America and Violence

America is a violent Nation, always has been. Our myths are shaped around Warrior Archetypes. From the Alamo to the NFL, from John Wayne to Bruce Wayne, we have attached ourselves to the rugged individual, fighting for, well, just about anything, as long as he was fighting.

The Civil War was the World's first truly modern conflict and it was unthinkably horrible. Cannons and rifles had become sufficiently sophisticated to make killing a machine-like affair. Before, war had been almost a gentlemanly affair, with strict rules of engagement, sort of like football, but we cranked it up to new heights. Bodies were broken in massive numbers and those who returned were physically and emotionally scarred. The nation's first drug crisis came after the War, as returning soldiers sought morphine to stop the pains of old wounds, both of the body and of the soul. We should not be surprised that such is now the case with many returning veterans. And for those who avoid opiates, well, there is always alcohol.

On and on goes the fighting, and what has been our justification in places like Korea, Viet Nam and the mid-East? We are sacrificing lives to protect the interests of huge multinational corporations, the same ones who yanked jobs out of the US and sent them to countries where folks are still willing to, or are coerced into, working for slave wages. But we love the wars and we love the warriors and sing the praises of those who dutifully go off to defend the Empire of Corporate America.

You cannot constantly put energy into violence, senseless violence, without consequences, and we are seeing the chickens come home to roost. America is beset by acts of mindless violence. Not terrorism, not crime related violence. As shameful as those acts are, at least there is a sort of demented logic behind them. I am far more concerned with sheer, stupid, wanton violence. Kids walking into schools and blasting away, drivers deliberately slamming there cars into crowds on sidewalks, frustrated workers going postal, these are amazingly stupid acts with no comprehensible reasoning behind them. Just a day ago, I saw a short news story about a poor man who stopped to help a car broken down in the blizzard. Someone drove by and shot him. There is no why behind such an act.

When I grew up, yes, we saw violence on TV, but it was a comparatively sanitized violence, not a lot of blood, and always, the actions made some kind of sense. A robber shot a cop, horrible, but, at least it made some sense in the flow of the story. Now, movies are often non-stop violence without even much of a story to get in the way of the next explosion or shooting. Video games are worse in that the player gets to participate in the slaughter, and yet, I see young kids merrily blasting away, creating virtual mayhem. Boxing, once known as the 'sweet science' has been replaced by anything goes Ultimate Fighting matches. Why not just revert to pit fighting? Throw 2 guys in a pit, and the one who survives wins. Why not bring back bear-baiting or the gladiatorial games? If we just want blood and violence, look to the Romans; they were the masters. Maybe the days portrayed in the movie The Hunger Games are close at hand.

I am not a pacifist, not by any means, but neither do I worship the violence this Nation seems to be obsessed with. Violence is sometimes called for, but it should always be a last resort. You cannot constantly put out that violent attitude without getting some kind of feedback. Carl Jung said that we can easily get caught by Archetypes, primordial images from the human collective consciousness, and I would heartily recommend that we free ourselves from the Warrior Archetype. Jesus put it more simply, "as you sow, so shall you reap."