Week 5 - Katrina Estrella

Katrina Estrella

Section A03

Week 5

    As we make more excuses for the normalization of war, the number of deaths will not only increase outside our country but inside as well. “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence” confirms my preconceived beliefs about the correlation between the instability of one’s environment and the increasing epidemic of serial/mass murders. I was not surprised to hear that most mass murderers feel threatened by the decline of “the American Dream”, the white, male American Dream. Therefore, they put the blame on some other group for the tragedy in their lives and act on it, taking the lives of multiple strangers. So, with the appearance of the Vietnam War, our country was able to militarize that rage in certain people, however, it normalized violence in the process. So, how does one go about in solving this? The problem is as complex as society and humans themselves, so a broad approach such as gun control cannot completely solve this. Also, as the United States is obsessed with upholding the Second Amendment, gun control can aggravate the situation further. I believe that this fascination with the right to bear arms is something so unique to the United States that we can no longer look at other countries for guidance on the matter.

Question: Can the government be to blame for exploiting and militarizing the animosity its citizens possess over the drastic changes to the mechanics of our society? 

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.

Zyglis, A. (2013, September 19). Another Mass Shooting [Cartoon]. Retrieved from https://www.truthdig.com/cartoons/another-mass-shooting-2/