News story – Milwaukee: 10-year old shoots his mother because she would not let him order a virtual reality headset.
News story – Newport News, VA – 6-year old shoots his teacher after an altercation in the school hallway.
These are just two of the recent news stories relating to gun violence about which the most obvious question, or at least the first one that the talking heads ask is, “how did this child get their hands on a gun?”
But that is the wrong question. The real question, the question that gets to the root of this and many, many other gun violence stories is, ”where did this child (person) get the idea that shooting someone is the solution to their situation?”
The follow-up question should be,” when will we as a free society stop chasing Progressive warmfuzzyology solutions to problems?”
We are told these will create a kinder and gentler, more just, more utopian world but the evidence is not supporting the premise.
How is it logical that, as we are told on the one hand, legacy cartoons are too violent and too influential on young minds but, on the other, that the seemingly ubiquitous violence of today’s television and movies, as well as the video games which teach players to think in terms of violence in order to advance, have no such effect?
While it is true that not everyone exposed to negative imagery will be behaviorally influenced by it, just the fact that we have accepted these two statements of what influences young minds as having come from our ‘betters’ and so must be correct, means that we have accepted the least logical conclusion as being reasonable. The violence enabled by this illogical conclusion will continue to expand until ‘we the people’ decide we aren’t going to accept it any longer – starting with the irrationality that spawned it.
On the other side of the coin and driven by the same irrationality is the national suicide rate. Here again, Progressives’ Manual of Warmfuzzyology solutions have been proven wrong, as well as illogical if for no other reason than that they ignore the entire history of humans striving to thrive.
It starts with the false idea that every person is inherently special but, that there is no requirement to prove it by bettering ones’ self.
Participation trophies are the bane of true – that is, results-based – self- esteem but they are everywhere. Self-esteem, just like the esteem of our fellow man for us, must be earned or it has no value.
Add to that hollow self-pride the lessons that are being so often taught in educational settings: that this country is no better than any other; no more just; in fact, corrupt from its founding. In short, this country offers nothing to be proud of or feel patriotic about. Success as an American citizen is to be considered a cursed thing.
Let’s take another step down into the pit of despair. Depending on ones’ ethnicity, they are either never going to amount to anything because they were predestined by history to be barred from any real success or, they should be ashamed of any success they achieve because of all the bad from history that ‘their kind’ perpetrated upon specific others.
So, self-esteem built on accomplishment, the pursuit of which makes the seeker a better self, is no longer relevant; the pride one is supposed to be allowed to feel for ones’ own country is illegitimate; ones’ ethnicity and the history tied to it – if one paints with a wide enough brush – pre-determines all outcomes and excuses all failures.
This litany of misery needs one more ingredient: every mildly uncomfortable event is seen as a precursor of post-traumatic stress and requires a counselor. Mental toughness is a personal attribute to be avoided at all costs.
This social landscape which is being sold as fundamental to a ‘kinder and gentler’ utopia precludes some people from ever climbing the hill where they feel that their life matters. Suicide seems the only answer for a life over which one feels no control and has no apparent purpose. Some are even willing to accept notoriety in exchange for noteworthy and take as many people with them as possible.
Progressives are sucking the substance out of the things that everyday ordinary people use to feel alive and valuable. Until those same people say “enough is enough”, antisocial gun crimes and despair will continue to claim lives which might otherwise have been saved by using a better model.
Jim Mitchell can be reached at rustysdawg@gmail.com.
