In light of the shooting in Atlanta, I keep going back to Felix's commentary from the "Run Hide Fight" review episode.

His basic premise was, our mass shooting culture is a byproduct of our dominant ethos of empire. The idea that you can just kill a bunch of people in a foreign country and most people are okay with it, and if you participated in it, you can even be celebrated. All of it cheapens the value of human life. It's specifically become more of an issue as we've increasingly outsourced our wars and the people who fight in them, rendering the Empire more and more invisible. Just because it's invisible doesn't mean that ethos goes away, but it's actually turned against our own people.

I always though that was a really good explanation, but I would love to hear some of you expand on the idea or hear your own theories.

  • thethirdgracchi [he/him, they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    In the wake of the Neoliberal proclamation of the end of class struggle, the only social categories remaining are winner and loser. No more capitalists and workers; no more exploiters and exploited. Either you are strong and smart, or you deserve your misery. The establishment of capitalist absolutism is based on the mass adhesion...to the philosophy of natural selection. The mass murderer is someone who believes in the right of the fittest and the strongest to win in the social game, but he also knows or senses that he is not the fittest or the strongest. So he opts for the only possible act of retaliation and self assertion: to kill and be killed.

    From Bifo's Heroes: Mass Murder and Suicide. Awesome study of this exact phenomenon by a well renowned Italian Marxist, I highly recommend it. Takes the standard Marixst critique of late capitalism/neoliberalism and extends it to the mass shooting headlines. The book is extremely bleak in its conclusions (a preview: "Now, it is finally crystal clear: resistance is over. Capitalist absolution will not be defeated and democracy will never be reinstated. That game is over.") but is very insightful into getting into the minds of these mass killers and examining the phenomenon through a Marxist lens.

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      4 years ago

      In the wake of the Neoliberal proclamation of the end of class struggle, the only social categories remaining are winner and loser. No more capitalists and workers; no more exploiters and exploited. Either you are strong and smart, or you deserve your misery. The establishment of capitalist absolutism is based on the mass adhesion…to the philosophy of natural selection. The mass murderer is someone who believes in the right of the fittest and the strongest to win in the social game, but he also knows or senses that he is not the fittest or the strongest. So he opts for the only possible act of retaliation and self assertion: to kill and be killed.

      This is beautifully put and pretty much exactly what I've been thinking. It's no wonder the columbine kids wore t-shirts that said natural selection.