Modern Madness

As most (if not all) of you know, a disturbed young man shot a bunch of people, including a child, a judge and a congresswoman, in Tucson, AZ.  I've read a lot of the stuff thrown up on the interwebs about the whole fiasco.  Various interviews with local law enforcement and his teachers, commentary and things regarding the reactionary legislation they are drumming up in Congress.  (More commentary.)

It's a lot to take in, and I have mixed feelings on the whole situation.

On one hand, you have this deranged kid who had difficulty dealing with reality and even forming coherent thoughts.  On the other, you have my intense disapproval of extremists in all their forms; left, right, up, down, religious, political, social, etc.  I promised myself when I started this thing that I wouldn't throw more attention at the people who thrive on it, so I won't be linking stories and such that refer to them,  but there are a lot of them, and they are prime examples of what is inherently wrong with our country.

There's that rambling again...

So, you have this kid, obviously not right in the head and somehow with access to a good deal of extended capacity magazines for his weapons.  Now they are complaining about gun laws and this Pima Co. sheriff is complaining further this morning (sorry, I couldn't find a link, it was on CNN today) that they are working on a law that allows teachers and students to carry concealed on campus in Arizona.  I'm not really sure why that piece of legislation even needs to exist.  I don't agree with his tireless rant against guns, but I do agree with his view that colleges and universities should set their own policy regarding students and faculty carrying weapons.

They are also complaining about a former governor and vice-presidential candidate who posted gun sights on pictures of 20 fellow politicos with whom she didn't agree.  Once again, she and others are free to post and say anything they want.  To me, it shows how unfit they are to be handing out advice to anyone or governing their own households, much less states or nations.  Government needs to move away from the extremes they have moved between over the years and allow reason and logic to rule.  It certainly hasn't been tried yet.

Those using violence, hatred and division to sell books, influence elections and line their pockets are doing nothing but damage to America and its future.  There are more productive, and less divisive, ways to change the world.

Without a doubt the best way to get people worked up and on your side is to find a difference between them and whatever it is you're up against and then make that your crusade.  The lefties are proposing something that you think is unreasonable?  Call it socialist or, worse, communist and watch the "real Americans" rally to your cause without thought or research into the proposition.  I know I've fallen into some of those traps a time or two in my 30 years from both sides.  It's one of the problems with being a centrist, I try and listen to both sides, but when you start throwing around words like socialist and communist and I get all antsy.  All that McCarthyism from the 50s still gets me riled up, it seems.

However, what this does is divides the population instead of bringing our considerable combined might to bear on whatever the problem may be...  It's counter-productive.  While I believe that the creative process is hindered by group-think, I also believe that once a course is set teamwork rules the day.  As such, the strong should lead the weak, giving them direction, guidance and praise for a job well done.  When people are working at their capacity and accomplishing things, they are generally happier than people who try and move above and beyond their abilities and constantly fail or people who are working well below capacity and drift through life feeling as if they are wasting their time.  I see it every day on all three fronts.

In most groups, people fall into natural roles and find a niche where they can contribute.  The problems begin when groups get too big and people stop seeing others as human beings and more as two-dimensional things.  

It's easy to send the faceless masses off into the world to fight your wars, but try sending your brother, son or mother out there.  It changes your perspective and suddenly it's a real person you're shuffling off to danger.

It's easy to hate all 'them Muslim terrorists'.  It's harder to hate Adnan the turnip farmer who stores weapons on his land because someone threatened his family.

It's easy to hate the lefties, the right wing crazies or the commies.  It isn't the same when there is a person attached to the label.  A real live person, not the media representation of another talking head or shot of stock footage.  I'm sure the woman I mentioned earlier is a wonderful mother and person.  I detest who she is on TV and in the news.  She appears uneducated, close-minded and vindictive.  Intellectually closed off and incurious.  No way to go through life.

I'm not sure how I got here from where I started, but it's been a fun little trek.

In the end, we, as a nation, need to find some way to move forward together instead of all this constant infighting.  We continually lose face on the world stage and our efforts to police the world and throw our money away on countries that we have no business supporting when we have plenty of problems that could be helped with the money being wasted.  But, that's a rant for another day.

As the late, great George Carlin said in closing, "take care of yourself and take care of someone else."

Questions? Comments?