Some very useful, helpful thoughts here. In some ways it's far too easy for folks to chalk this stuff up to "mentally ill" people and use that as an excuse to not worry about it (or to worry about it by treating all mentally ill people as potential spree killers).
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On “Mental Illness”
Commenter mesh at Pharyngula boiled it down into a three word trope: Following every reported massacre the immediate response from people is essentially a “No True Human” whereby they seek to releg……
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However, there have been some people connected to the latest school shooting that said that he was mentally ill or otherwise impaired (I read somewhere that he may have had Asperger's, though I didn't think that would make someone violent)…which leads me to believe that possibly he wasn't getting the care he needed. His mom took him out of school (according to others) because his behavior was getting worse. I don't label all crazy murderers as mentally ill…but according to those ppl who supposedly knew the kid and his mom he WAS mentally ill (or, again, otherwise impaired).
The question that should be asked (but never will be by any “credible” person) :
“What is it about the way people are treated in the U.S. that makes so many of us crazy?”
Ever run into a crazy-mean dog? Every damn one of them has been abused in some fashion. My opinion as to the culprits? Social isolation, cutthroat competitiveness and making money the measure of all things. Worshipping competition (aka “The Market”) may be the root of everything else, though. Mostly, Americans can’t even do something as ecstatic as dancing without turning it into a frickin’ contest.
Oh, I'm certainly aware of that. The problem, as the article notes, is that "mentally ill" becomes a reason to dismiss these sorts of events as aberrations, as "mental illness" is a continuum. It becomes easy to say, "Well, it was just a crazy guy" and not address any of the issues raised by the shooting (the weapons, why he didn't get the treatment he needed, etc.) any further.
I read the original posts. It’s about scapegoating and misdirection, when the truth is that “we have met the enemy and he is us”. But I would go even further in more or less the same direction.
What I’m saying is that “the weapons, why he didn’t get the treatment he needed, etc.” are themselves distractions from the root problem. True, it’s surprising that even more of us don’t pick up a gun when they are so readily available, but whatever the arguable efficacy of gun regulations or profit-oriented mental health “treatment”, you’re still talking about attacking symptoms, not root causes. Not saying we shouldn’t pop an aspirin for temporary relief, but let’s not fool ourselves either.
In spite of the scripted media and political circus that surrounds these violent incidents, I don’t think the public is aware of just how common they really are. For more horrible examples and a fuller and better argument along this line than I can make, go read Going Postal by Mark Ames.
Right. And excuse like being old and being mean.