The American Ghoul Culture

This is a ghoul from the awesome game World of Warcraft.  It does not hide the fact that it feasts on the dead.  We should not be like this, but we are.

You continue to disgust me, humanity.  When a terrible tragedy occurs, the immediate reactions from the general public are selfish, egotistic, and cowardly. 

With the latest calamity to befall a Connecticut town, the responses have all been similar to “You aren’t taking away MY guns.”  No, no one is taking away your guns.  You have every right to own and operate them.  This issue isn’t about gun ownership, which is a right guaranteed by the Constitution.

The issue here is the ghoulish selfishness running through the American culture.

 Twenty-eight people spent the last few minutes of their lives in abject terror.  Dying horribly, most of the people killed had not had the opportunities to enjoy a long, fruitful life.  Kids who should have been dreaming of holiday gifts and football playoffs instead died feeling alone and terrified.

As a group of supposedly advanced organisms, we should be reflecting on how to enrich the lives of all of those around us in the wake of these events.  We should be spurned to selfless acts inspired by the lives cut short in that school.  Experiences like this should make us realize how precious life is, and that all other things, particularly material goods, are so damned inconsequential. 

Nope.  We use these events to fill our spiritually devoid souls with mock empathy.  Look at me, I’m grieving worse.  Let me wave my flag to show I’m more patriotic than you.  My way of life is better than yours, so I’m going to try to prevent you from bettering yourself because I deserve this—not you.

Or worse, we use these events to cash in.  Fuck the world and everyone else as long as I can make a buck.  Rah, rah, I am a patriot and you aren’t because you don’t have an American flag hanging out your car window that you overpaid for and then dropped at the interstate tollbooth and never bothered to pick up because it really didn’t mean that much to you.  You just wanted to look patriotic, not act it.

I am even more horrified by the proposed solutions in the aftermath.

The NRA wants to place an armed guard at every school to ensure security.  Let’s take a look at some of the problems with this suggestion.

1.  The NRA, funded by the gun manufacturers, stand to make even more money off the sale of guns to the police, military, and mercenaries hired to guard.  Therefore, a conflict of interests arises and shows that the gun manufacturers are opportunists looking to cash in on this tragedy.  You fucking ghouls.

2.  Escalation.  A deranged person will do deranged things no matter what.  When the two young men planned to shoot up the school in Colorado, they drew maps and scenarios.  I’m not one hundred percent sure, but some reports state that an armed officer was on staff at the school.  If so, that person met with a pair of prepared madmen to whom any resistance, armed or not, could make no difference.  If we put armed guards at every school then we are egging on a more drastic calamity in future situations.

3.  The TSA made millions for companies following the September 11^th Attacks.  The group did nothing for the American people except to make air travel more difficult, radioactive, and humiliating.  Is that the future we will be providing for our children as they look to be educated? 

4.  I have personally seen the incompetence of the TSA at the airport.  I do not want an armed idiot around a group of children.   For proof I will bring forward the countless examples of officers who have tasered young children or mentally handicapped individuals because the officers weren’t trained or qualified to resolve the situation.

Guns and kids don’t mix.  Those guns meant to protect the kids will eventually be used on the kids.  And the tragedies will endlessly repeat.

Happiness

Before we do the default reactions of blaming rock music, video games, and movies, focus on the real solutions to these problems: education and awareness. 

We must be educated to enrich others lives.  If you are happy, you won’t want to do harm.  Additionally, we also must be educated that this is one man’s fault.  He shot those people.  Like a lightning strike, this was unexpected damage.  Sure, we see the storm clouds, but we never know where or when the bolt will come crashing down.  So we must act like rational adults and know that barring psychic powers to predict the future, events like this are going to occur.  They are unstoppable.

Awareness and action will reduce these events, but never END them.  We must cope.  We must move on.  We must think about this tragedy and make the world a better place instead of selfishly cashing in on events like this and fucking everyone else over.

As the holidays draw near, please do something to make someone else’s life better.  Preferably, help a complete stranger.  Make a donation to a reputable organization that will help those down on their luck.  Think of those twenty-eight victims.  Balance the bad karma of all these selfish assholes cashing off twenty-eight corpses.

These acts will make the world better.  I promise.

Keep rising from the graves of ignorance, my Zombies.