On Thu, 8 Mar 2001, John D. Giorgis wrote:
>
> Also disturbing is that the kids almost universally talk about how
> *tempted* they were to pick up the gun and "check it out." This
> temptation was very overwhelming for these kids.
>
> Somehow, I can't help but think that there are some serious cultural
> factors at work here.
On the one hand, there's the possibility that the handgun has achieved the
status of religious icon in American mythology, making it impossible for
anybody to think really rationally about guns...not without the kind of
effort that's atypical of kids, anyway. So when a kid sees a gun it's
like seeing Excalibur or a piece of the true Cross or something like that.
Even aside from the influence of movies etc., in American political
discourse there's a strong meme of "gun=freedom=independence & power"
that I suspect is stronger than than the memes attached to any genuine
religious symbol (except for the profoundly devout few, perhaps).
I'm also coming to believe that kids see themselves increasingly more not
as people, or as "ends in themselves" as Kant would put it, but as means
of production. The purpose of a child is to get good grades and to play
well with others, all in preparation for making good money and winning
friends and influencing people. Despite the lip service we pay to
individualism, our educational institutions are strucutred to elicit a
narrow set of conformist behaviors from a child; any child who does not
produce the expected behaviors is defined as deviant and sent away for
counseling or medication...or is ignored. We tell them and ourselves that
these expectations are only reasonable, and that to be reasonable in this
manner is to be good.
Moreover, our theories about administration (efficiency is good, thrift is
good, so the best school gives the highest returns for the cost) cause us
to create rather mammoth, characterless, factory-like institutions, even
for kids in wealthy white-ish suburbs as we try to gain efficiencies of
scale. No matter how nice or sympathetic a kid may find this teacher or
that teacher, the overwhelming message of the design of educational
systems (and indeed school architecture itself) is that a) kids are in
school to learn (i.e. growing and being loved and mentored are incidental
to the process of producing good grades and attendance so that the school
will get its state funding); b) one kid can pretty much be substituted for
another as long as the grades are good, unless you belong to the social
elite; c) YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.
To illustrate point C: I went to high school in a large wealthy white
suburb, to one of the typical large white high schools of the fairly
well-to-do that characterize such suburbs. I was your typical shy quiet
loner type--only one close friend, really, but we didn't talk about deeply
personal stuff (we were *guys* after all). My junior year I got on the
wrong side of a group of bullies--a handful of nasty cretins who decided I
was a good target, usually in gym class. Sometimes they'd "buzz" me in
an old pickup truck while I was walking home in the afternoon. The coach
who oversaw the class turned a blind eye to everything that went on. I
sought out another coach to ask him what I should do (maybe it shows my
lack of imagination that I only looked for coaches...go figure).
Anyway, I was told that I had to show these punks who was boss: fight
back, slam 'em up against a few lockers so they'll get the message.
(Never mind that there were three of them.) In other words, the advice I
got came straight out of a John Wayne movie. My dad owned guns (to which
I had very easy access, including ammo), and although I *thought* (lovely
fantasies, really) of punching some holes is the bullies, I never took
that option seriously. I did, however, start taking karate and carrying a
knife to school. Eventually I did get into a scuffle--so brief I hesitate
to call it a fight--with the leader of the bullies which I won (sort of).
It had the desired result, and I took from it the lesson that you have to
be prepared to defend yourself because nobody will do it for you;
moreover, society (school) tacitly approves violence to the degree that it
separates those with gumption or "guts" from those without it...if you're
not willing to fight, you deserve to be beaten. Even if you're a kid.
Now it's only logical that in the pursuit of greater efficiency in
education, our system will continue to push kids to "produce" until the
psychological problems--including violence, including school
schootings--escalate to the point of diminishing returns. I submit
that we have decided, as a society, that a very high rate of production
justifies periodic outbreaks of gunplay at school.
Moreover, the kids know it themselves. News reports of the San Diego
shooting indicate the children are becoming less shocked by this kind of
thing. They've seen it in the news often enough that they take it for
granted that such events are a part life. Some of the kids in San Diego
even ran for cameras and camcorders, and they had their sound bites ready
when the reporters arrived.
Marvin Long
Austin, Texas
Don't be frightened. Adrenaline will just make your blood taste funny.
