Week 5 - Elijah Ramirez

Darrell Hamamoto’s “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence” was a disturbing, yet enlightening reading. It describes different cases of murder, which can be separated into subcategories and how our government has influenced these horrible situations. During periods of war, the propaganda and advertisement of violence and murder increases; it makes sense that people would interpret murder as a normal act, especially since the government agrees with it. Killing has become so normalized in our society, whether it’s in an action movie, or a video game, and even the news, that our society should not even be shocked at the amount of murders and mass killings that happen. Adding to the normalization of violence, our society’s love of firearms and the accessibility we have with them also add to the flame. It is so easy to legally get a gun at this day in age, even easier illegally; and this is only seen in our country, make others prohibit the carry of a firearm. Our country has one of the highest intentional murder counts in the world, coming at about fifteen thousand people a year back in 2015. This makes was number eight on the respective list. What can we do to remove the normalization of killing in American culture? And is there even anything we can do?

References:

Hamamoto, Y. Darrell. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.” Masters of War: Militarism and Blowback in the Era of American Empire, by Carl Boggs, Routledge, 2003, pp. 277-292.

http://comicsidontunderstand.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/newyears_2013.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate