WE CANNOT STOP VIOLENCE, IF WE CANNOT LET GO OF THE AMERICAN FASCINATION WITH VIOLENT ACTS

a majority of americans are unable to see past what they are fed - the heard is the easiest to persuade when the topics are not in aim of challenging their belief systems or possessions; unfortunately, guns are not something that america is easily persuaded to give up - so then we need to invest that energy and time instead, otherwise spent trying to move an immovable rock into the river, on digging through the ground underneath it to drop it in. we face today the disgusting reality that america has the highest number of mass shootings, globally. while there are many different solutions to the problem on the governmental level which need to happen, i haven’t heard once the proposal by ongoing grass roots initiatives to create change by addressing the root of the problem on the individual level past ‘mental health’ — yes, mental health is a huge part of it as is loosely strung gun laws, but we as people have been pushing against those grains hoping to make headway for years and nothing has come from the efforts except for an increase in shootings. is this not an obviously clear indication that something else needs to be addressed? that a different perspective, a radical shift in approach, should be sought?

i believe that if we look at the problem from the stand point of reforming the educational and home systems in which young minds grow, then we will be able to re-program (a) new generation(s) of young adults and adults who see this violence as fundamentally wrong; and this is how i propose we do it:

1. understanding what is ‘right’, in aim of understanding what is ‘wrong’: while most religious sects have “commandments” pertaining to right action and thus inform people from a young age on how to live ‘rightly’ in society, we cannot depend on religion to do the work of the masses (especially in america where people are becoming increasingly less religious and more spiritual or non-denominational). the private and public k-12 school systems pushing heavily the teaching and engrained understanding of “virtue” as right and “vice” as wrong, in addition to the humanistic moral consequence of what happens when virtue is not pursued, is the first facet in my idea of this total approach to addressing gun violence. an example of how moral consequence for acts of wrong doing could be instated at the educational system level, would be “if you do xyz, you are causing pain to xyz; how would you feel if you were XYZ (being very specific to descriptives with aim of truly placing him/her in the shoes of the victim)?”. Why does this work? because most people only understand feelings in relation to the “i” - the ego. bringing about awareness to how exactly another person feels/would feel from an act of one’s doing, forces the “i” to think in percept of the “you”. how does this translate into the establishment of valuing vice over virtue in k-12? by conditioning children/adolescent/teenagers to automatically think outside of the “i” and instead from the “you”, we can shift the way those outside of themselves become victims to vices like anger, envy, injustice, wrath and recklessness; instead, empathy and compassion will be his/her principle guide in decision making by way of developing an innate discomfort in acting in any way other than such.

2. shifting the reward-punishment system: as a society acts of wrong doing are punished and advertised in media more than are acts of right doing — how often do you hear of someone being rewarded for a good act, beyond a formal ceremony? quite never. in psychology, human behavioral conditioning is similar to that of animal training - when you reward good acts, the result is more good acts; when you reward bad acts, the result is more bad acts. conversely, when you punish bad acts and do not reward/highlight enough good acts then the result is angst, hostility - an anarchist attitude. the news, the internet, the film industry and gaming industry are responsible for creating the “tone” of society as a whole (i am not going to go into the details of ‘how’ specifically, because i prefer not to make this a political commentary on policy and agenda). when the overall “tone” is in that of continuously bringing to light acts of violence (apart from social injustices which are the only acts of violence which should be publicized more often so to create resistance and thus an intolerance for the injustice itself), then society continues to seek violence as normality - this is where the greatest danger lies.

3. redefining ‘the normality’: if your everyday is surrounded by people who think negatively, say ‘pessimists’, then are you not going to also think negatively by default? of course you will - in fact, you adopt the belief that thinking in a negative tone is the ‘right’ way to be… you develop a comfort with it; it is your ‘norm’. applying the same logic to the attribution of ‘violence’ - if we drench our everyday in violent acts, then we feel comfortably by default that violence is suitable and okay with living. have you heard the saying, “what you think, you become”? again, same application - think violently, become violent. our controlled outlets - media, film, gaming, internet - absolutely need to gravitate away from violence in order for society to conceptually identify as a whole with non-violence as a ‘normal’.

by now you are likely thinking “bianca, your utopia ideal cannot exist - this approach is unrealistic”… perhaps it is - but, perhaps it is not. if we do not try to cultivate within our own reach more systems designed on “how to become a good human being in society”, then we will never - ever - know if it will work. this way of addressing gun violence in america is a long term nurturing of a multitude of generations, which in no way could be possible over night. therefore, as a an immediate solve this ideal is not the answer - however, it is one that has the potentiality to not only significantly reduce the glorification and valuing of violence over non-violence, but of which will also create a better world in the future in terms of interpersonal relationships with community both human and environmental. if we cannot shift the teaching philosophies of our k-12 school systems on a grande scale or get all media, internet, gaming and film sources to make a pledge toward a kind of “human good initiative” or “virtue initiative”, then we can initiate shift individually as much as possible - if you are a teacher or professor (formally or a parent) then you have the most power to be able to heavily influence and guide your children/adolescents/teens in the direction of this approach at-home. what you nurture at home is what they will example/express outwardly to their peers. as a adult, you can adopt this approach by pledging to yourself and others that you won’t watch violent tv series, movies or play violent games - instead, you will example and encourage more acts of virtue around you through rewarding goodness every single time you see it (i.e. someone picks up someone else’s bag for them or stands up for someone when they are being harassed and you approach the person who acted righteously to commend them for their virtuous gesture). while acting in light of virtue may not be the answer to gun violence right now, you could do your small part in being as anti-violence and as generously empathetic as possible as a small step in the right direction - you will inspire others to follow suit and eventually enough ‘others’ makes a ‘crowd’ which makes a ‘town’ which makes a ‘city’ and eventually, a society.