Week 5
Section A01
In “Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence”, Daniel Y. Hamamoto talked about the trends of violence. It was very interesting to learn about the connections between the Texas Tower mass murder and the killings in Vietnam. Hamamoto hypothesizes that the origins of the “strong causal connection between an increasingly militarized society and the attendant rise of serial and mass murder” was rooted in the Vietnam War era, where violence was highly organized. He also mentioned that the homicide rate rose after the Vietnam War, which serves as proof that militarization and civilian life are closely tied together. This statement definitely shocked me because I never thought of associating the two together. Furthermore, he talked about race wars against "yellow people" and how many killers seek out those of a certain race. For example, he talked about Patrick Eugene Purdy who killed five Southeast Asian American children because of his “hatred for Asians” and how his former school was majority Southeast Asian students. It is sad to hear about this because society does not often associate race with serial killings and mass murder. In addition, the article suggests that some soldiers have a desire to kill, which is closely related to their experience in the military. The article talked about how McVeigh “boasted blowing off an Iraqi soldier’s head with his cannon at 1,100 meters.” This reminds me of a video I saw where veterans talked about killing others. One soldier particularly stuck out to me because after he talked about killing a man and seeing his guts spill, he concluded by saying, “It was pretty rad.” He also said that “Civilians love our [the veterans’] fucking stories. You know how many times I’ve gotten fucking laid?” It saddens me that killing can be seen as “rad” and can be seen as strength and power. Moreover, I wonder if they believe these ideas because they had to repress a lot or if it is associated with some other idealized expectations society has.
Question: What are the trends of violence that occur in modern day? Were these trends common before or does media choose to report only the more known trends?
Citation:
[Cut]. (2015, November 10). Josh on Killing: Do You Miss War? | On Killing: Season 1 | Cut. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/uAXCQZhtzEs.
Hamamoto, D.Y. (2003). Empire of Death and the Plague of Civic Violence.
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