#BostonMarathon
Been thinking about this since I got off a plane from vacation today. Tonight I came home after dinner to NBC News doing a special on what this recent bombing at the marathon means for public events in America. How trite.
Are we all still asking these trivial questions like this in the global community? We are the last country/culture to deal with all of this reality.
A couple of thoughts:
- American communities have FAR TOO MANY anniversaries and “never forget” events. We celebrate our victimhood and wonder why other people (in and out of this country) hate us to the point of wanting to kill us.
- Executing mass violence in America is a trivial exercise. Not because we lack security infrastructure but because our culture celebrates violence and thinks we should always exact justice always. It’s so 1850s Cowboy bullshit. And hasn’t it always been this way in this country?
- We focus on “event protection” as opposed to a THOUGHTFUL, REFLECTIVE CULTURE. Our culture is about immediate reaction instead of reflection and consilience. We glorify the act. We spectate and consume the adrenalized moments.
- We consume far more than we give. This has consequences. We haven’t learned this yet, not nearly enough.
- We spend far more money on checking my shoes for bombs at the airport than on making sure everyone has access to the Internet and life changing literature.
- Praying does nothing. It’s self serving. Try reducing violence through education, arms reduction and/or other real ways. God doesn’t exist so lets stop pretending he/she/it does and wasting precious time and energy on God.
- I have no idea who did this, why they did it. I almost don’t care. This will keep happening until it doesn’t. And I really don’t know how gun violence and bombing and wars are going to stop. It’s probably more likely to happen once we stop trying to own every thing, every person, every idea and we stop lying to each other about how it all works. Religion is crap and false. Most things we push unto children and our cultures isn’t about truth or love but instead is about making sure certain people stay in power and amass riches. Try really investigating and learning about animal / human behavior and the other bodies of knowledge that help us get closer to getting it and maybe we can all have a real dialog. For now this is getting really fuckin old, all this killing people for ridiculous reasons and in cowardly ways here and abroad
I’m saying to myself tonight. Get involved. Make this world better in non-violent ways.
Social Mode 
Thanks RFS for putting to words what many of us believe. I could not have said this better. I think most of these thoughts crossed through my head today. We love to play the victim, yet are not reflective enough to understand why people perpetrate hateful acts upon us. Unless it is anti-government. Then maybe we can “sympathize” with the perpetrator, like at Waco or OKC.
Well, maybe for some praying is pointless. I don’t think it is for everyone. I use prayer as thoughtful reflecton on things and people and life. Is that wrong? I also believe in a power greater than myself. And I do believe in trying to make things better in this world, if I can. Thanks for writing what you believe down. I am sure you speak for many. And I am just as sure that I do too.
As an outsider (Danish – the country not the pastry) I will only touch on your first thought, and not get into your culture which I absolutely love. I think many people like to hate America, not so much for what you do (or who you are), but because it gives them a chance to be victims themselves and to blame you for everything that is wrong in the world. which is very convenient. And becuase you are a world power (millitarily and culturaly) most every thing you do can be spun into some evil conspiracy (as in “war for oil”). If America didn’t exist we would have to invent you – or blame the French.