Blowback of War

Cristina Musngi
Section 1
Week 5

Darrell Hamamoto's article "Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence" is both chilling and awakening. It attributes many of the violent crimes in the contemporary U.S. to the modernization and development of civilization. Due to wars and conquest for military power, the U.S. became a breeding ground for civic violence. Because of the Vietnam war, veterans and civilians alike were starting to become apathetic to the increasing numbers of violent murders. By the mid 1900s, it seemed as if killings were an accepted part of everyday life and is an unforeseen blowback from the War in Vietnam.

While reading the article, it was clear that there was a pattern of privileged white males targeting, women, people of color, and gays due to their perception that these communities had somehow cause them offense.  As an Asian American woman, many of the cases were disturbing because none of the reasons the killers gave forth were reasonable or justifiable. However, I feel that the most appalling criminals were the "elites". These elites are the government officials who excuse their murders "under cover of state authority," may be worse than killers such as Ted Bundy because they have yet to pay for their crimes against humanity. The U.S. isn't perfect, but I hope that one day we can live in a society where a murder of a person doesn't receive just a indifferent reaction.

Question:

How do we fix the past offenses, especially when the blowback of war and "elite violence" is still so prevalent in our society?