I was in the gym yesterday and made the mistake of opening my mouth when I got tired of hearing Americans all tired and scarred and thinking that we need to arm guards and every teacher in all the schools. it is a hot potato in the USA. my comment was, “what, simply add to and escalate the idea of insanity in the united states? why not simply stop promoting and tolerating this behavior and thinking acting insane is normal?”
yeah, that comment didn’t go over too well. it was like mules staring in a new barn gate and they walked away and proved that having a simple conversation is seemingly impossible in the united states. most can’t put together a construct to talk about why they feel the way they do. it seems to be more like emotional knee-jerk reactions to every tragedy and no one ever takes the time to say, “wow, this is insane, how did we get here?”
but this is my personal opinion. part of the time I live in a country where pretty much every house has a machine gun in it, and there is scant gun violence. the bullets are heavily regulated. also, while the idea of mandatory military service seems to suck as an individual, there is something to be said about creating a bigger social consciousness than allowing everyone and everything to be fair game with individual choice. the one country is safe and a bit boring, the other is going off its rails with the seeming bickering that starts at the top levels and instead of Reaganomics “trickle down” theory, it is more like a dam broke and the floodwaters rush down from the top levels into the street. what do you get, a whole lot of scared and afraid people running around proposing “solutions” that will never solve the bigger issue? call it Band-Aid social consciousness? (it seems this all seemed to start during the clinton tenure...so is it clinton-bush-bama-trump-insanty?)
why can't there be, or what is the balance between freedom and a decent safe society?
when I was a kid i can remember the idea of a human walking into a school and shooting It up was unheard of, and would have been considered insane and abnormal (texas college event?) today, you have schools spending loads of time and money with some idea that you can prevent insanity from happening when the reality is society has tolerated this behavior to happen inside the country.
we spent trillions of dollars in the past dozen years with wars and some idea of terror and fear. yet, it is inside the country, with our own people’s behavior that is doing more damage to the country than any force from outside of it. when you go outside the USA, there is a very different feeling about people and life than what I see inside it. it is like we are living in a house of cards and reality is an illusion.
there is nothing wrong with simply saying, “enough…this behavior won’t be tolerated anymore.” but what will have to come from parents, teachers, policeman and all society. not all society altering and changing because of one insane person's actions and the media taking all day to glorify and put it out in the public with op-ed and call it news.
but hey, that's my two cents. I tried to have an actual discussion in the gym with someone about it, but if you ask a question in the USA (it is funny, seems like I ask too many questions) it pisses people off and they walk away in a huff and expect something to change.
to some, the simplistic answer is everyone needs to be armed to the teeth in the USA? why learn to actually get along with each other - just obliterate anything scary. while deterrents are nice, does anyone else think all this is normal or sane behavior for a society to flourish, learn and grow with everyone armed and afraid?
do people realize what will be coming down the streets in a few years with robotics and advanced artificial intelligence INSIDE the USA? that should terrify people. I just got in another bad discussion when someone brought up a movie about surveillance society and algorithm based police forces and I said, “that stuff has been here already, China will be the leader in it…” (snip, can’t ask a question, or make comments anymore?)
the idea of people being accountable for themselves appears to have gone the way of common sense – it might soon be, if not, extinct in vast parts of the United States.