Ὀδύσσεια

Watch me reference Star Wars in a serious post about violence.

Lee Seigel does a number on America’s mass murder probelm. Key quote:

It’s time to start asking ourselves whether our famous American freedom—in both its liberal and conservative formulations—is not actually a subtle form of dehumanizing tyranny.

He goes on to say that the “genocide of mass murder” – wrought by this “dehumanizing tyranny” – is America’s “true enemy”.

Ugh, and I mean that in the nicest way.

I think Seigel is right to say that there’s something bigger/worse at the root of these mass murders. But that “root” doesn’t translate into a “true enemy”.

Partly because the sorts of social problems that lead to these sort of disasters are too complicated to be reduced into a clear point for society to position itself against.  And, mostly because inanimate objects and concepts (like terror, drugs, and guns) don’t have enough agency to support real enmity.

Besides, it’s pointless to play the “true enemy” card because identifying the enemy has very limited value. At best, it serves only to help people who are afraid of something codify their fear. For example, people who are afraid that God might not exist tend to fear things that exist in spite of God’s word - like, say,  mainstream homosexuality. Gays taking their sacred marriage vows seriously personify the fears of really insecure persons of faith, which invariably leads some of them to absolutely hate the Gays for it.

All this, of course, leads to suffering.

My point is: it’s one thing to deride violence, it’s another to declare it the mortal enemy of society.  Need I remind you, mobilized societies out to vanquish their enemies have a had long history of very negative behavior.

To be fair, even though Seigel brands violence as the true enemy of society, he isn’t saying we should do anything specifically to combat it – he’s really just complaining about terrible and irrational things happening that he can do nothing about.

So, save a total war, what can we do about terrible and irrational things?

I think, we can dislike them. Por ejemplo, “I don’t like mass killings”. Insofar as my ability to act on my preference, I can say: “I’m against mass killings”. Other than that, there’s little more I or anyone can do about violence per se.  Unless, of course, you’re witnessing something terrible happen and can reasonably intervene.  Which, luckily, this lady did.

Siegel’s second point, however, is much better:  Yes Virginia, society is the root of all evil.  Without a doubt, modern society was really fucked up.  On a good day, it significantly contributed to the dehumanization and atomization of individuals that led to the extraordinary mass violence of the 20th century.  At worst, it’s precisely the reason why fascism, nazism, and communism emerged and is, by extension, the reason why hundreds of millions of people were murdered throughout the course of the 20th century.

But is Siegel right in claiming that contemporary society’s just as bad?

Personally, I’m not so sure.  For as anxious as everyone seems lately, I don’t think we’re anywhere near as dazed and confused as our great-grandparents were.  Their world both shrunk in size and exploded with complexity… simultaneously… practically overnight.  I just don’t think we live in the same context.  I think we’re finally used to industrialization.  Isolation and atomization isn’t so dehumanizing when you can tweet the pain away (which also has the added benefit of trapping the violent and inhuman masses at their desks).  Unlike our  great-grand-masses, I think we’re comfortable with the reality that anything’s possible in a world where nothing matters.  That’s why the quality of our mass violence is different than the mass violence of modernity.  Things just aren’t as totalizing as they used to be (which is probably my desensitization to violent porn talking).

It’s supposed to be sad when someone has a psychotic break and uses violence against themselves and others.  When sad things happen, we’re supposed to beat ourselves up over it.  But instead I think we should take solace in the fact that society is no longer following the crazies straight to hell en masses.  We’re doing all on our own, one by one.  That must mean somebody’s doing something right.