Many of my progressive friends may disagree, but in my humble opinion America’s love of guns is only one of several symptoms pointing towards a deeper problem with violence in the country.
As Stephen Covey wrote, “As long as you think the problem is out there, that very thought is the problem.” His point was that the real source of any problem lay inside us – in our thoughts and beliefs.
Recently I wrote about how our media likes to distract us. Frequently, even when they do take on an issue, they tend to oversimplify it, turning it into a debate between two extreme positions or only focusing the discussion on surface symptoms rather than root causes. That is what I believe they are doing with the excessive coverage around the “gun debate”.
The recent tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary have pushed the country towards knowing that we must do something to stop the violence. I strongly agree. The question is – what can we do?
This past week President Obama unveiled a multifaceted plan to work towards curbing gun violence. Most people applaud the effort. Many on the far right demonize any attempt to limit access to any kind of guns and ammunition. Many on the left criticize Obama for not going far enough with his proposals. Here’s a link to the summary of what the President is proposing.
To be clear, I fully support efforts to limit assault weapons, require background checks in all cases and reinstate the ability of the ATF to do its job. I also agree that this issue transcends simply the availability of guns. The other areas currently being explored, such as looking at violence in the media and shortcomings in our mental health services, broken homes, drug usage and so on are important steps. It’s a positive step that we are beginning to realize and publicly acknowledge that violence in this country is not simply a gun issue. The cause is much bigger.
However, I want to be very clear that I am for the rights of Americans to own guns. Gun ownership is not the problem. Many countries such as Canada allow extensive gun ownership without anywhere near the levels of violence we experience in America. As stated, this polarized debate about taking away guns is a distraction from our real issue. Anyone who truly fears they are going to lose their guns needs to stop and reflect on what they really fear. I believe a deeper fear is at play than the “loss of my guns.”
Furthermore, this whole debate over the “Second Amendment” is another distraction. The time we spend debating over what the founding fathers meant and why they created this safeguard in the Constitution is time wasted.
It’s time we stopped distracting ourselves with side issues and focus on our deeper problem. Although it’s good to explore the impact that guns, violent movies, violent video games, failures of our mental health system and the like contribute to violence in America, we need to keep foremost in our awareness that these are all just symptoms of a deeper inner problem which we are having difficulty admitting.
What is that problem? The real issue is that we don’t feel bonded to one another. Too many people feel unloved and alone. Too many people feel unconnected to other people. Inside many is a thought and a belief that other people out there in the world are “objects” that don’t truly matter. We are in competition with those “others” for survival.
That thought is the real problem.
We will explore that problem more next in part two of this five-part series on America’s violence.
Mark Gilbert
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Check out all of Mark Gilbert’s books—available at Amazon. Click here to visit his Author Page. This includes his recent one Our Spiritual Rights and Responsibilities. In this book, he offers what he suggests are the 5 basic rights we all possess by virtue of our being these spiritual beings on planet Earth — and our 2 responsibilities we all hold in relation to one another! Check it out!
You are absolutely right that the main issue is much deeper. If I might, I’d like to weigh in on what that issue is. It’s not just an American issue but a global issue. I think the main reason for all this violence is that America is a highly materialistic society. Materialism; as in believing that only what can be observed and proven by science is real and everything else is mystical superstitious mumbo-jumbo. Materialism has been on the rise for many centuries now. It has given us tremendous technological gifts. Life span has increased, population has increased, the globe has shrunk, me and you can interact so easily. Great things have been achieved but a great loss has also taken place.
I used to be a materialist rationalist atheist pragmatist skeptic guy too. It was fun to make fun of religious people. Oh really, the world was created 6000 years ago! Oh yeah then the monkey god grew 10 times and flew across the ocean! But the problem with materialism is that it makes life meaningless. I’ve spent many years trying to find and then give a meaning to my life inside the materialist philosophy. But how can you give meaning when you are just a random accident on a speck of dust in one lonely corner of the universe?
You were born because your parents copulated and you’ll die and become worm food and your only real purpose is the propagation of your genes through reproduction. At most you can think about leaving a legacy behind. Alexander the great is still remembered. You can try to become immortal that way. But eventually everyone will be forgotten. Our sun will die and most probably we will too. Even if we travel to other galaxies before that, eventually the universe will die too. Why suffer through this life when there is no meaning? If you can resist suicidal tendencies as a materialist then there is only one thing left to do.
Make money and try to win this game of thrones even though eventually you will die. Play the game, lie cheat deceive, do whatever you want, try to be happy as much as possible, avoid all pain as much as possible, live fast and die young.
You can argue that materialism doesn’t ask us to lie cheat and deceive. But if there is no meaning to life then there are no morals. As Nietzsche said, morals are only made by the weaker men to keep the stronger in check. If there are no morals and if this life is just what there is and if you just want to live it luxuriously then be a banker for a huge bank, or be on wall street. make loads of money, buy expensive toys. And oh yes, lie cheat and manipulate.
If you take materialism to its logical conclusion then this human society with laws and morals and ethics is only a construct created by us humans to ensure that a large number of us can live in it relatively safely. If all the rules are just made up then the maximum benefit is to be gained by breaking them when advantageous while making sure that you are not caught. Even better is to become a hypocrite and preach morals and be completely immoral yourself. that will give you the biggest advantage.
You say that the problem is that people don’t feel bonded to each other. According to materialism others are just competition and if you can outsmart them then you can win. And if you are always trying to compete with others you think that everyone is trying to outsmart and fool you. So you don’t trust anyone. I think that the violence in America is also due to this extremely materialistic outlook to life.
The only problem is that science has moved on. Science never made claims of its superiority or the power of its knowledge. It kept searching and now physicists are starting to talk in mystical terms. the smallest particle is not a particle at all but rather a web of potentiality where energy or matter can manifest at any moment. matter is just another form of energy. there might be parallel universes. Science is becoming more spiritual but the culture and the society is still stuck to Darwinian and Newtonian science fueled materialism.
A more spiritual outlook will make people understand that we are all connected. That we interact with each other even without talking. That the energy of everyone and every thing affects us and we affect them. That when we eat violent food, it’s going to affect us negatively. That pain is not something to be avoided but something to be expected and even cherished. Pain helps us grow. So when we get the discomfort of anxiety we don’t try to run from it but face it and solve the problem that is causing the anxiety. We don’t have to run from it and let it accumulate till we have to take pills for it.
The mental health problems, rising depression, anxiety disorders, ADHD, bipolar, violence, war, drugs everything can be traced back to a materialist outlook to life. I think becoming more spiritual is the only root level solution.
Thank you, Eddy,
Great thoughts as always!
Mark
Excellent, truthful and insighful