Why are we so homicidal now?

[KnowtheSilence]

I spent all my teen years in the 1950s and I cannot remember hearing about anything like what we hear today of mass killings on school property, in malls, and in the workplace. I know if they had happened they would have been really big news, as they are today. Perhaps even bigger because so out of character with the age.

As it was pointed out, there were a few and yet you didn’t hear about them. I think that’s one issue (out of many). You didn’t have several 24/7 newscasts talking about them nonstop for weeks on end. You didn’t run into the story over and over again on the internet. Today, you pretty much can’t not hear about it when it happens.

I think, to an extent, we are dealing with copycat killers, and the media is fueling that. The way that the media reports on issues can have an effect on the way the public reacts, including inspiring copycats. Back in the 80’s, Vienna had a problem with people committing suicide by jumping in front of trains, and the media covered the suicides in sensationalistic ways. Eventually, people pushed for the media to change the way they reported on the suicides, and the rate dropped by 80% in six months. I think something needs to happen with the way that mass killings are reported. That won’t completely fix the problem, and there are other issues that are feeding into this that need to be addressed (mental health, gun control), but I think it would help.

 

[LongingSoul]

Could it be because of individualism that is highly valued? That raise competition that most of the time created unhealthy atmosphere?

This is what I perceive to be the major difference too. People tend to highly esteem individual achievement and independence as signs of superiority. This makes them so much more judgemental of each other and feel that because they represent ‘good’ others actually represent ‘evil’ by being different.

When I was a kid 40 to 50 years ago, I remember adult conversations about politics for example being a lot more civil. They could much better identify with the concept of the common good and how the political system ultimately served it. When you hear people and media talking politics today, everyone esteems their own opinion and judgements and are all about defeating the opposition rather than caring about the common good that the state is their to serve. The spirit of politics has changed so much I think due to peoples reduced capacity to identify as a tribe or common group working together.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

This is what I perceive to be the major difference too. People tend to highly esteem individual achievement and independence as signs of superiority. This makes them so much more judgemental of each other and feel that because they represent ‘good’ others actually represent ‘evil’ by being different.

When I was a kid 40 to 50 years ago, I remember adult conversations about politics for example being a lot more civil. They could much better identify with the concept of the common good and how the political system ultimately served it. When you hear people and media talking politics today, everyone esteems their own opinion and judgements and are all about defeating the opposition rather than caring about the common good that the state is their to serve. The spirit of politics has changed so much I think due to peoples reduced capacity to identify as a tribe or common group working together.

Individualism might be part of the problem. I think alienation is perhaps more critical.

Most of the mass killers we hear about were loners who did not fit with others in their world.

Many too seemed to have horrible home lives, parental neglect or indulgence, and perhaps more than anything else a complete narcisssism and absence of empathy for others. Also, it would be interesting to hear about how many of them had any inculcated Christian spirituality. Were they regular churchgoers? Doubtful.

I am speaking here, not about individuals who target other individuals for death, but more so about people who indiscriminately target groups for massacre.

 

[ThinkingSapien]

I think, to an extent, we are dealing with copycat killers, and the media is fueling that. The way that the media reports on issues can have an effect on the way the public reacts, including inspiring copycats. Back in the 80’s, Vienna had a problem with people committing suicide by jumping in front of trains, and the media covered the suicides in sensationalistic ways. Eventually, people pushed for the media to change the way they reported on the suicides, and the rate dropped by 80% in six months.

About 15 years ago in Atlanta some one climbed up to an overpass and threatened to jump. He never did jump, but the drivers on the Interstate were halted for about 4 hours while emergency workers working on getting him down without harm. After this people seemed to threaten to jump off several times a month. Each time the scene got coverage from the ground and air.

The impression I got from it was that actions may be contagious among groups of people. I do think the constant news coverage was a significant factor in the “popularity” of this threat.

Btw: if you drive through Atlanta now you will notice the overpasses now have barriers that prevent people from getting to the other side.

 

[sallybutler]

Many of the mass killings have been committed by people that seem to have real medical illnesses. However, because they are in the brain instead of the liver or kidneys or pancreas or other body part, their families cannot get them treated (and most of these people had families that tried).

I’m not for locking people up willy-nilly. But we have made it impossible for these people to get and continue treatment. We are more likely to force someone to take medication for a communicable disease, up to and including locking them up, then we are with someone who has a mental disease.

 

[iwillrisenow]

Sadly, these links reveal some different sides of the story…

nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2009/11/fbi_seeking_help_with_unsolved.html
yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1979/2/79.02.04.x.html
history.com/this-day-in-history/four-black-schoolgirls-killed-in-birmingham

…and then there’s…
sagepub.com/upm-data/43455_1.pdf
ojjdp.gov/jjbulletin/9808/youth.html (involving so many young people)

…and this…
huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/07/caril-ann-fugate_n_3721657.html

…and this deserves a mention as well, as dehumanization is the seed of violence…

businesspundit.com/10-most-sexist-print-ads-from-the-1950s/?img=21450 (numbers two and three are particularly dehumanizing-- remember, domestic violence laws were not what they are today)

That being said, I understand what the OP is observing…but it’s the particular demographics involved in the violence in certain environments that’s unprecedented, not the violence itself. Legal definitions and what’s recognized by the public and media may change, but sin is sin. It was alarming then and it is alarming now.

 

[Servant19]

In the last few months and years it has become almost routine to turn on the evening news and hear of human slaughter in the streets, malls, and schoolyards of America. When I was in school in the 1950s, this was virtually unheard of, and especially the business of children killing other children.

What has happened to us? What are the changes in society that have most contributed to the modern frequency of mass killings? How is our society so different from what it was in the 1950s that we have come to this pass?

This is sadly all due to humanity’s turning away from the Spirit of the Age.

Society’s decline results from society turning away from God’s guidance for a prosperous society. Turn away from God and the consequences are evident. Do the works of God for the relevant Age and the consequences are likened to the sweetest fruits from the Tree of Life

.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

This is sadly all due to humanity’s turning away from the Spirit of the Age.

Society’s decline results from society turning away from God’s guidance for a prosperous society. Turn away from God and the consequences are evident. Do the works of God for the relevant Age and the consequences are likened to the sweetest fruits from the Tree of Life

The North Koreans, who have turned away from God and turned a man into a god, have shown how prosperity will flee from them for doing this.

 

[Servant19]

The North Koreans, who have turned away from God and turned a man into a god, have shown how prosperity will flee from them for doing this.

Hi Charlemagne. Forgive me for not understanding you. Are you saying that in North Korea they have good social conditions even without God?

Please clarify dear friend



.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Hi Charlemagne. Forgive me for not understanding you. Are you saying that in North Korea they have good social conditions even without God?

Please clarify dear friend



.

Just the opposite. The North Koreans are stuggling to survive because their society is the slave to one atheist and his military.

 

[Skye_Ariel]

As it was pointed out, there were a few and yet you didn’t hear about them. I think that’s one issue (out of many). You didn’t have several 24/7 newscasts talking about them nonstop for weeks on end. You didn’t run into the story over and over again on the internet. Today, you pretty much can’t not hear about it when it happens.

I think, to an extent, we are dealing with copycat killers, and the media is fueling that. The way that the media reports on issues can have an effect on the way the public reacts, including inspiring copycats. Back in the 80’s, Vienna had a problem with people committing suicide by jumping in front of trains, and the media covered the suicides in sensationalistic ways. Eventually, people pushed for the media to change the way they reported on the suicides, and the rate dropped by 80% in six months. I think something needs to happen with the way that mass killings are reported. That won’t completely fix the problem, and there are other issues that are feeding into this that need to be addressed (mental health, gun control), but I think it would help.

About 15 years ago in Atlanta some one climbed up to an overpass and threatened to jump. He never did jump, but the drivers on the Interstate were halted for about 4 hours while emergency workers working on getting him down without harm. After this people seemed to threaten to jump off several times a month. Each time the scene got coverage from the ground and air.

The impression I got from it was that actions may be contagious among groups of people. I do think the constant news coverage was a significant factor in the “popularity” of this threat.

Btw: if you drive through Atlanta now you will notice the overpasses now have barriers that prevent people from getting to the other side.

I agree with these 2 posts, some of it does have to do with copycatting. When someone is not all there mentally and then he hears on the news about a school shooting, it puts ideas into his head. If things like this were never on the news, the kids would not know about such things and their feeble mind would not be influenced into copycatting these things.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

I agree with these 2 posts, some of it does have to do with copycatting. When someone is not all there mentally and then he hears on the news about a school shooting, it puts ideas into his head. If things like this were never on the news, the kids would not know about such things and their feeble mind would not be influenced into copycatting these things.

O.K. maybe there is some element of copycatting.

But the underlying cause is not copycatting. The underlying cause is the lack of a moral compass. In the case of inflicting mass suffering you don’t copycat without first having no empathy for the suffering of others. You also don’t induce the mass suffering without having a profound hatred not only for others, but for yourself. Many of these mass killings end with the killer being killed or killing himself.

 

[Servant19]

Just the opposite. The North Koreans are stuggling to survive because their society is the slave to one atheist and his military.

So we are in agreement then dear friend



.

 

[Servant19]

O.K. maybe there is some element of copycatting.

But the underlying cause is not copycatting. The underlying cause is the lack of a moral compass. In the case of inflicting mass suffering you don’t copycat without first having no empathy for the suffering of others. You also don’t induce the mass suffering without having a profound hatred not only for others, but for yourself. Many of these mass killings end with the killer being killed or killing himself.

How much of these incidences are influenced by the conditions of the collective community Charlemagne?

Do you think that we are organic with our society and that just as much as the individual influences society, it is also equally influenced by it.

Would you now therefore say that we have a two-fold moral obligation before God? To strive to advance our own selves spiritually, but also to contribute towards a spiritually ever-advancing civilisation?

.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

How much of these incidences are influenced by the conditions of the collective community Charlemagne?

Most if not all. That does not absolve the individual of guilt, but there is enough guilt to spread around. Some of these killers have been abused themselves, either by active means or by neglect. When they explode on a scene, we can be fairly certain others helped prepare the way. That includes many health workers who knew the killer but neglected to sound the alarm and demand treatment. It also includes the fact that such killers had access to firearms when there were those around them who knew very well they should have been prevented from having such access.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Would you now therefore say that we have a two-fold moral obligation before God? To strive to advance our own selves spiritually, but also to contribute towards a spiritually ever-advancing civilisation?

The first job is do-able.

The second job is a long shot given the spiritual regress civilization is in.

The devil is always hungry for our souls and forever busy feeding himself.

 

[schaeffer]

Are you speaking only of America?

Only of America during a certain period of history?

Or of humanity in general.

Even a short browse through a substandard history book will soon dispel any idea that human kind is any more homocidal and violent than it ever has been. Even a short browse through the Bible or the history of the Catholic Church will soon dispel that idea.

Not to suggest that the atrocities of today should not be taken seriously but it doesn’t help the situation to pretend that this is anything new or caused by some new phenonmenon that hasn’t be at play all through history.

It was not so long ago in America that lychings, burnings of homes and businesses of African Americans were horrifically common…with no regard as to whether or not the families were there when the arsons occurred. Or that African Americans were tried and convicted without real justice and sentenced to death.

Crimes such as that, or those perpetrated because a person was homosexual or of a different faith than the reining one are real, under reported and all too recent in America.

As is and always has been domestic violence, also under reported and swept under the rug, including the beating to death of children by parents.

No, there is nothing new under the Sun, though perhaps at different times various things are in shadow.