We as a nation must stop worshiping violence. Every generation is ushered into America’s legacy of violence from the time they are born. This culture of violence is easily transmitted to every household through the media and the very Euro-American language we are trained to speak. We are taught to take a STAB at it, SHOOT the breeze, KILL two birds with one stone, HANG in there, stick to your GUNS, roll with the PUNCHS, bite the BULLET, and knock ‘em DEAD. KILLER instincts make us DEAD serious. We end up being loved to DEATH, DYING to know what’s DEAD ahead. However, all this innocuously gratuitous violence leads to more and more overKIILL.
At this very moment people are being killed for such superfluous things as jewelry, money, electronics, vehicles, drugs, clothing, property, and other items American culture values above and beyond the humanity of other human beings. This wicked insanity of greedy materialism literally lies at the root of America’s violent nature. Those who promote this paradigm of violence, injustice, and greed are generally protected and praised while those who attempt to replace it with peace, justice, and humanism are character assassinated, incarcerated, and/or killed. Even America’s Prince of Peace, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated for advocating non-violence.
In Dr. King’s 1967 Beyond Vietnam Speech he stated, “We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values.” Almost half a century later, his insightful words continue to ring true. America remains a culture that prefers materialism to humanism. It seeks to control others rather than cooperate with others. It chooses manipulation over morality, colonization over compassion, and profit over people because IN GREED WE TRUST.
As a result, society has evolved as civilization (civility) has diminished. People are trained to cherish earthly possessions while mindlessly destroying the earth. Instead of respecting our elders, we search for shallow fountains of youth. We spend more time downloading programs onto our personal computers than uplifting our communities. People pay more attention to their televisions than their children. We know more about our favorite athletic franchises than our families. We’d rather detail our vehicles than determine our destinies. We spend more time playing with virtual reality than learning from the mistakes of our violent history (non-fiction). As long as we resent other human beings in order to worship man-made things people will remain ready and willing to kill for any and everything they want.
Why not? This is what American history teaches us to do. America was born from, was built on, and is sustained through violence. Five hundred years of colonization through scalpings, lynchings, enslavement, genocide, and greed have resulted in a society that prefers money over morality, profit over peace, retaliation before respect, narcissism above empathy, and psychopathy rather than shame. Therefore we can only expect more apathetic aggressions, workplace massacres, hate crimes, and violent events similar to Sandy Hook Elementary (2012), Columbine (1999), Aurora, Colorado’s movie theater massacre (2012), Wisconsin’s Sikh Temple shooting (2012), the Manson murders (1969), the destruction of Oklahoma City’s Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building (1995), New York’s Twin Towers (2001), et cetera, because violence is the norm here in the USA.
No one is safe. Daily, countless strangers, colleagues, associates, neighbors, acquaintances, spouses, siblings, and other relatives are betrayed and killed by others seeking some form of revenge and/or monetary gain. For the love of money, numerous identity thefts, bank heists, embezzlements, home robberies, carjackings, Ponzi schemes, kidnappings, cons, and bribes are committed around the clock. But don’t blame guns alone. Plenty of killings are committed with knives, baseball bats, swords, pets, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, ropes, poisons, cars, and other weapons of choice because people kill people. Many corrupt and violent crimes even occur with robots, drones, and the click of a computer key. No gun needed because guns aren’t the actual problem. Guns simply exacerbate the real problem – man’s inhumanity to man.
In spite of this fact, America’s entertainment industry prides itself on producing hundreds of violent movies, toys, and video games annually. A multitude of murders, maulings, explosions, clashes, crashes, and acts of death & destruction are glorified and depicted in Dolby and surround sound. We are constantly bombarded with the absurd belief, yet highly profitable “program” that killing is fun and war is exciting. Thus, profits soar as quickly as body counts rise from coast to coast, country to country, continent to continent.
Hundreds of American companies manufacture war games, toy guns, rifles, hand grenades, and other assorted toy weapons for children of all ages. Meanwhile, Honeywell, Unisys, Hewlett-Packard, Dupont, Eastman Kodak, International Computer Systems, and Bechtel are just a of few of the USA manufacturers and/or suppliers of deadly fire arms, rockets, bombs, nuclear, chemical, and bioweapons used worldwide. Citizens go to W.A.R. while companies get the Wealth And Riches. Caught in the cross-hairs, Americans are programmed to believe violence and war generate peace ... right? Wrong! DEAD wrong!
It is only the arrogant ignorance of boundless denial that allows us to believe this violent mentality does not translate into the copious horrors of everyday life. Meanwhile the country attempts to distract us from this reality by attacking the NRA. Stop dreaming! The solution to violence in America cannot be achieved through fluctuating weapons regulations or artificial gun laws because criminals don’t comply with the law; that’s what makes them criminals! Wake up! If we truly want change, then we must change. WE AS A NATION MUST UNDERGO A RADICAL REVOLUTION OF VALUES.
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