These kids graduate from high school, and they enter the wider public sphere. They may never in their life commit any single act which brings them much attention, but is there any reason to suppose they don’t commit countless acts of minor and incidental violence and cruelty? Do they not wind up on the internet? Do they not drive? Do they not enter into relationships with women or perhaps other boys? Do they not enter corporate America, perhaps many in the tech sector, which more or less values social incompetence and emotional stupidity?
I have done the math with respect to suicides. We have roughly 44,000 suicides every year. For every successful one 25 attempts are made (roughly), which is 1.1 million. But assume for every attempt made, 25 people are thinking about it: 27.5 million, or not quite ten percent of the country. And no doubt sub-clinical school shooters–who really just want the pain to end, but want the world to feel their presence before they go–are well represented in this number. Maybe many just think about it, reject it for whatever reason, then go on to die of a heroin overdose, or reckless driving accident, or actual intentional suicide.
Here is the thing with regard to the “debate” about school shootings: there should be ample common ground about the overarching social context. Both self identifying “liberals” and conservatives should be able to reach common ground about the sickness of much of our popular culture. We should be able to agree–without perhaps knowing quite what to do about it–that violent video games play a role in many if not all of these shootings. We should be able to present to the public, from a governmental perspective, the data on violence in movies and TV leading to lifetime increased risks of depression, more subtle emotional suppression, loneliness, and overall sense that the world is vastly less safe, and less welcoming than it otherwise might be.
The thing is, if we all secretly believe that everybody else is possibly a serial killer, then our lives suffer for it. The data on this seems to be very clear, and to have been showing this unambiguously for a long time.
I remember back in the 1970’s, when people like Alan Alda were decrying the violence in TV and movies, when they were condemning movies like those featuring Dirty Harry. All of that has evaporated, and now they are extolling the virtues of movies like Sweeney Todd.
Why? This should be a bipartisan issue. Is everyone potentially involved themselves addicted to violent media?
But to bring this point home, this is the obvious lie in the gun control debate. Yes, of course the Left wants to take our guns, all of them, although they will settle for what guns they can get at any given time.
But if they were truly civic minded, if they were truly dedicating to improving things wherever and whenever possible, then these sorts of policy discussions would be happening. This is one area where they could and should be able to reach across the aisle. But no: they ONLY want to focus on guns. This shows the lie underlying the whole thing. They don’t care about kids. They care about power. This is always and everywhere and sickeningly true.