"The ... slaughter forces American society to once again examine itself, its violence, the obsession with guns of part of its population, the troubles of its youth, subjected to the double tyranny of abundance and competition," - France's Le Monde newspaperThe thing that makes America the wealthiest nation in the world also puts incredible amounts of pressure on our kids. It's one thing to give guidance to a kid that seems directionless or unmotivated, and quite another to throw them into a very competitive and mean world. Society puts so much pressure on people that it can become a crushing weight. Some kids think they just can't measure up and develop an innate sense of failure.
Graduate high school.. go to university.. get an advanced degree.. get a good job.. make lots of money.. work for 45 years, 5 out of the 7 days in the week.
It's a crushing amount of pressure.
Some people are suited to doing all of that naturally. Some are not suited for it, and it has to be okay to learn a blue collar trade. Everyone doesn't have to make shitloads of money to be happy. The important thing is to have integrity and just be responsible.
It does appear the university shooter was from South Korea, and his motives haven't been established, but I think it has to do with academics and he must have not been doing well and felt a sense of hopelessness for his future.
The most important thing we can do is take care of our kids and let them develop at their own pace. If we teach responsibility at a young age, they'll do the right thing. It's just not fair to crush them with unachievable expectations.
2 comments:
Tom,
This is a good point, it really is amazing that far worse than this happens in Iraq and probably Afghanistan on a daily basis - and it doesn't get more than a few words in the press.
What I have found strange, is that in the USA people are actually suggesting that if the leacturers and students were able to carry guns, then they would have been able to defend themselves. This seems like a crazy conclusion and would lead to a far worse situation.
I think that as long as people are able to easily acquire guns in the USA, this kind of tragedy will happen every now and then - I can't see it being any other way. You get incidents similar to this the world over, but in most countries the offender may just have a knife or a cricket bat to hand and so the casualties are much less severe.
It is important we think about what drives a person to do such a thing, and it's interesting what you say about the pressure for success, but if you add to the situation a lonely and disturbed mind, and the easy acces to guns it is a recipe for disaster.
Lord Brown Mouse (UK)
I found the calls for the students to be armed absurd as well. Could you imagine the chaos as student after student pulls weapons.. nobody knows who the "bad" guy is.. chaos ensues.. and then the cops show up to a building with 100 kids with 9mm handguns at the ready.
Ya.. that makes all the sense in the world.
It would seem we now have a good idea of what caused this.. and yes, it was a combination of things including mental illness. I've created a new post about it and my solution.. which I think will work better than any other I have heard of.
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