How could this be happening?
This is a question asked at various historical (and usually violent)
societal points of inflection. The
recent rash of mass homicides in the US, and the rise of aggressive protest
have something in common, (though I am not comparing the protesters to killers)
– the ‘i- Everything’ phenomenon.
The shooters in the San Bernadino massacre believed they
were Muslims, the shooter in Colorado Springs believes he is a Christian. That both religions’ adherents recoil at what
these individuals did was unimportant.
What is important is that these individuals believed they knew the
truth, and that society did not. We have
replaced a level of moral confidence that caused men to storm Normandy, to a
moral certitude that mine is the only
opinion that counts, because mine is the truth, and any disagreement is not
just incorrect, it is bad, as is whoever holds that opinion.
When the Germanwing’s co-pilot flew an airliner into the
Alps, he committed suicide; that he took 150 others with him reflects the same
belief that my opinions, feelings, etc. are all that matters. This used to be the province of psychopaths,
but now it is ubiquitous. We have fallen for the siren song of fifteen
seconds of fame, of instant approval (though it’s conditional) and we cannot
get another fix fast enough.
We cannot stop the orgy of compliment angling known as
‘social media’. Perhaps we could take
two days, let’s say, the week before Christmas, to shut off our social media
gavage and visit an elderly person, a shut in, a prisoner - and actually
listen. Perhaps amid the eye wateringly
mundane stories will come a pearl of wisdom that will help turn you from
worshipping the media fun house mirror of the soul, and for a brief moment,
feel the odd exhilaration of actually caring for another human being who is
different, and has a different view of the world.
