By Timothy Westhoff
Our culture of violence is not born from a culture of guns. It is born from a culture of social decay. Problem solving 101.
The tragedies of El Paso and Dayton are NOT the result of guns and their availability…. Period! But its so much easier to blame a symptom than deal with the disease.
First and foremost, when looking at a social/cultural problem and the variance of two comparative time periods: Mass shootings of strangers and shootings at schools, churches, etc. did not happen in the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. They did not start happening until the 90’s. And then it has escalated in the twenty some years since Columbine.
When comparing these two periods of time and trying to ascertain the reasons for such change, what is the first thing you should do? ANSWER: Find the Common Denominator and ELIMINATE IT from consideration as the reason! WHY? Because if, as in this instance, guns were easily available in the first time period group (30’s-80’s) and these tragedies did not happen – yet in the second time period, 90’s to now, guns are still easily available (actually less so) than that CAN’T be the reason. For it is a Common Denominator in both groups, or both time periods. To find out What has changed, LOOK TO WHAT HAS CHANGED, NOT WHAT HASN’T.
What has changed:
- The Family Unit and child rearing. With the Female/Mother role leaving the home in droves in the late 70’s to early 80’s to join the work force, Child Rearing began to be OUTSOURCED. Day Care Centers as a business did not exist until 1981. The devaluation of marriage and “in-house” child rearing CHANGED. (Note: I don’t care which parent stays home, just that we are better served as a society when one of them does to be the primary caregiver). NET=Absentee Parenting. Note: This migration from the home of both parents to the workforce not only created the Outsourcing of child rearing, but changed our economy from one wage earner being to support the home in most instances to slowly requiring two incomes to accomplish the same? How? The economy is a living and breathing thing and it figures things out and prices adjust to the income and demand. We had the “high flying 80’s” where everyone was enjoying two income households and more disposable income, and demanding everything. The economy hadn’t figured it out yet. But the Free Market eventually did figure out the greater disposable incomes of households of the 80’s. Now many households are caught in the NECESSITY of Needing both parents working.
- The drugging of children through Big Pharma. An offshoot of outsourcing child rearing to Day Care and Schools, became the “Pill to Fix the Child” mentality. This created abnormalities in children’s natural maturation process.
- The devaluation or elimination of God and Country from schools, the town square and the home. God, Morality, Faith, Loyalty and Allegiance are Good things to instill in young minds that are forming, not Bad. But the Left has denigrated God and called him and religious faith intrusive to freedom and rights.
- The educational centers that play a part of the Outsourcing of child rearing became political indoctrination centers which, while preaching tolerance for all things from race to gender, etc. – taught intolerance to any ideologies that differed from the Liberal Dogma that permeates throughout the educational institutions. Demonstrating hate, while preaching tolerance.
- The every increasing, lightning speed of technology’s evolution is faster than social structures, youthful maturation and mores can digest. In addition, much as big pharma has become a pacifier of placating children in the absence of hands on parenting, so as technology (from social media to violent video games and greater violence in movies) the ‘Culture of Violence” through the media and tech (Video) has desensitized one to two generations to violence. “Call to Duty” and on it goes. Not just videos promoting violence, but videos that have the youth playing them for hours and hours on end. Catatonic children. Parents allowing that. The child is “occupied”.The Youth’s brains becoming warped and desensitized.
DO NOT LOOK to the COMMON DENOMINATOR that DID NOT change in the two time groups! Look to the things that did change to find your answer, and they are listed above.
But the Left will decry guns and call for Gun Control and blame guns, because if we don’t, we might actually have to focus on the elements of the Left’s political dogma which took root in the 70’s that we started reaping it’s atrocious results in the late 90’s to now. The Social and Cultural politics of the Left. They don’t want that to be your focus. It’s guns that are the problem. Outlaw them and we’ll all feel better to having treated a symptom while the disease will march on and find its new tools and foils. And God knows, the Volstead Act eliminated adults from drinking alcohol in the Twenties, didn’t it?
You can’t solve a problem of this nature if you are unwilling to look at what has CHANGED! GUNS HAVEN’T……..WE HAVE! But that’s too hard for many to face.
