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Triple tragedy

In less than a week, the U.S. has witnessed three ugly incidents in which an armed gunman entered a public place and started shooting people. The current state of affairs in this country is pretty disastrous in my opinion, so while I am saddened by this news, I can’t say I am surprised.

- First was Fort Hood, Texas where an army psychiatrist shot up a military base right before a graduation ceremony was to begin (PTSD anyone?). My brother is a retired army veteran, so incidents involving the men & women of our military hit me close to home.

- Second was a disgruntled worker in Orlando FL (where I lived for almost four years and still have close ties) who returned to his former employer’s office to settle a score, apparently believing the firm was sabotaging his quest for unemployment benefits.

- The third happened yesterday just outside Portland OR – a murder/suicide perpetrated by a man allegedly in a relationship with the woman he killed, who also injured two innocent bystanders before killing himself.

I wonder – is this symptomatic of a general unraveling of our collective psyche?

Are these challenging times stressing people out beyond their breaking point?

Or are stories like this just the result of an overzealous media ploy to divert our attention away from more important issues (economy/jobs, health care, financial regulation, climate change)?

Is this any different from the normal scale & scope of violence we see in our society or does it portend something bigger?

Are we approaching a tipping point wherein our citizens reject traditional methods of conflict resolution and resort to taking matters into their own hands via gun violence?

I have no idea…What do you think?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Social Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Triple tragedy”

  1. Fransylv Says:
    November 11th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    Me thinks– it’s a summation of all your points. Avid Nietzschean that I am: we’re living through a crisis of values. Most of our cognitive activities to date, manifest a drive to achieve and exert mastery and personal power over others and our environment. The extent to which we do, and are successful is greatly dependent on our belief in a “Christian God,” or a standard apart from us by which we measure our moral values.
    We may yet get to the point where the source of our value is in our own character, and we do not hide behind a transcendental moral realm.