can get because I believe that everybody else is trying to get more than their share; along as it is about believing that ends justify means, as long as you tolerate and accept all of this as just the way it is, well, you are just going to have to live with these tragedies again and again.

You can't stop them. You have only fertile ground for growing more. You have built your society on violence and it is time to simply own up to the fact that this is how your world works. You support it. You feed it. You nurture it. You justify it. You defend it. You even argue for it. And you do nothing to stop it. Yes, my fellow Americans, it is a deep-seated, cultural problem that you (and unfortunately the rest of the world) have to deal with. And until you do, you're just going to get a lot more of the same. You are going to be part of who's to blame.