Violence
Violence lies within each of us. We are driven in part by an animal brain with hormonal triggers which can become activated when we perceive ourselves to be threatened. These triggers work automatically. The threshold for these triggers being tripped varies from person to person, depending upon individual genetic and environmental factors. In short, each of us is capable of violence; our circumstances (luck) vary.
A dysfunctional brain, combined with environment stresses, produces the kind of person now in the news after his mass murder in Arizona. As long as we ignore the realities of our biology and the needs of those who are born with mental challenges, we will have these incidents in society. Unlike some societies, where the mentally ill are exploited by religious fanatics, the U.S. has the wealth and capability of taking excellent care of its mentally impaired citizens. Yet, we have a Congress which is still arguing over public health insurance for all citizens.
So, aren't the recent events in Tucson merely a case of cause and effect? For over thirty years, the U.S. has dismantled its extensive mental health care system. State and county hospitals for the chronically impaired have been shut down and turned into profitable real estate. Rather than updating the existing state hospitals by incorporating modern pharmaceutical and therapeutic techniques, the politicians saw an opportunity to tear down the whole system in favor of tax savings and profits, which may well have ended up in the pockets of the corrupt.
The results are quite obvious. Many homeless people are the people who once lived in these facilities, where they had a clean bed and three meals a day, even when the treatments for violent mental illness were primitive and somewhat brutal. The mentally tortured are now forced to beg for food or self-medicating alcohol on cold streets. How humane is this?
People like the Arizona assassin are living lives of isolation everywhere in the U.S.. Those who are marginally functional are perhaps even more dangerous. They can afford to buy a handgun, easily obtained in most of America. Once triggered by too much stress, these individuals are simply atrocities waiting to happen, through no competent intention of their own in many cases. Paranoid delusions seem as real to these individuals as what most of us consider objective reality. Their brain chemistry is simply different.
In a society with these circumstances, media demagogues might well reflect on their use of inflammatory speech. This is not a question of free speech or governed speech. This is a question of mindfulness and compassion. As lawmakers scurry to make new restrictions on free speech, they might reflect on their manipulation of media demagogues to get their political messages across in big red letters. They might take some responsibility for not providing the public health care that would make an isolated man with mental illness feel less alienated and more cared for as a citizen.
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| Photo: Peter Petraitis |
So, aren't the recent events in Tucson merely a case of cause and effect? For over thirty years, the U.S. has dismantled its extensive mental health care system. State and county hospitals for the chronically impaired have been shut down and turned into profitable real estate. Rather than updating the existing state hospitals by incorporating modern pharmaceutical and therapeutic techniques, the politicians saw an opportunity to tear down the whole system in favor of tax savings and profits, which may well have ended up in the pockets of the corrupt.
The results are quite obvious. Many homeless people are the people who once lived in these facilities, where they had a clean bed and three meals a day, even when the treatments for violent mental illness were primitive and somewhat brutal. The mentally tortured are now forced to beg for food or self-medicating alcohol on cold streets. How humane is this?
People like the Arizona assassin are living lives of isolation everywhere in the U.S.. Those who are marginally functional are perhaps even more dangerous. They can afford to buy a handgun, easily obtained in most of America. Once triggered by too much stress, these individuals are simply atrocities waiting to happen, through no competent intention of their own in many cases. Paranoid delusions seem as real to these individuals as what most of us consider objective reality. Their brain chemistry is simply different.
In a society with these circumstances, media demagogues might well reflect on their use of inflammatory speech. This is not a question of free speech or governed speech. This is a question of mindfulness and compassion. As lawmakers scurry to make new restrictions on free speech, they might reflect on their manipulation of media demagogues to get their political messages across in big red letters. They might take some responsibility for not providing the public health care that would make an isolated man with mental illness feel less alienated and more cared for as a citizen.
I couldn't agree more - we need to invest in helping these people because a) it's the right thing to do and b) so that they don't become a security risk to the rest of us. Win win from a compassionate standpoint.
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