Posted on 03/31/2018 9:48:07 AM PDT by rktman
During briefings as a patrol officer, I scanned the crime reports from the prior week, looking for patterns, trends and changes. If, for example, I discovered an increase in car burglaries on the west side of town, I would ask the simple question: What shifted in the past few weeks to account for the additional crimes? More robberies on the east side? What’s changed? Did someone new move into the area? Did some group of offenders decide to target our city? Now, as a cold-case detective and author, I apply the same approach to a new crime phenomenon: the increase in mass school shootings. What’s changed in the past twenty years that might account for this? What cultural shifts lie behind the shootings?
1. An Increase in Social Media Use
2. An Increased Dependency on Prescription Medicine
3. An Increase in Single Parent Households
4. A Decrease In Traditional Christian Values
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
NON print version:
https://townhall.com/columnists/jwarnerwallace/2018/03/31/the-shifts-behind-the-shootings-n2466000
There are some things that he might have missed:
—A lack of civil discourse anywhere. It has turned into a world where compromise and respect are almost unheard of.
—Social media touches on this, but the feeling like everyone is special, and everyone has the right to voice their opinion anyway they wish.
—People lack basic social skills. Being polite might seem minor, but if we don’t teach our children early, by the time they reach young adulthood, they would be off the tracks.
—Kids have always been brutal to each other. But from what I’ve seen in person, these kids who believe in social justice are quick to condem people and “outsiders” are not well tolerated.
This is a complex issue. There are no easy answers. But access to firearms is a small part of the root cause. These kids do not just see a firearm and think, “I am gonna shoot up the school.” The “method” is probably the LAST thing in a long chain of events that probably start years earlier when the shooter makes a social error...and thus they are tainted for years to come.
Yup. It is complex and civility seems to be missing. A LOT. “They” keep screeching that they won’t compromise. Period. So, do we agree with any outrageous demands they make. Not any more. At least not down here at our level. Our “unrepresentatives” keep selling us down the river in attempts to make nice. Quit it. They don’t care if you’re/we’re nice.
Well it seems “we” are being asked to compromise...as if these folks have any negotiating point to begin with. How many of these “new rules” have been found to be unconstitutional?
It would be nice to see a respectful discussion, based on facts. Not based on the drama-filled emotion found in children’s hearts.
I believe feminism plays a significant role. As a result, schools are, for the last forty years or so been oriented towards the way girls learn at the expense of boys who, at that age, can’t just sit still and learn. Therefore they must be drugged into complacency. But the girls are doing just fine.
The war on boys, rabid feminism, the trend toward late or no marriage ("I don't need a man."), no strong father at home, no parents at home much of the time, loss of religious families, and heavy use of social media and computer games instead of boys being outside being boys.
“(”I don’t need a man.”)” Awesome example with the two moms “couople” that drove their minivan off a cliff with their 6 adopted kids on board into the Pacific Ocean last week. Guess one of the mom’s foot got stuck on the gas pedal. Evil biotches. Should have let the kids out.
An Increase in Social Media Use
Young people are more influenced by social media than any other generation. In a recent survey, teenagers reported that they often feel bad about themselves (or their lives) when viewing the social media posts of their friends. More importantly, teenagers said they are often bulliedon-line. That’s important, because the killers in each school shooting were also said to have been criticized or ostracized prior to the crime. While bullying is not new, the way young people bully each other has shifted. Social media intensifies bullying because it increases its severity, proximity and consistency. We are far harsher when criticizing others on social media. Worse yet, in a smart phone culture, the bully is as near as your phone. Those of us who were bullied in the past could at least find solace and protection in our own homes; bullying stopped as soon as we left the school grounds. Not so today. Bullies follow their victims home every night and sleep next to them on their nightstands. The way people interact has changed, and this shift is seen in the lives of school shooters. Many have been harboring growing animosity stoked by social media.
An Increased Dependency on Prescription Medicine
Parents are medicating their children today more than ever before. While it’s true that many of the school shooters were using (or had recently stopped using) prescription drugs, I’m not suggesting that this form of drug use is contributing directly to the increase in shootings. In fact, I have seen many families incorporate ADHD/depression/anxiety medications with great success. But, in a recent PBS special, Medicating Kids, Dr. Lawrence Diller made two important and insightful observations. First, he observed that we “as a culture - more than any other culture - seem to have accepted biology and the brain as the reason for maladaptive or poor behavior.” In addition, Dr. Diller observed, “we have a continuing erosion of parental discipline…” Some parents have now shifted toward prescription drugs that target the physical brain and away from traditional, time-consuming approaches that address behaviors. As a result, fewer children – including shooters – have extended interaction with their parents.
An Increase in Single Parent Households
As a Gang Detail Officer in Los Angeles County, I had the opportunity to spend time with young Hispanic, African-American, Caucasian and Korean gang members. They came from different socio-economic and racial backgrounds but had one thing in common: lack of dad. Some never knew their fathers. Others had dads who were in jail. Some had fathers who were disinterested alcoholics. Others had dads who were workaholics who rarely ever came home. The percentage of children under the age of 18 in the United States living in single parent households has increased dramatically - during the same time that school shootings have multiplied. In addition, many young men are being raised in what is effectively (if not statistically) a single parent household. Men have a responsibility to raise up their boys, and when they shirk this responsibility we see tragic results. Family structures have changed; several of the high school shooters simply didn’t have an effective male role model who could help them navigate their teenage years.
A Decrease In Traditional Christian Values
According to several recent studies, “Christianity is on the decline in America, not just among younger generations or in certain regions of the country but across race, gender, education and geographic barriers.” In addition, young people are far more likely to be atheistic in their thinking than their parents or grandparents. Our moral foundation has shifted. The number of people who identify as Christians has been dropping at about 1 percent per year. Fewer people in America embrace Christianity as a religion than ever before, and fewer seek the teaching of its Scripture. The Bible has much to say about bullying and the proper use of words (i.e. Proverbs 12:6 and Ephesians 4:29), the importance of discipline in developing character (i.e. Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:11) and the role of fathers (i.e. Proverbs 20:7 and Ephesians 6:4). As people shift away from Biblical teaching, they are abandoning the behaviors taught in the Scripture.
Every cultural change holds both a promise and a threat. We either shift toward something worthy or worthless. The sooner we recognize what’s changed in America (and admit where the change is leading us), the sooner we’ll be able to address the increase in school shootings.
No doubt they are related to a general trend in the culture, but nothing that comes close to causation.
Moral absolutes ping.
Gratuitous violence, movies, TV, rap music, video games, that all has had an exponential jump in the last 40 years.
War movies had a much more controlled version of violence, than what is seen now. Compare Patton to Saving Private Ryan. Patton was nothing compared to the opening 30 minutes of SVP. Yes realistic, but something that never would have been shown 40 years ago.
In between were the Rambo movies, each one stepping up the kill count. We have become Romans in the coliseum, with the impresarios having to go to greater and greater lengths to entertain the crowd. The games were limited to a few weeks per year, and then in the Empire’s later years were almost constant to keep the masses entertained.
Mass audiences today would not countenance such a saccharine display of warfare as seen in Patton. It has to be bloodier than the last.
Look at the 1977 version of “Jesus of Nazareth” by Franco Zefferelli, and after Jesus is whipped, he barely has a mark on his body. Look at Mel Gibson’s “Passion”, and Jesus is whipped beyond recognition.
Some of the video games are monstrously violent, with millions of teenagers spending thousands of hours digesting that sludge. The only question is, why there is not much more violence in our schools.
Everything is much more raw, witness the free flow of psychotic violence and pornography on the internet. Nothing is sacred, everything profane. We have entered a world that is a mirror to a pagan past, of bloodshed, sexual gratification and violence.
I do not know where it ends but bad things happen if it gets out of control, and perhaps the school shootings are a direct, linear result.
Well, the “experts” disagree and say all the gratuitous violence kids partake in today have negligible effect. Okee dokee then. They are the “x-spurts” after all.
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