1. praise for the first responders;
2. exhortations from local political leaders that “this will not affect who we are” and “we will recover”;
3. a promise of thorough investigation;
4. detailed speculation about what charges the shooter might face (if he’s still alive);
5. a commitment to notify victims’ families as soon as possible;
6. muted descriptions of how gruesome the crime scene is (and a refusal to show photos or videos of that scene);
7. preoccupation with make of guns and ammunition;
8. affirmation of great cooperation among local, state and federal law enforcement;
9. absent-minded fascination with and speculation about the motives of the shooter;
10. mention of “manifestos” but no serious exploration of the actual texts;
11. predictable discussions about “Is Trump to blame?”;
12. easy offering of superficial explanations–mental health/video games;
13. calls for fewer guns and calls for more guns;
14. reports of memorial services and flowers at the scene.
Readers may know other elements that I’ve missed
The elements in the script all but ensure that the script will be read again. We suggest that the time is long overdue for a new script.
I’d also point out one item that never makes the script–a serious discussion of alienation in America–where the state of being dispossessed of one’s personality has become the norm. In an odd incongruence, the mall (the site of the El Paso shooting) is perhaps the most common site of that dispossession.
And of course, the community is tough, grieving, coming together to heal in the face of terrible tragedy.
Thoughts and prayers; lone gunmen/shooter; the responsibility is entirely his; the act of a sick/deranged/mentally ill individual; “hate has no place in America”
Please forgive me, but I cannot help but share my thoughts, however gruesomely cold those thoughts might appear; however “inappropriate,” at this time, they might appear. But first, condolences, of course. Horrible thing.
“…a serious discussion of alienation in America–where the state of being dispossessed of one’s personality has become the norm.”
With regard to that statement about “being dispossessed of one’s personality,” it reminds me how America, and “the American people,” seem never to draw connections between the past, horrendous crimes of both, and the KARMIC occurrence of tragedies today. How often does American, and Americans think about the dispossession of personalities of Africans, brought here to American against their will, whose tongues were cut out if they were heard speaking their native African tongues; who were shot dead if they were seen practicing their African religions. Whose personalities were destroyed, to the extent that that which is NORMAL, for a man, was stripped from them: the ability to defend their women and children.
Malcolm X said something about chickens coming home to roost. We are all an abnormal, SICK people. We hear of the Uighurs of China; the Dalits of India; the STILL suffering Native Americans; the artificially MANUFACTURED “culture” of black folks in America; the tragedy that happened to Armenians. And do we GIVE a shit?
We see our “government” murdering millions upon millions of Muslims, in our attempts to take THEIR personalities away from them, and do so on a bullshit tip: the FALSE claim that the 9/11 occurred because of Muslims.
In truth, there is nothing surprising; nothing unexpected; nothing shocking about indiscriminate mall shootings in America. Why SHOULD there be? What, tell me, has CHANGED about Americans that would would expect anything different that what has occurred? There has NEVER been respect for human life, in America. This is why the headquarters of the TRANS-HUMANISM is here in the “good old U.S. of A.” Cold, soul-less techno-nerds walk across the stage, in Ted Talks, extolling the “beauty” of a future, cyborg “humanity,” half-human, half-machine, and demonstrating their utter disregard of the distinctive, corporate nature of a human being as composed of mind, body, and soul.
The chickens have come home to roost. Or, as our Christian brothers and sisters would say, and quote from their Bible, “You reap what you sow.” It’s KARMA, baby. And if I sound cold and heartless, well…All I can say is that I want everyone to be safe–EVERYONE. But, the truth is the light. Sorry.
I am immensely proud to be associated with a publication whose response to the shootings was not to blame “racists,” “gun culture,” or a political figure, but to focus attention on the totality of life in this miserabilist society. “The shopping mall is the heaven of the world whose hell is the concentration camp.”
Great observation by Hard Crackers John Garvey.
Of course the pundits will never discuss alienation of the masses to which shooters themselves belong. Much too scary, too big a problem to overcome by talk and quick-fix schemes used time and time again, infinitum, to hoodwink the undiscerning masses. It seems to me, ironically so, that shooters shoot themselves several times when they shoot others occupying the same boat, a losing economy, in which 2% controls 98% of the wealth and produce nothing. How frustrating is that?! Where do you start?