Originally Posted by
FuzzyWuzHe
I kind of think the whole thing started with Spock, Dr.. Not the pointed ear kind. We learned the I'm okay, your okay thing and that took away personal responsibility. We, for the most part, no longer except the responsibility for anything we do, our children do, or our country does.
I am as guilty as anyone. I tend to blame everything and anything for my problems and for that matter, my actions. I think we all do to some extent. I think our parents, the parents of the baby boomers, us, had a certain sense of entitlement. I also think it was entirely justified (yes, I'm flawed). After all, this country had gone through a period of extreme sacrifice. WWI, WWII ... I think they qualify. Not to mention the Korean War (yea ... it was a war). And yes, right after that, as one poster mentioned we hit the era of Consumerism. And yes we became materialistic. Our fathers and mothers wanted nothing more than to give us MORE than they had. A lofty goal to be sure. One I'd like to think is still around. But I digress.
With the whole I'm okay, your okay thing, we did away with the whole "my rights stop at your face" philosophy. Basically, my rights no longer stop anywhere. My rights trump your rights. Apply that philosophy to any of the "shooters", "drivers of cars into people" and even "drivers of planes into buildings" (full of people) and you will see that I am right. All of these mass murderers believed they have the right to kill. There is another philosophy that comes into play. "The ends justify the means". And maybe even a third, "Being a bully is okay".
Again, as a disclaimer, me, we, our nation, or this world are all guilty of this to some extent.
Paul of Biblical times hit's this on the head and even goes on to explain how "monsters" are created. Romans, I believe, Chapter one, later verses. Anyway, he basically explains that when we push our rights beyond the laws of God, we become more and more into self. The more we get into ourselves and act like animals, the more animalistic we become. At some point, God kind of allows us to be free of what we know to be right. At that point we are free to become the "monsters" we see on the news (fake or otherwise) everyday. The Manson's, the Cruz's, heck, even suicide bombers. Wether our actions are dictated by greed, religion, lust or whatever, they are dictated by the motivations that only occur outside the feelings of right and wrong that are written on our hearts (brain if that makes it easier to understand).
The difference between the monsters or old, the Manson's, etc. and the monsters of new, the Cruz's, etc., is the older monster's knew it was their doing and didn't blame it on someone or something else. Charles Manson went to the grave "knowing" he was the devil (notice the small d) and that all of his actions where just that, his. This Cruz fellow, has no idea it was his desire to prove he could kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible that perpetuated his actions, his desires, not a problem with his brain, or him at all. Note his public defender is already blaming his youthful, under developed brain for his actions. He was simply acting outside his conscience because he had pushed the boundaries of self so far the he could now justify it. I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts (and I love me some doughnuts) that this guy has had killing sprees before, whether it's the neighbors cat, squirrels or just pulling the wings off flies for sport.
Is there a fix for this? That question is way above my pay grade, but, I suspect that until society starts holding it's people accountable for their actions, "monsters" will continue to exist, as they always have. Yes, "monsters" have always existed. All the way back to Cain and Able days. I think we just now all know about them due to the "media". Would Jack the ripper have been caught if everyone around him had a cell phone with a camera? Could Hitler have killed so many Jews if the same was true? Maybe, because some of the same atrocities are happening right now in North Korea, we know about them and yet a large portion of the world doesn't seem to care. Again, I'm okay, the little rocket man is okay.
So I guess I was wrong about Dr. Spock starting all this. He isn't responsible for the creation of monsters, but, he is responsible for the world thinking it's okay to allow the Bullies of the world to go on.
Sorry about the rant .. and I'm sure lots of you disagree with my conclusions, It's just my $0.20 worth in the $64 Trillion question (inflation don't ya know).