Article about increasing violence in the eorld

[Tintypographer]

This may not be available to all:

It's behind a paywall but it is an article in the Wall Street Journal as an editorial regarding increasing mob style unthinking violence in the USA despite any consequences or fallout:

America's Epidemic of Mindless Behavior https://www.wsj.com/articles/epidem...t-stabbings-violence-looting-riot-11643235536

The synopsis of the opinion piece is that what we used to see as unthinkable has become something anyone will consider doing: shooting a workplace for being fired, riots that destroy public buildings, attacking police for legal stops or warrants or killing people for slight insults.

The author harkens this to an article published don't he 1980s called the "Broken Window effect" where if one lives in a neighborhood filled with abandoned buildings and broken windows then the behavior of the neighborhood takes on the characteristics of the derelict surroundings. Meaning a chicken vs egg concept of there is violence so there are broken windows and property damage or there is widespread property damage and broken windows so there is higher criminal behavior and violence.

I believe that what we are seeing is that people have been dehumanized. We feel we no longer count, we are told we no longer count, we are told we are replaceable, that our purpose is to do as told or leave and that our health and emotional well being do not matter. Processes from getting on airplanes to getting a passport to paying taxes to ordering dinner have been converted into mechanical non human events to maximize efficiency and minimize any unfairness to the point that no one matters.

When someone on a plane realizes they don't matter, their complaint doesn't matter and the entire process is set up to show them that they must comply, their brain and emotions snap and attacking a flight attendant seems the only way out.

Now let's shift a moment to mental health:

Imagine you are completely depressed (a stretch I know) and you are faced with a job, however successful or unsuccessful that it may be for you, where you don't matter and the HR system there is in place to ensure you don't matter or have any rights. Imagine you have access to mental health care but it is with the clauses that it is metered, costly, designed so that it can only be used at very low levels and your personal thoughts on it don't matter. Imagine that your family just wants you to feel better and their only recourse is to say "I know you don't realize it but this will pass and life is better". And imagine that the pain inside you continues to grow day in and day out with no relief given by medication, therapy or friendships.

Do we believe that the people who snap and beat up flight attendants on planes or join mobs to cause looting or destruction are somehow recruited by carefully designed situations or cults? Or do we propose that something is wrong with the general welfare of our society.

Take this to rising suicide rates: do we make the assumption that sanctioned suicide is caused by a secret cabal of evildoers emboldened to harm people? Or is it remotely possible that these rising numbers are a symptom of that combined dehumanization, poor mental health and general emotional starvation in society today?

I can say it's likely not death cults.

 

[OrcWitch]

On the bright side many of us have been mentally ill since the 2000s, so we have a head start

 

[Onthe29th]

I think something has always been wrong with society as a whole. Covid has exacerbated so many of the worlds problems including mental health. I made a thread about the increase in murder suicides because several new cases have been happening all across America every single day. It's not mindless behavior; people on their last thread are snapping.

I can't see this changing in the near future unfortunately .

 

[JinZhin]

Life is an evil thing by its own nature, when you sit and think about what life as an abstract concept is...

Then, there is what we made of it. Also a very wicked thing.
Life was a mistake. Society was a mistake. Existence was a mistake.
I really enjoyed reading your post, it's very insightful.

 

[SuicidallyCurious]

I think industrialization and globalization did it

Too much disruption to life roles which were clear cut for millenia. For most of human history until really the 1800s life was cut and dry for all but the elite. They did a farm or some craft , most would marry , they were anchored to a certain physical location for all their lives unless they were elite or military.

Now a days it's just too much change and too fast.