Violence: Missing The Elephant In The Room

This morning, 27 people (possibly more) were killed on a school shooting rampage. A large number of the the victims were children.

Another mass shooting... more fucked up shit and more completely unnecessary death!

I will keep all victims in my thoughts. To perfectly honest, events like this one are always on my mind now. Increasingly often, I just go through the day expecting disaster to strike at any moment. I just can't ignore things. I am deeply responsive to the world, and it is impossible to do that without feeling heartbroken and deeply saddened very often, just as the social psychologist Erich Fromm said.

I know many people will likely disagree with the timing of what I'm about to say, but it's really the only way we can TRULY want to honor the tragically untimely deaths of all these shootings.

It is extremely frustrating how everyone seems to limit the issue to gun control. Gun control is just a symptom of a MUCH larger problem.

Take a good, long look at the USA.

It's an aggressive, vicious, and brutal empire. Among other things, it:
- glorifies militarism and war
- zealously worships cutthroat competition, egotism, and rugged individualism (a ripe environment for utter sociopathy)
- mercilessly vilifies and dehumanizes the poor and downtrodden, as well as pretty much anybody it decides it doesn't like
- ridicules or otherwise drowns out all who try to bring about beneficial changes
- consistently supports many of the worst dictatorships on the planet
- constantly invades and bullies other nations
- uses whatever means it can (military, economic, political, black ops, etc.) in order to not only gain more influence, power, and resources, but also to promote the pinnacle of the ideals of the age-old "free market" (read: glorified Social Darwinism)
- constantly lies about pretty much everything to its own people and the rest of the world

Is it REALLY just an unfortunate coincidence that this same empire also has one of the highest domestic rates of violence (particularly gun violence) in the developed world?

Furthermore, consider this: the nation has been cutting social welfare programs for decades, and poverty and social inequality has skyrocketed as a result. Social inequality is a huge contributor to psychosocial stress, which in turn is strongly linked to violence.

Starting to get the picture?

But nobody wants to address this issue. Because the moment you start doing so, you start talking about... *GASP!*... social change! OMG, we can't be having that! Then everyone will actually have to take some fucking responsibility and face the world of bullshit!