YOUNG WHITE MEN?
The other day I picked up a thread of something from one of the liberal blogs. I wasn’t evening thinking about the events of the weekend where yet another young white male was prepared to go on a killing spree. I know the Sailer Fraud blog is working on a ‘hit’ piece, but it started me thinking. Aside from the Va Tech shooting and the gang-murder of three innocent African-American college students in Jersey City this summer, can you come up with one of those ‘made for TV atrocities’ that has not been committed by a young, White, legal, American Male?
The more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize these murderous young men have something in common besides their gender and their race. They have a tendency to come from “good” homes, where they have been given most of what they desire. There is an obvious connection to video games, guns in the home, and maybe a little indulgence on the part of their parents. They seem to have had “all the advantages” that a good 95% of the rest of the young men of the world do not.
Something is obviously going wrong here.
I have a feeling maybe parents should take more responsibility for the transgressions for their now deceased criminal offspring. I have a feeling if the “N” word had been used – NO – and a little discipline along with some half-way decent parenting maybe kids would be helped before they are lost. During the past year it has come to my attention just how much courage it takes to be a pro-active parent when an older child is having serious emotional problems. It takes a tremendous amount of personal courage on behalf of the parent – maturity – acting like a grown up instead of the child themselves. It also takes the courage to be able to face the fact that the parent may be part of the problem – then be willing to help solve that problem. I’ve seen it in action. It is a heart-breaking process full of rewards and errors. It takes an adult to be able to face a half way grown child and stand between him and destruction.
A parent cannot turn a blind eye to friends, associates, and activities. A good parent must face the faults of the child and deal with them, no matter what those faults are and no matter if those faults mirror those of the parent.
Parenting takes courage. I think one of the things we see in the parents of all those who have either attempted atrocities or have carried them out is the lack of the above within the parents. You can look at the events of this weekend and Matthew Murray. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this was a very disturbed young man. It is possible there was substantial abuse in this young man’s past. Abuse does not legitimize mass murder.
Robert Hawkins, who did the Omaha shootings was 19.
From Time
“…Narcissism is not the only part of the psychic stew that leads to mass murder. Among the additional risk factors experts look for is a history of other kinds of emotional turmoil, such as depression, substance abuse or some kind of childhood trauma. After the Columbine killings in 1999, the Federal Government commissioned a study of 37 incidents of school violence from 1974 to 2000 in an attempt to sketch some kind of profile of likely campus killers. In general, the investigators found that more than half of all attackers had documented cases of extreme depression, and 25% had had serious problems with drugs and alcohol. "People will often say that the killer was such a quiet boy," says Follingstad. "Then you talk to the family and find out he's had three previous hospitalizations and was mumbling something he was angry about for weeks." A less well-documented percentage of mass killers have also been physically or sexually abused….
…Age is an indicator, but an imperfect one. Adolescents and people in their early 20s are not famous for good judgment and sober reflection. Indeed, recent neurological studies reveal that the brain doesn't even finish laying down all its wiring until deep into the second decade of life — far beyond the babyhood years in which scientists once believed this basic work got done. "Adolescents tend to take more risks in general and tend to be more impulsive," says psychologist William Pollack, of McLean Hospital in Boston. "Boys [especially] are socialized into the idea that such behavior is OK."
While teens lack wisdom, however, they're generally spared the long lifetime of frustrations and setbacks that can contribute to murderous rampages in older killers — the fired post office employee or office worker who suddenly reappears and guns down his former colleagues. "We see people with a job or a relationship that defines them," says Dr. Anthony Ng, assistant professor of psychiatry at George Washington University. "When that is shattered, they decide that they have nothing else." Opportunity and unlucky serendipity play a big role too. People with ready access to guns are likelier to use them than people who have to work to get their hands on a weapon. A household in which problems are settled violently, or at least in a volatile fashion, makes acting out less alien as well. What your culture — national, ethnic, religious — teaches you about how to handle rejection or, worse, humiliation can be critical too…."
…Age is an indicator, but an imperfect one. Adolescents and people in their early 20s are not famous for good judgment and sober reflection. Indeed, recent neurological studies reveal that the brain doesn't even finish laying down all its wiring until deep into the second decade of life — far beyond the babyhood years in which scientists once believed this basic work got done. "Adolescents tend to take more risks in general and tend to be more impulsive," says psychologist William Pollack, of McLean Hospital in Boston. "Boys [especially] are socialized into the idea that such behavior is OK."
While teens lack wisdom, however, they're generally spared the long lifetime of frustrations and setbacks that can contribute to murderous rampages in older killers — the fired post office employee or office worker who suddenly reappears and guns down his former colleagues. "We see people with a job or a relationship that defines them," says Dr. Anthony Ng, assistant professor of psychiatry at George Washington University. "When that is shattered, they decide that they have nothing else." Opportunity and unlucky serendipity play a big role too. People with ready access to guns are likelier to use them than people who have to work to get their hands on a weapon. A household in which problems are settled violently, or at least in a volatile fashion, makes acting out less alien as well. What your culture — national, ethnic, religious — teaches you about how to handle rejection or, worse, humiliation can be critical too…."
Handling rejection is a serious problem today. Kids, girls and boys are coddled to the point where they no longer receive “F”’s. Every trauma, every simple little problem is padded – literally’. Rejection is not an option. Consequently when rejection does occur, today’s young man is ill-equip to handle it. Instead of doing the “Cowboy Up” thing and ride off into the sunset head held high, they follow the model of their video games and movies – a time to kill.
Unfortunately, if our young, white males are not taught how to be men, this is going to become an all to frequent occurrence. I wonder how many lives are going to be claimed before we realize that political correctness and this protection at all costs culture is literally killing more people than it is helping?
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