What's wrong with our society? An answer... maybe...

In "What motivates mass murderers?", WWW 19/5/18, I said that I didn't understand what's wrong with Western society -- American society in particular -- that we produce a shockingly large number of psychotics who, for some reason or for no reason, go out and kill shockingly large numbers of innocent people. What's wrong with those people, I asked [rather indirectly. Ed.]. What motivates them? I just don't understand...

Thinking about it some more, I remembered an exchange with Agent 9, who educated me on the distinction between antinomianism (from the Greek: ἀντί, "against" + νόμος, "law"): any view which rejects laws or legalism and is against moral, religious, or social norms) and anomie: a condition in which society provides little moral guidance to individuals.

I don't know if Nikolas Cruz and Dimitrios Pagourtzis are antinomians or not. I rather think not, as having a thought-out and thought-through view of anything implies having given the idea (whatever it is) some thought. But I do think both young men may have been affected by the anomie which has been prevalent in our society ever since the hippy-dippy 60s.

Anomie is the breakdown of social bonds between an individual and the community, resulting in fragmentation of social identity and rejection of self-regulatory values. The concept was described by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in his 1897 book Suicide. (Early reports from Santa Fe suggest that Mr Pagourtzis wanted to commit suicide, chickening out and surrendering to the cops after he had killed ten people.)

Durkheim describes anomie as "derangement" -- craziness -- and "an insatiable will". Anomie, he wrote, arises from a mismatch between personal or group standards and wider social standards, or from the lack of a social ethic, which produces moral deregulation and an absence of legitimate aspirations.

Compare those words with this passage from Bobos in Paradise, by David Brooks (Simon & Schuster, 2000), sent to me yesterday by Agent 3:

In 1995 [actually 1994. Ed.] George Gilder wrote, "Bohemian values have come to prevail over bourgeois virtue in sexual morals and family roles, arts and letters, bureaucracies and universities, popular culture and public life. As a result, culture and family life are widely in chaos, cities seethe with venereal plagues, schools and colleges fall to obscurantism and propaganda, the courts are a carnival of pettifoggery."

In 1996, Robert Bork's bestseller Slouching Towards Gomorrah argued that the forces of the sixties have spread cultural rot across mainstream America. In 1999 William Bennett argued, "Our culture celebrates self-gratification, the crossing of all moral barriers, and now the breaking of all social taboos."

Aha! Lots of further reading there, and I think we may be close to an answer to my headline question. I have long maintained that the year in which the wheels started to come off our society can be pinpointed, based on empirical evidence, as 1964 -- 1965 at the latest. I'm off to the library to find whatever I can written by George Gilder, once described by Time as "male chauvinist pig of the year". Sounds like my kind of guy!

What motivates mass murderers?

Even leaving aside the almost daily attacks by Islamic jihadis, mass murders have been much in the news lately.

A couple of days ago, a Canadian aviation "expert" said he was "100% certain" that the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 -- still undiscovered somewhere at the bottom of the Indian Ocean -- was an extreme case of murder-suicide, perpetrated by the plane's pilot. Last month, 10 people were killed and 16 wounded by a young Toronto man who for some reason decided to drive a rented man down the sidewalk of a busy main street.

And in the USA, there are "school shootings", not in the ghettos of Los Angeles, Chicago, or Detroit, but in white(ish) locales in states like Florida (Parkland) and Texas (Santa Fe). The massacre at Columbine happened just over 19 years ago. Since then, there have been hundreds, hundreds of similar "incidents".

Why do people kill dozens, scores or even hundreds of innocent people? What is their motivation for mass murder? These are questions I ask myself every time something like this happens. It seems to me that only two reasons are possible. Someone who would commit such an atrocity must either be:

A - a fanatical follower of the Religion of Peace (read: Islam) or some other extremist religious and/or political group; or

B - someone whose cheese has slipped off his cracker (read: a psychotic individual).

In "Toronto killer of 10 'seemed a little off'... that's all", the perpetrator of the recent massacre in Canada's Proudly Diverse City is described as "kind of a loner, kept to himself, and 'seemed a little off'." Later it emerged that he identified himself as an "incel" -- "involuntarily celibate" -- someone who couldn't score with women and so decided to take his frustration out on the world.

The Santa Fe TX high school student who allegedly opened fire on his classmates on yesterday has been described as "a quiet and unassuming teenager who enjoys sports and showed few if any warning signs of violent behaviour." He was a member of a dance group at a local Greek Orthodox church and an avid videogame player, known among his classmates mostly for playing on the school's junior varsity football team. A teammate told a Houston TV station, "He stuck to himself. He had a few friends but never really talked to many people. For him to do something like this, it's crazy."

Exactly! But how did those young men -- they are always young men -- become "crazy"? And how are we supposed to protect ourselves and our communities against the crazy behaviour that kills?

To guard against Islamic terrorists, the authorities tell us "If you see something, say something!" But that doesn't work in the case of people like Deimitrios Pagourtzis, the Sante Fe High School killer. The only odd thing that people noticed about him was that he liked to wear a trench coat, even in the Texas heat. What are you gonna do, call 9-1-1 and tell them "my classmate keeps coming to school in a trenchcoat!"?

For that very reason, stricter gun controls won't work, unless America can be turned into some kind of liberal Utopia in which no-one, absolutely no-one has a gun, which seems highly unlikely, to put it mildly. And if that were so, what is to stop a crazy man [or woman! Ed.] from finding another weapon... like a rental van. If you have a good answer to my question, something that doesn't involve locking up every oddball and eccentric in the land, please tell the world... quick!!!

VIDEO: Students say we need to bring God back into our lives

Agent 9 sent us the link to this short (2:17) video, posted to YouTube back in 2015 by students at East Catholic High School, in Manchester CT. The recent massacre at Parkland School makes it even more relevant now than it was when first posted.



The message the students want to get through to the rest of us is that we should be more concerned with God than with being politically correct.
No more "prayer shaming", they say. Let's bring God and prayer back into our lives. Amen!

Americans! Will more gun control make you safer?

Chinese New Year celebrations are over, the Winter Olympics are half over (with only one Russian caught doping, so far), and life in the Excited States of America goes on as usual. Another day, another mass killing, this one a school shooting in Florida. Walt can't tell you how many that makes this year, as I've already lost count.

The usual "thoughts and prayers" have been expressed by all and sundry. But along with the expressions of grief -- real and genuine -- we're hearing shouts of anger, and plenty of them. The latest yesterday's rally at Parkland FL, where 1000s of angry students, parents, teachers and neighbours of the high school where 17 people were killed demanded that immediate action be taken on gun-control legislation.

There were also rallies in St. Petersburg, on the other side of the state, and in Fort Lauderdale, about 25 miles from the scene of the horrific crime. Delaney Tarr, a student at the school where it happened, told the crowd in front of the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, "Because of these gun laws, people that I know, people that I love, have died, and I will never be able to see them again."

Let's think about that. What "gun laws" was Mr Tarr talking about? Laws exist, and the laws allow the purchase of an AR-15 assault rifle provided the purchaser has been properly vetted by the police and other bureaucrats charged with enforcing the laws. Since the killer, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, was known in the community to have exhibited signs of mental disturbance, it seems to me that the problem is not with the laws (or lack thereof), but with the system by which the laws are supposed to be applied.

It appears now, from public records, interviews with friends and family and online interactions, that Mr Cruz was unstable and violent to himself and those around him. Alas, even though a number of agencies, including the FBI, were notified about his threatening behaviour, but did little to stop it.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that Florida's Department of Children and Families investigated when Cruz posted on Snapchat a video showing himself cutting his arms. That was back in August of 2016. The agency's abuse hotline was told, "Mr Cruz has fresh cuts on both his arms. Mr Cruz stated he plans to go out and buy a gun. It is unknown what he is buying the gun for."

According to the paper, the DCF investigation was completed in November. The agency concluded that Mr Cruz had not been mistreated by his mother, was receiving adequate care from a mental health counsellor and was attending school. Mental health centre staff "came out and assessed the [victim]," the DCF report said "and found him to be stable enough not to be hospitalized."

"Attending school"... yes... At school, Mr Cruz routinely fought with teachers, was accused of swearing at staff and was referred for a "threat assessment" in January 2017 (two months after the DCF investigation wrapped up), according to the New York Times. School records seen by the Times show he was suspended several times in the 2016-17 school year and was frequently absent. They also show Cruz attended at least six schools, including a school for students with emotional problems, the newspaper said.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said his office had received more than 20 calls about Cruz in the past few years. He did not say what action his department took... if any. Which brings us to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, America's super-cops.

The FBI said "a person close to Cruz" called the FBI's tip line and provided information about Cruz's weapons and his erratic behaviour. The caller was concerned Cruz could attack a school. The agency acknowledged the tip should have been shared with the FBI's Miami office and investigated, but it was not. Perhaps those responsible were too busy with the investigation into the non-existent connection between Russian conspirators and the Trump campaign!

Dear American readers, how safe do you feel? Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that "they" -- terrorists, gangstas, crazy people -- aren't out to get you! The FBI, your state and local police and other agencies of social control (as I characterize them) are supposed to be "serving and protecting" you. Are they? Ha!

Now the usual gang of snowflakes, lefties and SJWs want to use events like the Parkland school killings as an excuse to take away your guns. Do you know what will happen if more restrictive gun laws are passed that would, for instance, make carrying a gun of any kind in a school zone illegal? I'll tell you! What will happen is that no-one will have a gun at school except someone evil and/or crazy enough to not give a shit about the new tough law!

Here's another question. How would such a law be enforced? What are they going to do, make all the students (and teachers and visitors) pass through a metal detector and undergo a pat-down search on entering the school? How many more law enforcement officers would that take? Would they be as effective as the rent-a-cops employed by the TSA to keep you safe at airports? Ha!

IMHO, the best defence against people like Nikolas Cruz is that envisioned by the Second Amendment to the Constitution. The Parkland massacre would not have been averted if the heroic football coach or any other teacher had been packing heat, but the loss of life would have been considerably less. Perhaps only Mr Cruz would have been killed.

Let's close with a thought from Thomas Sowell, an American economist, turned social theorist, political philosopher and author, who was born in North Carolina but grew up in Harlem. "The key fallacy of so called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available."