In the aftermath of another mass murder, as many others have noted, there is a predictable response of outrage; both sides of the "gun" debate get out the catapults, and an exasperated president reflexively labels the perpetrator a "coward."
Gun control, help for the mentally ill, the general militarization of our society. And the danger of response becoming rote. It's the latter that worries me the most. Shrugging, saying, this is what we have to live with.
Although the subject has been included in the discussion regarding the perpetrators of these mass killings, perhaps the "alienated male" should come more to the forefront.
If I think of the mass killings of over a decade or so, an alienated male is responsible. Not identical causes, but alienation, nonetheless.
Aaron Alexis.
The Tsarnev brothers.
Adam Lanza.
James Holmes.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold
And so on.
Aaron Alexis story was puzzling to me at first. A Fort Worth native interested in Thai culture?
The Tsarnev's American dreams eluding them.
Adam Lanza who never fit it.
James Holmes, promising intellect with very tenuous social connections.
Eric & Dylan, outside the mainstream of their high school.
There have been many other stories in this same time period, the "miniature" mass killings, where a man, often recently unemployed, house foreclosed, etc., where he kills his family and then himself.
The shame surrounding a man's failure to succeed is endemic in many cultures. Though I am not discounting personal repercussions of female failure to succeed, in a social sense, for better or worse, it is not seen as shameful in the degree it is for men. (I will have to qualify that women who never marry, are considered quite odd, too.)
It is the toxic soup of role expectation, outsider status and recent failure. In many instances, failing the veterans of our recent/current wars so terribly. While we all trot out "Thank you for your service" to assuage our Vietnam vet guilt. While not having the faintest idea of what some people have been through.
I had one brother, who upon being laid off after 20 years from a company (said company insulted him by feebly giving him a 20-yr. anniversary party at work.) He did a downspiral and died of a heart attack a few years later.
I have an older brother, who once enjoyed Silicon Valley success, but now goes to job shops, where he will come back saying "I have no chance, the other candidates were women."
Women who are used to the short end of the stick. But they often have superior typing skills, which helps in a keyboard world.
It's pretty impossible to screen for alienation. NSA likely does not have an algorithm for it. How many alienated people does the average person meet in a day?