It’s okay to be outraged. In fact, it’s normal to be outraged after a fellow classmate kills 17 kids in an American school. But the righteously outraged class seems to be doing what they do best -- placing the blame on anyone and anything but where the blame lies.
According to the outraged class the blame lies with guns. In my previous post, “The gun doesn't care what you think of it” I argued the obvious: a gun is a tool. Period. To some people the blame lies with the National Rifle Association, President Trump, and anyone to the ideological right of Abbie Hoffman.
They blame everyone but themselves.
They are not willing
But no one from the outraged class is willing to look at themselves. They are not willing to see that we raised kids to demand puppies, stuffed animals, and crying rooms when they don’t get their way. They are not willing to see that we send our kids to colleges where the professors -- the “learned class” -- physically assault their students because they don’t like what their students have to say or because they support a different political candidate.
They are not willing to see that they not only listen to, but give professional awards to musicians who glorify beating women, calling them whores, and killing police. They are not willing to see that they are praising their kids for supporting political candidates like Bernie Sanders who promise free things that other people have worked to produce because they feel entitled to things.
They are not willing to see that they themselves have made heroes of murderers, social degenerates, and psychopaths such as Tony Soprano, “Goodfellas” characters, and the likes of Tupac Shakur. They are not willing to see that maybe, just maybe, they need to look in the mirror. And that mental health matters. Or that a decent civil society that respects others matters.
They are not willing to see that. Instead, they hold meaningless rallies, say meaningless things, and make meaningless gestures.
Meaningless gesture
The other day a Sheriff’s Officer in Broward County, Florida, turned in a personally owned AR-15 rifle. Meaningless. Neither that gun nor its owner is part of the problem. Part of the problem was the Broward Sheriff’s Office’s failure to act on previous reports that Nicholas Cruz presented a threat to others.
Part of the problem was that the F.B.I. dropped the ball in taking this young person seriously. And part of the problem is that this Sheriff’s Officer is being praised for a meaningless gesture that was probably motivated to win him praise from his superiors instead of doing something meaningful. No matter. We are outraged and will stay that way. No matter what its meaning.