10-21-2024, 10:08 AM
(10-20-2024, 03:43 PM)FlyingClayDisk Wrote: Lastly, and I can't stress this enough...what has changed in the recent decades? Not guns. People have changed. We will have to agree to disagree on the point that the only purpose of a gun is to kill. Guns, like nuclear weapons, are also a deterrent. They often also prevent bad people from doing bad things without even being fired. So, this is my rejoinder to the notion that a firearm's only purpose is to "kill". Earlier in this thread another member posted an Indiana Jones clip. You saw a man with a sword who surely would have "killed" Indiana Jones had he not possessed a firearm to defend himself. In the absence of that firearm, well, it would have been a sword against a bullwhip, not much of a match. Point being, people will find a method to kill if this is their "intent"...and this has been proven the world over. If they don't have a firearm...they'll find another way. Once again, the firearm is just a tool; it's the "intent" which matters.
We could do some back-and-forth on the earlier points (my comment about road rage shootings wasn't meant to indicate that they're common... but in Texas that's what crosses your mind if someone gets surly in traffic. We do have frequent ones in Dallas.) However, I wanted to focus on this last paragraph, because I think it cuts to the heart of the matter: culture.
>>>We become the stories we tell ourselves<<<
>>>This is an important part of culture.<<<
You (and I) grew up in a world that's different than today. Our heroes on tv might have worn a gun (Paladin) but they rarely shot anyone. Dragnet's Joe Friday arrested a lot of people and never pulled a gun on anyone and almost never called in a SWAT type team. Bad guys were never celebrated, and the anti-hero really wasn't a "thing." In movies and in books, guns were uncommon. There weren't many songs about shooting (about getting shot and dying tragically, yeah there's a few ("El Paso" by Marty Robbins, for instance) Hip Kids showed their "macho" by smoking cigarettes and driving fast cars (racing.) Songs about girls were usually about protecting them and marriage and relationships.
We were "safer" simply because there were a LOT fewer people in the world than there are today (you got more of a "small town" vibe because there were a LOT of small towns given how small the population was... the population of the US more than doubled between 1950 and 2020)
Fast forward.
In American media, guns are everywhere. NCIS seems to have a lot of people storming around as SWAT teams and there's shootings every week. The trope of "lone guy with gun taking on Big Bad Corporations" (or government) is everywhere (yes, even you, "Star Wars"), and movies about nasty people/villains (like the Joker) are everywhere, presenting them in a positive or sympathetic light. And when the Lone Aggravated Guy takes on the Government, the government fails to take him out with drones/cops/tactical strikes and instead folds like a cheap umbrella when LAG and his Big Gun show up to Deliver Justice.
(we become the stories we tell ourselves)
In music, women are "ho's" and prizes to be won, but not romanced. Women's songs often feature anger about being locked into old traditional roles. Songs about shooting people down are very common, as are songs about flaunting wealth and ... basically being a snobby jerk.
(we become the stories we tell ourselves)
There are, of course, exceptions to the above and they're not EVERY single move/show
or piece of music... in fact, I'd say they were probably a minority though they're a rather loud minority. But look at it through the lens of a kid growing up today. Songs about getting respect are all about money and guns (not about winning science fairs.) Songs about getting power and wealth to move out of the ghetto are all about buying drugs and getting guns and shooting and manipulating prostitutes to get social and economic power.
(we become the stories we tell ourselves.)
American culture is far more violent than cultures in other nations. Our cities are not as safe as those in many other countries (and many countries issue travel advisories for the United States.)
We have become the stories we are telling ourselves.
If we were to cycle back to SOME of the stories from the 1950's (please... not the ones where I have to prance around in skirt and heels and pretend like I've got an IQ of 90), we would change. If our heroes were scientists and teachers and inventors... if we saw stories about people moving up and becoming successful by inventing new things and if science (not violence) was solving problems, over the course of a decade we'd see our country becoming safer.
We became the stories we told ourselves. I'd like to see better. But until we change the story from "lone guy with gun solves everything" to something like "village and laws deal with monsters and anti-heroes are NOT championed", we'll see the same cycle again. And that's why we need laws to rein some of the Guy With Gun enthusiasts in.
(my 2 quatloo's worth. note: I now watch British tv which is more like the tv I grew up with)
