Opinion

Young males, alienated and in crisis ON CONNECTICUT SCHOOL SHOOTING

With the brutal massacre of 26 Friday at the Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Conn., following assassination of innocents in an Oregon mall earlier in the week, 2012 may be remembered as the year when mass shootings spiraled out of control and shocked the conscience of the nation. 

As President Obama, wiping away tears, said in his speech Friday, the night of the tragedy: "As a country, we have been through this too many times.  Whether it's an elementary school in Newtown, or a shopping mall in Oregon, or a temple in Wisconsin, or a movie theater in Aurora, or a street corner in Chicago - these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods, and these children are our children." 

In the media frenzy and genuine public concern about our gun culture in the face of such mass shootings, we also need to better understand that we face a crisis of masculinity in our country, and that young alienated males are increasingly turning to guns and murder to construct their identities. 

The cycle of mass shootings throughout the year suggests that young men are constructing media spectacles to achieve celebrity, and are attempting to overcome their alienation and failures by turning to weapons and gun culture.  In December 2012, both the Connecticut and Oregon killers loaded themselves up with lethal weapons and body armor, and planned assaults in public places where they were likely to get maximum media attentions and days of celebrity infamy.  The fixation with media/celebrity culture thus has helped produce an epidemic of young male copy cat killers who resolve their crises of masculinity through an immersion in gun culture to carry out deadly mass shootings in public places. 

For the first time, serious discussions are emerging concerning the need for gun control in an out-of-control gun culture and calls for better mental health care are taking place in a society in which mentally disturbed people have been producing an epidemic of mass murder.  Unless we also begin to have national discussions on the problems of gun culture, mass shootings and alienated men, and take serious action to deal with the problem, we are condemned to repeat endlessly the cycle of the murder of innocents.