Re: Opium [was: Re: freelance sysadmining -- superlong -- [WAS: "Red Hat recommends Windows for consumers"]]
On Sat, 2003-11-15 at 21:06, ben wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 16:03:44 -0600
> Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> wrote:
> [big snip]
> > Inherently violent society? No, can't be, because the US didn't
> > used to be violent. Maybe there was a "latently violent tendency"
> > (that's not present in many other societies) just waiting for soci-
> > etal breakdown to manifest itself?
> >
> that's an interesting idea, the latent tendency to violence. i was
> talking with some friends just recently about the phenomenon of soccer
> hooligans, those whose reason to live appears to be inflicting havoc and
> violence on others, and about the fact that hooligans are not, or at
> least only very rarely, an aspect of non-european soccer or other sports
> events. in fact, i remember that the father-son assault of a baseball
> umpire somewhere in the midwest made the nightly news because it was
> quite uncharacteristic of sports fans in the u.s.
>
> i tend to think that both that exertion of violence--the soccer
> hooligans--and the sort that occurs in urban u.s.a. are a response to a
> sense of helplessness in the face of percieved stress, i.e., that those
> who respond so believe that 1) they have no other means at hand to
> relieve their sense of frustration, and 2) that there's a sense of shame
> or profound indignity associated with the frustration that prevents them
> from admitting that and searching out other means of resolution.
>
> a couple of weeks ago, a 16 year old in san francisco was shot dead on a
> bus by a bullet gone astray, when one of two others who had been arguing
> pulled a pistol and started shooting. i'm pretty sure that, were
> handguns as available here in europe as they are in the u.s., there
> would be more such incidents here. over here, there simply aren't so
> many to go around, and most of those that are here and in the hands of
> various fashions of criminals tend to be regarded as tools of the trade,
> to be used with extreme prejudice and precision, rather than, as in the
> u.s., as a means employed by frustrated juveniles to enhance their
> standing among their peers.
>
> the willingness to inflict violence does seem to be a factor of the
> narrative of damn near every movie that has come out of hollywood over
> the last few years, whether by the antagonist or protagonist (whole lot
> of agonisin' goin' on), no matter that the "good guys" win in the end.
> that suggests to me that the fear of death, as opposed to acceptance of
> its inevitability, is a big factor within the larger culture of
> "developed" societies.
>
> that poor teen in san francisco was, by all accounts, an excellent
> person who spent much of his free time engaged in helping others move
> beyond the culture of violence that surrounded him in his own community;
> which explodes the notion that the good are relieved of the threat of
> violent death, no matter what they do. in a certain ironic sense, the
> event of violence in that situation is likely that factor by which the
> other teen, the one with the gun, justifies his need of the gun, as if
> he had long since embraced life by the sword/bullet and saw no other
> possible mode of existence.
>
> with that in mind, and taking ron's previous point about the breakdown
> of the family structure, it seems to me that the schools are the only
> point at which the social damage could possibly be--and pardon the pun--
> headed off at the pass. given the columbine situation, in that that
> particular school and neighborhood wasn't lacking for cash, it's not
> simply a matter of monetary resources--although that is definitely a
> factor that requires attention in many communities over there--but one
> of common mutual respect. the kids in columbine saw themselves as
> outsiders among their peers, and that they could come to regard
> themselves as such and eventually behaved as they did does tend to imply
> that the notion of common mutual respect was wholly absent at that
> school--not that that school is the only one, as evidence by the
> recurrence of similar events elsewhere. the same thing happened here in
> germany, in erfurt, which tends to support my point that if more guns
> were available here, there would be more of the same happening here.
It seems to me that a fundamental problem with this (common) viewpoint
is that guns have *always* been common in the US.
Something has happened, though, to alter peoples' value of life.
In 1981, when I graduated high school, guns were an "inner city"
(read: poor, black & urban) problem. Kids in other schools (includ-
ing rural black schools) still settled their angry disagreements
with their fists. Now, in most *any* public high school, an angry
disagreement could result in a knifing or shooting.
[big snippage]
--
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Ron Johnson, Jr. ron.l.johnson@cox.net
Jefferson, LA USA
"For me and windows it became a matter of easy to start with, and
becoming increasingly difficult to be productive as time went on,
and if something went wrong very difficult to fix, compared to
linux's large over head setting up and learning the system with
ease of use and the increase in productivity becoming larger the
longer I use the system."
Rohan Nicholls , The Netherlands
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