Re: What's going on in your city/country/region?
Posted: Sun May 07, 2023 2:02 am
This is a continuation of my previous post, and it seems 199 mass shootings have now occurred with this one.
At least 9 hospitalized after shooting at (Allen) Texas outlet mall
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/allen- ... index.html
8 deaths total (including the killer?) with 7 victims shown in the link below.
The killer was similar to Leonard Pyle (or "Gomer" as the Drill Instructor would call him) in Full Metal Jacket. . . only he seems radicalized by pro-Russia sentiment since he was kicked out of the Army during Boot Camp for mental health reasons in 2008.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/te ... -rcna83132
The "joke" about Russia is Putin tries to label Ukrainians as being Nazis when Putin can't even attract the non-crazies to want to support him.
*********************************************
A bit of a continuation of the above:
Many times throughout history you can trace certain prevalence of negative behavior with societal outlook and circumstances which render people outliers in an otherwise functional society, and some of the mental health crisis could be traced to toxic lead and pollutants from industrialization. Following times like the Civil War or the Great Depression, crime trends were more common until society begins to stabilize again.
Usually, you will find that when opportunity (or a vulnerable system of self-governing results in loopholes in crime activity--much like the era of prohibition or the issue with illegal drug trafficking--exists, people will take advantage of it. During the Chicago World's Faire/Exposition of 1893, "Dr. H. H. Holmes" (born Herman Webster Mudgett) would take advantage of the need for people to have a place to stay and in the ensuing chaos carried out his murders; similarly around the time Jack the Ripper would do similar when the opportunity occurred. In some strange way, I can't help but think of wealthy landowners as fleecing the public of their wellbeing.
Usually, desperation and poor impulse control, as well as bad coping mechanisms, lead to behaviors that are incompatible with civil society. Even when a criminal justice system is able to apprehend suspects for the 15th time (such as Samuel Little, or Bruce Everitt Lindahl,) they might only be arrested for petty crimes whereas they were responsible for dozens of murders. The problem is when people start adapting to appearing "under the radar" or "reformed" it's assumed that recidivism won't manifest and that they are then someone else's problem. The true nature of evil is something that has attempted to be explored throughout media and historical records (and usually it's that unpleasantness that often causes controversy when examining the subject, because it's never that apparent that people are capable of such actions.) A psychopath "justifies" their rationality by believing in black-and-white thinking, that "because this happened, this is the result" and then they are not accountable. To what extent such pathological thinking is a manifestation of modern culture could be anyone's guess.
What society could be experiencing right now is a resurgence of crime as a result of increasing disparity, much like the Gilded Age; an increase in an oligarchical system as a result of wealth becoming more concentrated (since only the wealthy can weather the storm of economic downturn and then have more familiarity with how to reinvest it, resulting in generational wealth, etc.) A society that is increasingly coyed by fakery and eager to get in on the FOMO of things like stock trading (believing they are making sound financial judgement) or business investment scams, or are manipulated by "religious" con artists is just another of many age-old problems society has faced, just under different disguises. Looking over historical records you will find people that appeared to be leaders in their communities commit inhumane actions, and yet they remained in position of power. The same problem is faced in modern society where people are duped by vicarious association with those within authority (or who appear to be upstanding and present themselves as having other people's interest at heart) and too often that aspect get's exploited by those who would likewise turn a blind eye if they thought they could benefit in some way (similar to Nazi Germany or any instance in which people see the world falling apart around them and yet they go along with whatever end of the stick they receive and "pay the piper" such as Putin has done with his constituents.)
And whether the issues society faces are a byproduct (such as epigenetic expression of some ancestral psychopath gene) and are triggered in times of crisis or are merely manifestations of a society that increasingly gives little leeway for those who have nothing to benefit machination of reward; that society expects for those who game the system and would have otherwise have died off on the battlefield in some "heroes" welcome to Valhalla, can be anyone's guess.
**************
continued:
I (also) remember road debris being more common at an earlier time (during the 80s-90s as far as I would know,) and it seemed to coincide with people throwing cigarette buds along the street, which gave people a sense of leeway for other debris. Whether it was an increase of consumerism culture--or its gradual decline as the result of Police finding an excuse to fine people or perhaps a decrease in smoking habits--it's possible that certain behaviors are just becoming hyper-normalized (which reminds me of a good documentary which I will post, titled, HyperNormalisation (2016) by Adam Curtis who also covers in various documentaries the subject of the increase in middle east terrorism as it coincided with intervention by western cultures, as well as the subject of consumer buying habits through marketing and focusing on human psychology tactics to increase consumer spending; I suspect what happened is things like modern transportation and economic reliance on ever-increasing production created a culture that changed over time. Part of the "Hippy Revolution" as well as the "Punk Rock" culture a decade later, was rebelling against the establishment that was increasingly becoming disfavorable (either as result of wars or to try and regain a sense of control over autonomy, partly as result of economic issues which stemmed from new trends in banking and Nixon economic policies as well as trade manipulation from Saudi Arabia as a result of supplying Israel with oil.)
Earlier television made a concerted effort to try and create moralization of behavior and express right/wrong duality, and for whatever reasons it seemed to catch on that people were compelled to things like violence and things that caught people's attention, and eventually, those things are what seemed to sell movies or keep people engaged. Some of the longest-running shows wouldn't always show violence but there was a strong component to anticipating that it would take place, or that those who would use weapons were the ones enforcing the laws which would become difficult to moralize with things like the Vietnam war and civil rights issues.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what happens over time, though it does seem as if people became increasingly more distant from the small town identity where it was expected that people uphold certain guidelines for how actions like littering or being perceived as an outsider to certain cultures has consequences (so socially, people reinforce certain behaviors that are seen as agreeable.) If people don't perceive their actions as having the desired effect they then lash out against the world or the perceived threat to their status quo.
At least 9 hospitalized after shooting at (Allen) Texas outlet mall
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/allen- ... index.html
8 deaths total (including the killer?) with 7 victims shown in the link below.
The killer was similar to Leonard Pyle (or "Gomer" as the Drill Instructor would call him) in Full Metal Jacket. . . only he seems radicalized by pro-Russia sentiment since he was kicked out of the Army during Boot Camp for mental health reasons in 2008.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/te ... -rcna83132
The "joke" about Russia is Putin tries to label Ukrainians as being Nazis when Putin can't even attract the non-crazies to want to support him.
*********************************************
A bit of a continuation of the above:
Many times throughout history you can trace certain prevalence of negative behavior with societal outlook and circumstances which render people outliers in an otherwise functional society, and some of the mental health crisis could be traced to toxic lead and pollutants from industrialization. Following times like the Civil War or the Great Depression, crime trends were more common until society begins to stabilize again.
Usually, you will find that when opportunity (or a vulnerable system of self-governing results in loopholes in crime activity--much like the era of prohibition or the issue with illegal drug trafficking--exists, people will take advantage of it. During the Chicago World's Faire/Exposition of 1893, "Dr. H. H. Holmes" (born Herman Webster Mudgett) would take advantage of the need for people to have a place to stay and in the ensuing chaos carried out his murders; similarly around the time Jack the Ripper would do similar when the opportunity occurred. In some strange way, I can't help but think of wealthy landowners as fleecing the public of their wellbeing.
Usually, desperation and poor impulse control, as well as bad coping mechanisms, lead to behaviors that are incompatible with civil society. Even when a criminal justice system is able to apprehend suspects for the 15th time (such as Samuel Little, or Bruce Everitt Lindahl,) they might only be arrested for petty crimes whereas they were responsible for dozens of murders. The problem is when people start adapting to appearing "under the radar" or "reformed" it's assumed that recidivism won't manifest and that they are then someone else's problem. The true nature of evil is something that has attempted to be explored throughout media and historical records (and usually it's that unpleasantness that often causes controversy when examining the subject, because it's never that apparent that people are capable of such actions.) A psychopath "justifies" their rationality by believing in black-and-white thinking, that "because this happened, this is the result" and then they are not accountable. To what extent such pathological thinking is a manifestation of modern culture could be anyone's guess.
What society could be experiencing right now is a resurgence of crime as a result of increasing disparity, much like the Gilded Age; an increase in an oligarchical system as a result of wealth becoming more concentrated (since only the wealthy can weather the storm of economic downturn and then have more familiarity with how to reinvest it, resulting in generational wealth, etc.) A society that is increasingly coyed by fakery and eager to get in on the FOMO of things like stock trading (believing they are making sound financial judgement) or business investment scams, or are manipulated by "religious" con artists is just another of many age-old problems society has faced, just under different disguises. Looking over historical records you will find people that appeared to be leaders in their communities commit inhumane actions, and yet they remained in position of power. The same problem is faced in modern society where people are duped by vicarious association with those within authority (or who appear to be upstanding and present themselves as having other people's interest at heart) and too often that aspect get's exploited by those who would likewise turn a blind eye if they thought they could benefit in some way (similar to Nazi Germany or any instance in which people see the world falling apart around them and yet they go along with whatever end of the stick they receive and "pay the piper" such as Putin has done with his constituents.)
And whether the issues society faces are a byproduct (such as epigenetic expression of some ancestral psychopath gene) and are triggered in times of crisis or are merely manifestations of a society that increasingly gives little leeway for those who have nothing to benefit machination of reward; that society expects for those who game the system and would have otherwise have died off on the battlefield in some "heroes" welcome to Valhalla, can be anyone's guess.
**************
continued:
I (also) remember road debris being more common at an earlier time (during the 80s-90s as far as I would know,) and it seemed to coincide with people throwing cigarette buds along the street, which gave people a sense of leeway for other debris. Whether it was an increase of consumerism culture--or its gradual decline as the result of Police finding an excuse to fine people or perhaps a decrease in smoking habits--it's possible that certain behaviors are just becoming hyper-normalized (which reminds me of a good documentary which I will post, titled, HyperNormalisation (2016) by Adam Curtis who also covers in various documentaries the subject of the increase in middle east terrorism as it coincided with intervention by western cultures, as well as the subject of consumer buying habits through marketing and focusing on human psychology tactics to increase consumer spending; I suspect what happened is things like modern transportation and economic reliance on ever-increasing production created a culture that changed over time. Part of the "Hippy Revolution" as well as the "Punk Rock" culture a decade later, was rebelling against the establishment that was increasingly becoming disfavorable (either as result of wars or to try and regain a sense of control over autonomy, partly as result of economic issues which stemmed from new trends in banking and Nixon economic policies as well as trade manipulation from Saudi Arabia as a result of supplying Israel with oil.)
Earlier television made a concerted effort to try and create moralization of behavior and express right/wrong duality, and for whatever reasons it seemed to catch on that people were compelled to things like violence and things that caught people's attention, and eventually, those things are what seemed to sell movies or keep people engaged. Some of the longest-running shows wouldn't always show violence but there was a strong component to anticipating that it would take place, or that those who would use weapons were the ones enforcing the laws which would become difficult to moralize with things like the Vietnam war and civil rights issues.
It's difficult to pinpoint exactly what happens over time, though it does seem as if people became increasingly more distant from the small town identity where it was expected that people uphold certain guidelines for how actions like littering or being perceived as an outsider to certain cultures has consequences (so socially, people reinforce certain behaviors that are seen as agreeable.) If people don't perceive their actions as having the desired effect they then lash out against the world or the perceived threat to their status quo.