Enough is enough…
I’ve had enough of this violence, especially the gun violence. But what irks me the most is that so many Americans refuse to admit that we collectively, as a country, have a huge problem. Why is it that when I tell people how much safer Europe is than America they scoff at my remarks and label me as “anti-American”? Look, I’m only offering a comparison, that’s all. I don’t dislike America or Americans, I just want to see progress, not a descent into even more violence. And if Europe might offer some ideas about how to improve our society, then why shouldn’t we consider their example? Let me ask you this: Would you feel comfortable letting your child take public transportation alone (that is, if in fact we had public transportation)? Having lived in both Germany and Latvia and traveled through much of Europe, I can say that it is not at all uncommon for children (both alone and with their friends) to hop on a tram or bus and travel across town to, for example, school or another public space, such as a park. Perhaps I am way off here, but my sense is that most Americans would not let their children (and I’m talking here about young children, like maybe an 8 year old) maneuver through the city by themselves. Why is this? Well, perhaps they are afraid their child will get lost, but mostly I think it is because we don’t trust each other. We are afraid that someone might harm our child. And this, even more than the ridiculous prevalence of guns in our country, says a lot about the lamentable state of our civil society. And one simply cannot realize until living somewhere else just how much this unstated fear damages the milieu in which we live. Only then can one fully realize that, just as President Obama suggested in his remarks at the vigil in Newtown, we Americans are in essence being held hostage by our obsession with individualism, by our “exceptional” (yes, in this way we are an exceptional people) notion of “freedom,” and by our continued slide into an ugly, violent, atomized society in which it is everyone for him or herself. At its core, freedom is not a law or a political right, it is an intellectual state of being, a worldview, a Kunderian feeling of lightness. Our strange sense of freedom has paradoxically resulted in a society of burdened, selfish people. Just look at the question of gun control. The argument for “more guns” is rooted in two strains of thought: that 1) I don’t trust you; and 2) I WANT my guns. This — fear and selfishness — is slowly destroying our society. Let’s hope that this latest tragedy causes us to reject fear and selfishness in favor of hope and a renewed commit to creating a new and better society.
crookedtimberofhumanity 