When violence becomes the norm.
A personal view of the current situation in the United States.
Back in 2010, 2011 my country, Mexico, lived one of its most violent years in recent history. The war against the “Narcos” that began back in 2006 had reached a point where everyone anywhere in the country had a someone they knew, a friend, family member, neighbours, or other, that had been directly affected by the situation. At the time, President Felipe Calderón had one single priority. To rid the country of drug dealers.
What he sparked was much worse. It is estimated that from December 2006, to January 2012 about 60,000 people died because of mass executions and civilians being caught in the cross fire. Those are, however the “official” estimates, some organisations claim there where around 150,000 mortal victims.
Why am I telling you all this? Isn’t this article supposed to talk about the current violent climate within the USA?
I wanted to give you, the reader, some context about who I am, so that you can understand where I come from and why I think the way I do regarding these issues. Around that time in history, I was a middle school student. I remember listening daily about bodies being found on the streets, people being kidnapped, bodies hanging on bridges, and severed heads being sent to institutions or left on the road.
The situtation has died down in Mexico, currently violence is amongst mostly gangs, and a general issue regarding women security and wellbeing. However what I see is a country traumatised by its recent history. I see what I believe could happen in the USA when violence becomes the norm.
“Peace cannot be achieved through violence, it can only be attained through understanding.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
There have been mass shootings in the USA pretty much daily in 2019. Not all of them “news worthy”, which is worryingly stated considering, you know, it is a mass shooting. You can track how many they have been here, by day, place, number of people killed and injured.
People have given diverse opinions on the reason or cause for such a violent situation that have caused countries such as Uruguay and Venezuela to issue travel warnings to the USA.
Some of the most popular opinions online that people believe to be the causes have been:
- President Donald Trump’s agenda and political discourse.
- Too many violent video games.
- Mental health issues and mental illnesses.
Actually the last 2 even have whole news publications about the issue pretty much after every single mass shooting that gets to national and international news. This one tells you why those are not the issues.
Honestly, as a foreigner this is how I see it. The issue with the violent climate is a mix of social division caused by a racist rhetoric, over empowerment of the individual over collective and social benefit, and lack of gun regulation. There has always been a racial, even social division factors within the USA, in its history, and even modern era. It has been directed towards very different groups of people through very different contexts and historical periods.
The xenophobia we see today was not created by President Donald Trump, but it was validated, and applauded, even if “sarcastically” as some claim (which I see no reason for), by him. He is not the direct cause, but as I see it, he is a mayor inspiration for the people enacting these terrible assaults against citizens and society as a whole.
Violent video games, even if they glorify violence, murder, and other crimes are not a root cause either. Many countries have these video games and do not have the same results that we see today in the USA. In my opinion, video games do not validate such acts, they are more similar to movies, or plays in which situations are replicated or presented, neither in a positive nor negative light.
Mental health issues. Now, I think this one is a pretty special one. People tend to make villains out of what they do not understand, mental health tends to be so complex that a lot of people who do not have a mental illness can’t really understand what it is like to live with that, or why there is no real connection between mental health and gun violence.
Truth is, violence, specially large scale violence such as a mass shooting, are caused by deep rooted ideals. People who commit these kind of atrocities actually believe they are doing something good, they justify themselves in their believes. They think that their actions will have large scale consequences that are worth ending the lives of others to promote their agenda. Which is the scary part. That’s why people have to stop calling them simply mass shootings and start calling them for what they are, domestic terrorism attacks.
do·mes·tic ter·ror·ism noun: Domestic Terrorism.- the committing of terrorist acts in the perpetrator’s own country against their fellow citizens. Example: “domestic terrorism plagued the country during a time of high political tensions” – Oxford Dictionary
I will allow myself to do a maybe slightly controversial comparison. Domestic Terrorism Attacks are pretty much similar to religious martyrdom. They do not value their life as an individual, or rather believe a cause, ideal, or agenda is much more important than the results such actions might have on themselves or on a select number of people which they have alienated themselves from. They do not see the country as a society, or rather as a diverse society. The see sub divisions. They see an “us” and a “them”. They are so convinced within this idea, and feel supported and validated by others online that believe and act the same way that they do, that they feel nothing but satisfaction. There is no regret, there is no fear, there is no regards for their safety or the safety of others. They consider themselves to be heroes. As we all consider ourselves when we act for what we believe is right. That is what makes their actions so dangerous.
Heroes of course, have to fight agains some “evil force” or “villains”. Recently, the El Paso shooter published a sort of manifesto with his motives for the attack, which should be read critically and carefully because more than a manifesto it is ideological propaganda. He drove from Dallas to El Paso in order to murder “Mexicans”, which is pretty much racial profiling considering many Americans do have Mexican features and ascendency but are from the United States. Also considering Texas used to be Mexico and even an independent nation at one point, decades long lineages with Mexican features live in the southern state. He stated in his manifesto that because immigration was an economic crisis in the making specially since resources will be limited because of global warming the villains in this story where democrats, central republicans, big corporations, and immigrants. Since their goal is to bring more immigrants to amass voters and obtain cheap labour. Not him, and not the hundreds of others that have murdered and committed atrocities against humanity.
As an outsider that sometimes visits the United States as a tourist I can see changes and evolutions that people who live their daily lives there do not realise. They are slow and small, but for someone who visits and isn’t there all the time the changes can stark great contrasts with memories. From school shootings to full fledge terrorist attacks, and most recently a stabbing attack in California. Violence has only been on the rise in the United States. It is no longer an isolated case, it has become an epidemic.
I have seen the rise of transparent backpacks in an attempt to reduce school shootings, and even bullet proof backpacks to protect children. These are honestly insane! There is no logical reason for a society to allow itself to bend in such a way that children mortal protection becomes commercialised. It should never get to the point where people fear stating their nationality, their religion, or even presenting their race. When people start wondering whether they will come back from school, work, shopping, or church alive. That’s when you know a country is going through a real social, security and political crisis. I should know. I have lived through them.
What keeps me awake at night I believe, is not the thought of violence in and on itself. Violence has always been present one way or another in my history books, in my story, in the news. I believe what is the scariest is people defending the right to have a lethal weapon for “protection” over the common wellbeing of society. If no one has guns, then no one needs guns to protect themselves. You want something for protection? You get a bullet proof vest. You act smart. You do not hoard a crazy amount of guns and amass weapons to parade around as some sort of accessory. And most of all, you do not promote people having access to such a lethal weapon.
Of course “it’s not guns that kill people”, it is “people who kill people”, but allowing people to so easily acquire weapons that can cause much more harm than good and have no real practical object other than killing. That is simply utterly and completely illogical. Just look at what other countries are doing that have had similar situations, how they are tackling the issues. (Such as New Zeland)
I truly believe the United States is a wonderful country, but it is sinking down a black hole and it is sinking fast. The country that used to be all about “freedom”, “democracy”, and “opportunity”, is loosing it’s positive adjectives to “hatefull”, “violent”, and “divided”. There are many opportunities it is not taking, and many decisions that are going south. This will only generate further instability in an already politically divided nation, and unless serious actions and social studies are taken in order to promote a sense of nation, belonging, unity, society, and most of all, empathy. I fear that our neighbouring country might loose itself and become something unrecognizable.
Serious social climates such as the violent situation the USA is living through to right now create traumas within its community and citizens. My hope is that the USA learns from the mistakes it is doing, takes active action to amend the road it’s going down on, and reverts this uncertain climate. Where kids don’t know whether they are going to return alive from school, where parents are afraid that they might never come back to their children, and where people fear to be truly free because someone with a gun believed their lives had no value over their own ideals.
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