by B.J. on 12/12/2002 06:13:00 AM 0 comments Print this post

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Guilt Trip: In Response to Bowling for Columbine

America is a very fast-paced, intense, individualized society. We don't have to time to care about the impoverished, therefore we are IGNORANT of our surroundings. When we're ignorant, we FEAR what we DON'T KNOW because it disrupts our SECURITY. And the INSTANT panacea to feed our insecurities materializes to something like BUYING GUNS. We're very IMPULSIVE, and so as a result we DON'T THINK THINGS out like we should be. For example, we DIDN'T EVEN really KNOW the culprits to the 9/11 mess, but the moment the Twin Towers fell, we kept hearing "Muslim Extremists", "Osama" being associated with "evil." For the sake of the public's SECURITY, we painted Osama as the ENEMY WITHOUT knowing anything.

And so since we don't have the time to spare on THINKING, we rely on the MEDIA. The American media, in their own INTEREST and INDIVIDUALISM, in turn, reports the "JUICY" stories which happen to be the CAR CHASES, the MURDERS, the BURGLARIES. RISKS are blown way out of proportion as people are still more likely to die from Maryjane than from something as abstract and unknown as cell phone radiation. Unlike the Canadian media, they don't really report POSITIVE, REASSURING things because it won't get them their RATINGS. They FEAR they won't get RATINGS because our AMERICAN brains take in information only PERTAINING to US. To keep us watching the media has STRICKEN this FEAR into us by telling us that we are INADEQUATE without the piece of information. That is true, but the information is NOT put in proper PERSPECTIVE. That is, for something POSITIVE to be the center of any AMERICAN NEWS, it needs to be a super important DISCOVERY or ACCOMPLISHMENT, whereas the most mundane of HIGH-SPEED CHASES will crash the 6 o clock news. In DEFENSE to this overflow of NEGATIVITY, we somehow FILTER out the NEGATIVES and focus on the GOOD stuff.

As INDIVIDUALS in AMERICAN SOCIETY, we don't TOLERATE NEGATIVE THINGS because we don't have HINDSIGHT to guide us. Like Matt Stone, South Park dude, said in the movie about the Columbine killers and their general feelings toward school, 'the kids are labeled fags, and they're fags for life.' Its as if the Columbine kids couldn't do a thing about their PERCEIVED INADEQUACY. They didn't have the HINDSIGHT to get thru it and thus went on a killing spree WITH GUNS, the INSTANT, IMPULSIVE answer. They didn't THINK.

IRONICALLY, on the other hand, we READILY ACCEPT BAD THINGS from a SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE because we feel it doesn't have an impact on our INDIVIDUAL SELF. As Americans, we've been taught to look out for ourselves in this DOG-EAT-DOG world. So basically, we're IGNORING society. And by IGNORING we don't know things. Then, we get scared of things we DON'T really know about. Most of us automatically get scared of BIG BLACK GUYS because we only see them on TV playing basketball, telling jokes, singing, or getting arrested. We WON'T get scared of WHITE GUYS because there's a variety of them being portrayed on TV, doing various things, and we FEEL that we've gotten to know them. The thing is that if you PERSONALLY knew a BIG BLACK GUY you wouldn't see him/her in the same light as you would see any other black guy.

So basically OUR IGNORANCE of SOCIAL ISSUES has bit us back in the ASS and we're all killing each other in RECORD numbers. According to the movie, we've got 11,000+ deaths related to handguns compared to other industrialized nations who when combined average about 100 handgun-related deaths per year. We're still NOT a DANGEROUS, VIOLENT nation, just an extremely CARELESS and IGNORANT one. We're LOCKED into FEAR of some POOR guy stealing our stuff and killing us. So LOST are we in FINDING the BIG STORIES and in FEARING the UNKNOWN that we can't SEE HOW DANGEROUS GUNS ARE. Kids can lock into them. People can lose control. A cock of the gun and you just might be drinking your food out of a straw, son. Granted, there are a lot of responsible gunowners, but the risks outweight the good as the only purpose for GUNS is to kill or maim.

The best solution to the GUN PROBLEM comes from CHRIS ROCK who says to TAKE AWAY the AMMUNITION. People will still hold onto their guns with every last part of their body, but WITHOUT AMMUNITION guns are useless. Think about it. . .guns can be passed down from generation to generation. We can never really wipe out all the GUNS in the world, BUT we can stop AMMUNITION because people will be hardpressed to find. Or at least make BULLETS cost $5000. : )

But the problem with AMERICA lies DEEPER into the trenches of the "GHETTO". Poor kids are everywhere, but kids HERE are pressured to take more DRASTIC measures because they are told to live in rundown places in the RICHEST country, they NEVER ARE and NEVER WILL BE, pay the bills, and finally, do math homework. . .If only the Suburban kids THOUGHT of the poor kids.

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