Around Russia

The right to kill

December 18, 2012 Mikhail Berg

The next mass murder in America (this time a twenty-year-old young man shot his mother-teacher from an automatic rifle, and then 20 children aged 5 to 10 years at the school of Newtown, Connecticut) raises a number of unpleasant issues before society. What is this murder epidemic in America, when young people of student age and younger are killed in universities and schools of innocent children or former fellow students? Why is the hatred of young killers facing educational institutions? And often members of their families. Why this happens more and more often. What vices of the American social system do this indicate?

Let's try to answer in order. The easiest answer is in America there are too many available weapons. In the case of the execution of children in Connecticut, the mother herself taught her son to shoot from an automatic rifle, as a result, the weapon was turned against her. In the United States, a discussion on the ban on at least automatic weapons was instantly resumed. Democratic senators are ready to submit to the Congress a bill prohibiting automatic weapons at the federal level (Republicans traditionally object, considering the right to weapons of one of the most important freedoms of Americans). Such bills have been submitted more than once, but traditionally do not gain the right number of votes. Too strongly weapons lobby, and the American tradition to have the right to freely own weapons. President Obama maintains a ban on automation, this was mentioned in his program back in 2008, but in four years the issue of monitoring weapons was not even raised by Obama, realizing that opponents would block him. By the way, in a number of democratic states, such as New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, a ban on the use of automatic weapons by civilians.

The next in the frequency of mentioning the problem is the problem of mentally unbalanced people. In a person who has a cold -blooded killing unfamiliar children, psyche problems are easily guessed. And this problem also has an unsatisfactory solution in the United States. Even during the Nixon presidency, all crazy houses were practically closed. It is clear that there were psychiatric departments in hospitals, but in order to put the patient forcibly there, it is necessary to prove through the court that the patient is a danger to himself and others. As practice shows, it is almost impossible to do this. Or very difficult. Exactly until the moment when the weapon begins to shoot.

Significant concern is caused by the situation in educational institutions themselves, where killers very often return to avenge their grievances. The Americans are proud of their schools and colleges, but the fact remains - children's and teenage grocers are a trigger that drives the trigger. The same can be said about the relationship in the family: strict education may turn out to be a source of deep resentment and humiliation, subsequently requiring revenge from an unhealthy teenager. We must not forget that young people who begin to live often feel uncertainly in the adult world and with the help of weapons try to restore balance and justice.

Finally, what even less is said, but that, in the opinion of an independent observer, seems significant. The American law -abiding system is very strict. And letting steam for an emotional person is very difficult. Outwardly, everything is fine. No one swears in lines, but they are not, unless this is the line of Ziphone5. No one screams in public transport, except for rare uncontrollable adolescents from dysfunctional areas. Fights in the bar can only be remembered in cowboy or fantastic films: any fight in America today is a necessarily called police, a drive to the station and a black spot on biography.

For seven years of my life in America, I have not seen not only a single fight, I have not heard a single quarrel, however, my wife from the window of our apartment once saw how drivers of two collided cars were cursing. For a moment - and they parted on the car in anticipation of insurance agents. As they say, babies do not cry, the children do not laugh loudly, the dogs do not bark - everything is extremely decent, but the nervous person has nowhere to put irritation. Add to this a practical ban on smoking, for drinking in public places, generally a ban on non -normative behavior. And it will turn out that an emotionally unbalanced, embittered, overwhelmed by resentment, a person cannot express his protest at the household level.

And finally, a fundamental consideration regarding the problems of modern civilization. At one time, in the book “New Studies about Optimism” V. Iofa noted that the right to legitimate murder was reserved by the state for adult men in uniform. That is, when he killed a soldier, a policeman, an abortion, the society sometimes frowned, because it could not be absolutely sure that the murder was fair. But, from the point of view of the law, everything was in order. All the churches, all faiths, all religions and cultures ultimately sanctified the murders committed by their nation, and the number of those protesting the pacifists was negligible. Under the influence of the female struggle for emancipation, the centuries -old codes of the obvious advantage of a man regarding the right to legitimate murder began to collapse. Women who entered the army or single -handedly decide on abortion began to conquer the right to kill from men. And then, in full swing, an erosion of age -related restrictions went, which, in accordance with the logic of emancipation, facilitated the transition from adolescence to the children's. Killing is to be equal. To kill means to grow up instantly. To kill - to solve the problem of competition at once, that is, to bring yourself to the peak of civilization and culture. It is no coincidence that Americans love the saying about Sam Kolt, who made everyone equal.

In other words, in all increasing murders in schools and universities, we are dealing with the back of our, primarily Western, civilization. Civilization requires a person correctness and obedience, from a young man and a child - to study and work for a long time in order to become flush with his parents and in general an adult world. But the problems of political correctness reveal the problems of minorities that have not yet been able to (and if we talk about age -related restrictions and will not succeed) to finally become a murder with the adult masculine world.

Why, however, killings more often occur in America, and not in other places where the weapons are also allowed to one degree or another? Because America further advanced along the path of civilization. And at the same time - by the level of emancipation of minorities: women have long been almost flush with men on a social ladder, but the pressure remains; same -sex marriages are allowed in more and more states; The national minorities have somewhat slowed down their ascent, because the Americans continued to scare Islam, but already two states, Washington and Colorado, achieved free use of marijuana. The trend is distinct. Therefore, you can prohibit automatic weapons, you can return mentally unbalanced people under the supervision of a medical system, you can even more strictly punish aggression and emotional licentiousness, but mass killings of your own kind, committed by young people, are unlikely to stop. In order for them to come to naught, it is necessary to stop the development of civilization, the flip side of which are these killings.

Photo by ITAR-TASS / ERA