Newtown and American Violence

Newtown is a symptom of our civilization's difficulty managing aggression. As a species, we survived because we were violent, more aggressive than our competitors. Aggression no longer serves us, but we have not learned that.

Sadly, our civilization has not yet integrated the knowledge about human psychology that has emerged over the last century. We do not have a psychologically informed world-view within which to understand Newtown. We do not have a psychologically informed world-view with which to comprehend our nation's addiction to defense, to America's weapons of mass destruction, to drones, to the way in which America's arms manufacturers have weaponized the world. As a result we call Newtown a "senseless" tragedy. Newtown is not senseless at all.

At Newtown the violence that permeates American culture boiled to the surface with tragic consequences, but that violence is everywhere. We glorify violence with the fly-overs at the beginning of major sports events. We accept the implicit violence in the commercials for Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force that sponsor the televised sports events. We accept the investment of over half a trillion dollars of our national wealth every year in violence embodied in the defense department.

We have not understood that our national violence manifests the violence inherent in our families and our child-rearing practices. We adhere to a national fairy story that we are the "shining city on the hill," "the beacon of light," "the pinnacle of democracy" (recent quotes from members of Congress), and that fairy story covers an hideous reality. We are a violent nation of violent citizens, and we should not be surprised that the violence we have wreaked in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan has now wreaked havoc in Newtown.

Star Man