America enjoys one of the highest standards of living and per capital incomes of any nation with sizeable population. However, we’ve peaked and are now in the midst of an economic strain that will last for some time. Noone grows at an above average rate forever. It’s pretty simple that people are happy when the future is bright with growth and depressed when the opposite holds true. Purealpha tends to attribute these things to the culture, but to me his argument comes out as more of a “just grow more” prescription that just doesn’t really hold water.
At the end of the day, you just have to take it with a grain of salt that a guy who doesn’t actually live here and hasn’t for some time is trying to describe a culture he’s not a part of.
There is a culture issue here. Something about white male teenagers.
My brother is a principal of a CT inner city high school. When I heard about this shooting the first thing that went through my mind was, “Thank God my brothers students are all black and puerto rican and not fucked in the head this way.”
My father was a teacher at an inner-city HS in NJ and there was a serious assault or murder on school grounds at least once per month. Armed city police patrolled the school inside and out and that was 20 years ago, so black and PR kids might not be f’ed in the head but they don’t mind violence.
Not that I agree with everything that purealpha says. However, it is true that South Korea does not have as many mass shootings as the US. So, it is reasonable to say that there is *something* wrong in US society that needs to be examined.
You could easily point to the economic downturn as a driver and a difference between the two countries. It’s also worth noting that two of the worst mass shootings were conducted by South Koreans. One in Korea in 1982 and the other (the deadliest in the US) was VT shooting.
South Korea has an extremely high suicide rate, though, so clearly things aren’t all peachy there. I believe it’s the highest suicide rate in the developed world.
However, as sad as that is, It is a nice thing that the suicidal tend not to take a bunch of non-suicidal types along with them.
Yeah, I said, "not fucked in the head this way," for a reason. My brother has had students get murdred for being witness, murder other students, deal drugs; Hell, he’s seen pretty much anything you’ll see on “The Wire.” But I will say this about inner city kids. They don’t pull this kind of shit. They have real problems, not made up suburban white kid problems, where you find the solution in trying to kill a bunch of defenseless kids for no rational reason.
Which, brings me back to my point, what the fuck is wrong with suburban white male (maybe asian too) teenagers? I’ve got a couple of theories, but if anyone else wants to propose theirs first I’ll be game to discuss it.
South Korea and Japan (which also has a very high suicide rate) have communal socities that results in an orientation of the individual toward the rest of his / her countrymen that the US lacks. I’m not saying it’s better or worse. In these particular Asian countries, it would be almost unthinkable to commit mass murder as you are shaming the entire society with your actions. I’m not saying it’s thinkable in the US (it shouldn’t be), but it’s a different world view in these countries. The flipside of that view is that if you shame yourself (damn dude, you got a B on your exam? Game over) then the socially correct thing to do is to off yourself because you have failed to create glory for your family and your home country.
In sum, Japanese people especially, but also South Koreans from what I can tell, work for the glory of Japan / South Korea. In the US, people work for their own glory. The ramifications are very different for society.
I’m not entirely sure why this makes South Korea investable while Japan remains virtually completely univestable in my opinion, but I think it may have to do with South Korea being so low on the curve (emerging market, early innings) relative to Japan, which is a late stage consumer economy with a declining population. Anyway, I’m super bullish on South Korea over the long run – it’s probably the best play in Asia IMO.
What about the part where McNulty is drunkenly banging some chick on the hood of his car in a public place? Pretty sure your brother hasn’t seen that. Am I right?
“Real problems” are relative and no excuse for killing/assaulting an innocent person. I don’t think the inner city black mother who buries her kid that was caught in gang related crossfire sits there thinking it was good that her kid wasn’t gunned down by some f’ed in the head white suburbanite. Dead is dead.
I imagine that it’s also harder to bring automatic weapons into an inner city high school. Aren’t there metal detectors and other security stuff? It’s easy to shoot up some suburban place because you know no one will stop you.
Did I say it was an excuse? Nope. I’m just explaining that the boyz in da hood bust a cap in someone because they have a rational reason. Perhaps rival gang territory, or maybe the kid is gonna testify against them at a murder trial. It’s immoral, but rational.
However, these gunmen are different- what they do is completely irrational. They have lives that most people would kill for in any other part of the world.
I grew up near Newtown. I even beat the shit out of them in lacrosse in 8th grade. Life is pretty fcking good there in CT. We never had any bullies. We never had any real trouble. No real drugs. No gangs. Plenty of space and green grass. We had afterschool sports programs or afterschool world of warcraft programs if you were less athletically inclined. Exactly like the people on the news say, “Could never imagine this happening here.” It’s hard to imagine a better place to raise a kid than that part of CT.
Yet, we crazy ass over privledged crackerz, seem to be behind almost every one of these. Why is that?
So this guy went on a rampage killing his mother and children because of the questionable notion that the economic outlook off the US is worse now than it was historically? As Chris Rock said in one of his standups following Columbine, “What ever happend to crazy? Can’t people just be crazy anymore?”
I guess I assumed you meant that you felt your brother was safer being in an inner city school when you said: “Thank God my brothers students are all black and puerto rican and not fucked in the head this way.”
Well, you could state it that way if you wanted to. I don’t think it’s too hard to imagine that in a world where early 20’s males are unable to find work in an emotionally charged part of their life that people would be more likely to snap and this sort of thing would increase. In the late 1800’s a man named HOng Xiuquan was put through a formal education by his family and then placed under heavy pressure to succeed. At the time China was built on a system of standardized exams determining your position and rank within society. He repeatedly failed the highest level of exam which he’d been pressured to take. The pass rate was roughly 1%. He snapped, went on a religious journey, received some visions, and lead the Taiping Rebellion, resulting in approximately 30 million casualties before it was finally crushed. A rising tide floats all ships.
Um…he was obviously an individual who was mentally ill, and we know absolutely nothing about his motives, what does this have to do with white privilege or economic decline?
Um…he was obviously an individual who was mentally ill, and we know absolutely nothing about his motives, what does this have to do with white privilege or economic decline?