By Woodrow W. Clark II and Grant Cooke
WHAT SORT OF CREATURES ARE WE, who can’t protect our children? Even the most primal animals protect their young.
Tragically, the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was not new to America. The frequency of violent mass killings — Sandy Hook being only the most recent case, with 20 children and 6 adults murdered — has been increasing over the last two decades. School massacres are not new; we just lack the will and commitment to stop them.
Arming teachers and administrators is not a solution. Instead, we must look at ourselves, at the fabric of our society, to stop these crimes. We must look at what we can do to create an environment and culture that does not promote violence. We need to be preventative and proactive.
At its core, the American culture is not equal, fair or accepting of diversity. Because of its evolution, economic and social achievement with corresponding acceptance and success is a hard uphill climb, especially in difficult economic times. Too many of us are unable to participate in the innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship that drives America’s culture of wealth and recognition. While the vast majority struggle to maintain dignity and well-being, American culture has become one-sided and biased for a small, insular majority that refuses to listen to the diverse majority. Hence violence becomes rooted within our communities and institutions as broken people turn to desperate acts to be heard.
More than 30 years ago, Clark studied school violence and did his doctoral thesis on the topic. Even then, it was apparent that psychological violence — e.g. name calling, bullying and discrimination against classmates — often preceded physical violence. Community environment, school policies and practices, income and social organization all have a direct impact on the frequency and extent of school violence. Schools are just one human organization in which violence erupts because of sociological and cultural issues that put psychological pressures on the most vulnerable.
Today, we can identify the underlying factors that turn psychological into physical violence, including bullying, misallocation of funding for children, even bias and discrimination against staff.
Reports about American gun violence usually compare the nation’s states. Instead we should be comparing our country to other highly developed nations like Japan, Australia or Great Britain, which are far less violent. There are social norms of violence embedded in American culture unlike those of other civilized societies. We need to identify and mitigate them for our own benefit. The issue is to find, understand and prevent basic psychological violence before the resulting physical violence erupts.
Fundamental change requires a wide range of participants, from cultural groups to legislative bodies, media, business and social leaders. Acceptable levels of behavior must be established for gun advocacy groups that prevent future Sandy Hook massacres.
In planning future prevention efforts, we should examine how communities respond to traumatic events. One recent study examined the causes of deaths and the health consequences of illnesses like lung infections, heart failures and dehydration. The researchers found that individual resiliency varied depending on where you lived, and that it was not just economic standards but the social infrastructure that produced better health outcomes. Communities where individuals were isolated and did not have gathering places, such as coffee shops or neighborhood stores, tended to have more deaths and took longer to recover from dysfunctional and extraordinary incidents.
The conclusion is that communities should not only think of physical infrastructure such as roads or lighting, but also the social infrastructure of creating places and opportunities for people to play, work and interact. This would reduce opportunities for isolation and alienation while promoting social interaction. In short, people need help but have few, if any, places to go in our communities today.
There is no single solution to preventing gun violence. Let’s start by controlling assault rifles with comprehensive registration and follow-up; creating social infrastructures that include measures to reduce the violence in our electronic media (movies, TV, news and video games); improving opportunities for individuals who are isolated to reach out to others (investment in community centers, counseling programs, resiliency education programs); involving community members in activities based on being an active member of our local culture, rather than an outsider; and finding collective and bipartisan ways to pay for it all.
For those of us with young children and grandchildren, we cannot sit idly by and do nothing. We need to control America’s unrestricted violence before it overwhelms us.
Woodrow Clark is a qualitative economist who received his Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley, having written his thesis on “Violence in Public Schools.” He is a co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Benicia resident Grant Cooke, who has written books with Clark, helped with this commentary.
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The America you describe I do not live in. America has very involved citizens. I find your article very anti American.
Big Pharma and the medical industry is so willing to prescribe these dangerous drugs with dire consequences. Neither party involved appears to care one iota that children are killed as a result as long as they get their money. I think greed is the biggest problem in America today!
Read John Noveske’s last Facebook post. This is the last post John Noveske made on his Facebook page before he was killed:
*Eric Harris age 17 (first on Zoloft then Luvox) and Dylan Klebold aged 18 (Columbine school shooting in Littleton, Colorado), killed 12 students and 1 teacher, and wounded 23 others, before killing themselves. Klebold’s medical records have never been made available to the p…ublic.
*Jeff Weise, age 16, had been prescribed 60 mg/day of Prozac (three times the average starting dose for adults!) when he shot his grandfather, his grandfather’s girlfriend and many fellow students at Red Lake, Minnesota. He then shot himself. 10 dead, 12 wounded.
*Cory Baadsgaard, age 16, Wahluke (Washington state) High School, was on Paxil (which caused him to have hallucinations) when he took a rifle to his high school and held 23 classmates hostage. He has no memory of the event.
*Chris Fetters, age 13, killed his favorite aunt while taking Prozac.
*Christopher Pittman, age 12, murdered both his grandparents while taking Zoloft.
(COMMENT EDITED FOR LENGTH)
This comment was edited for length. Suffice it to say that there were 35 listings of killings where the killer (who sometimes used a gun, sometimes not) was on some kind of prescription medication: Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Luvox, etc. We have many young people who are depressed and the medical industry, at the insistence of the pharmaceutical Industry are prescribing these dangerous drugs to our children who are hallicinating and killing people. The government wants to limit guns! Why? These depressed children are not using guns exclusively — nowhere close! Let’s control the pharmaceutical industry! But, we can’t because they give BILLIONS to our elected officals in Washington and elsewhere who need the money to get reelected! It’s a crime ladies and gentlemen! A true criminal enterprize!
Dr. Clark and Mr. Cooke ask:WHAT SORT OF CREATURES ARE WE, who can’t protect our children?
Not sure who we is, but I take it to mean “Americans”, since the balance of the piece has a focus on America or Americans (correct me if that is not correct).
It looks like we are much like other cultures. Looking at school mass killings from 1980 to current we find the following totals:
USA – 10
Europe – 11 (Germany has most at 5)
China – 22
All others – 9 (includes: Russia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Israel and more)
If we compare numbers of instances to population, Germany has almost double the number of occurrences when compared to the USA (.061 to .031 per million)
Germany has very strict gun control requirements, so that alone is not the answer (as most realize).
From the above post: “It looks like we are much like other cultures.”
Not even close. The article (below) gives the reader a deeper understanding of this issue.
http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2012/12/gun-violence-in-america.html
DDL–let’s test out how YOU will view your statistics when one of those dead in 10 MASS KILLINGS is your child, your father, your mother, your sibling, your spouse, your family, your friends, or your government representative.
your statistical rationalization of “we aren’t as bad as other cultures” is just plain silly.
Why would any rational person think allowing public access a weapon of mass destruction is acceptable — there are NO rational explanations for public access to a military tank, a ballistic missile, a hand-grenade, a nuclear-bomb, or a machine gun designed for mass killings.
And since American common-sense has failed, government gun control is now necessary because 11 mass killings is 11 too many.
since American common-sense has failed,
Apparently so has German culture and Chinese culture and European culture.
It’s insane. It’s not the reason for these killings, and banning these items won’t stop the killings; but, it’s crazy just the same!
I understand your point Winter. Do we take cars off the highways also. How about trains, buses and many other freedoms that we have. I do agree we do need to do something on gun control. California has very good laws. Some might say not strict enough. I would like to hear your ideas on gun control.
From the above article:
“We need to control America’s unrestricted violence before it overwhelms us.” It is a nice ending sentence by the authors.
I keep thinking about the genocide of the Native Americans.
I keep thinking about the enslavement of African Americans.
The incarceration of Japanese Americans.
I keep thinking about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The use of napalm and agent orange in Southeast Asia.
The ongoing use of depleted uranium in Iraq; Afghanistan and Serbia.
Not to forget unmanned aerial vehicles-i.e. Drones.
See post below for a wake up call…
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/03/the-american-culture-of-violence/
How do you sleep at night Will, with all these thoughts troubling you?
Will I still think about what Germans, Japenese and Russians did during WWII. I will never forget those astrocities. Believe me Will I do not want a culture like the EU or in most cases Asia.