I recently watched Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine." Now many of you may stop reading right here because you disagree with him and his views, but this movie raises very valid points.
Why is there such an insane amount of violence in America? We have too many guns? Nope that can't be why, since Canadians have way more guns than Americans, but in their country less than 40 people are murdered a year. How many are murdered in America each year? Over 11,000!
Maybe there's this violence due to the arrogance of America. If we don't like something going on in another country, we invade them, start a war there, bomb them, etc. Is that really a good solution? How many billions of people have we killed in the many wars and battles America has been involved in? The movie showed various instances in which the U.S. invaded countries for what ended up being bad reasons. Clinton bombed a place in Africa that he thought made nuclear weapons, yet it turned out to be an Aspirin factory. We had trained Bin Laden years ago and now we're searching for him since he used the skills we taught him to bomb us.
But what is the root of the problem? Many other countries have been involved in many wars, yet we are still by far the most violent. We have a huge amount of murders here compared to basically every other country. Is it the media? Do we watch too many violent shows, movies, play violent video games and listen to violent music? Well yes, we do, but don't other countries do that too? Yes.
I don't know the reason as to why America is so violent, but it's sickening. In some town in Alabama it's actually illegal to NOT have a gun! A bank in Michigan actually gives out free guns if you start an account there. It's absurd.
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I think the problem is the clash in races. We are the most diverse (I think) and we have the most deaths, so I see a line between the two. Like why gangs were formed. They were formed to protect one group from another (I think the Irish from the White peope) Or perhaps we are so concided and think we are all that that we can do anything because we are the best country.
Actually, I'm glad you mentioned the race point because that was mentioned in the movie too. In Canada there are many blacks, if not more than there are here, but they are treated much better and there is less racism. Michael Moore asked some black people what they thought of Canada vs. America and they all mentioned how people are nicer and more accepting. There are a lot of races here, but there are other countries that also have many races.
This doesn't have anything to do with your comment but I thought this was astounding:
In Canada very few people lock their doors. Michael Moore actually went up to a bunch of houses and opened the doors and sure enough, they were all unlocked. So Canadians aren't even afraid of robbers because I guess it just isn't that common over there.
Now I don't have a concrete answer as to why all of the violence. Maybe it's a mix of everything : the races, media, gun possession, etc, but it just seems like many other countries have those 3 things but still are not nearly as violent as the U.S.
I don't think we can use race as a reason America is so violent, reason being there are few interracial killings here. Murders are predominantly intraracial. I believe we have to look at our class system, and political leader's agendas to find this answer. Examples: self- destructing inner-cities, cities were built by minorities but once the work was done big companies moved out leaving mass amounts of poor minorities jobless and segregated from quality education, healthcare, and job opportunities etc.
Secondly, I think we have to look at our values compared to most other countries. Take Canada for example, they have universal healthcare, and heavy taxes for luxury items. Their government values equality for its people more then our government does. We value individuality, it is hard to have individuality and equality at the same time. The problem is individuality creates high levels of tension in every aspect of life, ie. the desire to succeed, to amass wealth, have fancy things showing your status in society. This is not the case in most countries, our desire to amass wealth is high in this country unfortuanately our opportunities available to reach this level of success are limited. I believe this is why we have high violence and crime rates. We have desires that are mostly unreachable for the majority, and we will go to nearly any length to reach them.
Down with violence. We can't go off putting national bands on guns or weapons, regaurdless of how much we'd all like to. Each to his own, I suppose. Wow, I'm saying that quite often lately.
I've written pages and pages trying to rid you from my bones. -The Decemberists
The only difference here versus thaere is the lack of honor. In Europe, they are beginning to see this violent dilemma as well. The reason in America is that we have killed God. Now wait, before you go telling me about his non-exsistance and all that jazz...
I'm speaking from a historical standpoint. Where was murder and such in the past? everywhere. Where was God? everywhere, but the murders were different. There was Those who were above and below the law carrying out these acts, those who were real parts of society were held by a religeous conviction that if they werre bad, they would be punished. Be it in this life or the next, it would catch up with them.
Nowadays, we have no responsibility anymore, in the words of one of my favorite music groups (Sum 41), "We're all to blame... we want it all with no sacrifice..." We are no longer held accountable for our actions, even when the law does catch us. As such, we can get away with violence and murder.
"We are predestined to determine our own destiny... Elit Druin."