I have a rather heavy heart today. More people killed in a mass shooting, this time in Bakersfield. All these people dead, for no reason. I know that people are killed every day, all over the world, not just in the States, but it's starting to feel like our society is degrading into a horrible mess, where people don't just not love each other, but actually are starting to hate each other just because of their differences of opinion or different outlooks on life. We live in a society where it's becoming increasingly common for people to try to solve disputes with weapons, rather than words or reconciliation. There are so many good people here, yet so many who have reached a point at which they want to hurt and kill others.
Why does our society not see what's going on and make a concerted effort to change things? We have millions of people who are hurting, but very few ways for them to find help. We have people who want companionship, intimacy, love, friendship--but who are unable to achieve any of those things that they desire. We have people who are so desperate for something that they see their only viable option as picking up a weapon and hurting others. Can we do anything to stop this?
A reply:
Such is the human race. As a race, you have allowed yourselves to be swayed more by fear than by reason or compassion; more by anger than by a sense of unity. In fact, you actively deny your unity in order to feel more justified in being angry.
What your country is suffering through now is a symptom, not a disease. The disease has been around forever, as long as humans have been around, and it will stay with you until your communities become loving, supportive entities based on love and compassion rather than on retail and power struggles. You need to focus more on teaching people their value and teaching them of things like effective conflict resolution. You need to teach them what you all have in common rather than focusing on your differences as most of you do now. You need to teach young people how to be helpful rather than helpless, and how to relate to other people on equal footing rather than on limited and artificial social structures. You need to teach people to be responsible not just for their own actions, but for the well-being of their fellow human beings. I can tell you honestly that apart from the mental illnesses, most of the people who have killed would not have killed if they felt themselves a part of a loving, caring community where they had a lot of support and in which they felt good about themselves.
You are the most individualistic society in the world, and that's getting even more extreme. Young people spend many hours in front of screens--computers, games, television, movies--alone, when they could be spending that time with friends or families, learning about social rules and learning how to get along with others. If they were to spend time with others, they also would get more encouragement, and they would start to feel better about themselves and their place in this world.
This symptom is going to go away only when you start to teach your young people to get along with each other. Only when you pull them away from screens and teach them to be a part of a community in which they can receive good as well as give it. Only when you start to focus on cooperation rather than competition. Only when you teach compassion rather than judgment. Only when you stop your politicians from bad-mouthing each other and calling each other names, providing the worst kind of role models possible for our young people.
This can be fixed, but you must start with the people and their hearts, not with the symptoms.
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