"Mass shootings have become routine in the United States and speak to a society that relies on violence to feed the coffers of the merchants of death. Given the profits made by arms manufacturers, the defense industry, gun dealers and the lobbyists who represent them in Congress, it comes as no surprise that the culture of violence cannot be abstracted from either the culture of business or the corruption of politics. Violence runs through US society like an electric current offering instant pleasure from all cultural sources, whether it be the nightly news or a television series that glorifies serial killers."-Professor Henry A. Giroux
© Patheos
This
latest mass shooting in Las Vegas that left more than 50 people dead and more than 500 injured is as obscure as they come:
a 64-year-old retiree with no apparent criminal history, no military training, and no obvious axe to grind opens fire on a country music concert crowd from a hotel room 32 floors up using a semi-automatic gun that may have been rigged to fire up to 700 rounds a minute, then kills himself.We're left with more questions than answers, none of them a flattering reflection of the nation's values, political priorities, or the manner in which the military-industrial complex continues to dominate, dictate and shape almost every aspect of our lives.
For starters, why do these
mass shootings keep happening? Mass shootings have taken place at churches, in nightclubs, on college campuses, on military bases, in
elementary schools, in government offices, and at concerts. This shooting is
the deadliest to date.
What is it about America that makes violence our nation's calling card?
Is it because America is a gun culture (what professor Henry Giroux describes as "a culture soaked in blood -
a culture that threatens everyone and extends from accidental deaths, suicides and domestic violence to mass shootings")?
Is it because guns are so readily available? After all, the U.S. is home to
more firearms than adults. As
The Atlantic reports,
gun fetishism has become mainstream in recent decades due in large part to "gun porn in music, movies, and TV, [and] the combination of weapons marketing and violent videogames." (Curiously enough, the
majority of gun-related deaths in the U.S. are suicides, not homicides.)
Is it because entertainment violence is the hottest selling ticket at the box office? As
Giroux points out, "Popular culture not only trades in violence as entertainment, but also it delivers violence to a society addicted to a pleasure principle steeped in graphic and extreme images of human suffering, mayhem and torture."
Comment: Having been the recipient of two nuclear explosions, courtesy USA, Japan is understandably hysterical finding itself in the cross-hairs, should either NK or the US make good on its verbal provocations.