Framing the Virginia Tech Tragedy
Ron Rappaport, speaking on KALW radio this morning, made a great point about how the media are covering this tragedy. He pointed out that much of the coverage has focused on the procedures the university should have followed in alerting the students, how the police responded, whether gun laws should be strengthened and whether teachers should be armed(!). Little, if any, of the coverage focuses on grieving the murdered students, and sharing the pain of their families.
By focusing on "what should be done?", the media is framing the situation as a war in which we must prepare for incidents like this. This is a false frame, given that both the national violent crime rates are down and schools, despite horrific events like this, are still the safest places in America for kids and young adults to be. By focusing on "what should be done?" the media lead us to think that we must take action against a threat.
Why not ask "how do we deal with this on a personal level, on a community level?" Do not ask this question in a syrupy way, but in a truly human way. In addition, the progressive community should come up with a way to respond to this situation with strength and security. How does the "nurturant" worldview provide security and safety, punish offenders, and demonstrate strength in the face of threats?
If we let the media frame the situation as "war", then we as a nation will respond in a way that will harm our country, our communities, our people. I am not arguing that progressives need to frame this situation for political gain. I am arguing that if progressives don't respond and challenge and take over the framing of this situaiton, then the "strict father" perspective will lead us down a road that is less secure, more dangerous, and more detrimental to our nation.
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Framing as war
Imagine this sort of trauma occurs on a daily basis, only in relative terms, the senslessy slaughtered number in the hundreds. Welcome to Iraq. This is where framing problems as war can lead.
Sad media aftermath
Every time one of these tragedies happens I am so disturbed by the following coverage. Perhaps one exception was after the murders in the Amish community, they did cover the community reaction - which was a beautiful an example of forgiveness and outreach as I think has been covered in these examples.
I too see the war set up and the focus centering on guns. I don't know, I am not that into changing gun laws. I mean if the population wanted it, then fine, but guns are the tools, the accessories.
On the statistics side, getting hurt or killed by something like this is probably about like getting struck by lightning. The media attention to this sensational act is so far out of whack from what is deadly to our society - medical malpractice kills way more Americans than violent deaths per year; don't hold your breath for a media blitz on in depth reporting on Big Pharma and Big Health industries. Doctor's bad handwriting accounts for 7000 deaths a year. Where's the outrage there? There is no whipping up in a frenzy after a dramatic act is why, it's not sexy for the media.
There's also a war in Iraq where a Virgina Tech situation happens every single day and our tax dollars provide the ammo.
You know it is almost as if the media is at a loss because the gunman killed himself. He seems disturbed, there is no broader conspiracy (apparently), and he finished the job and did justice on himself (according to some). There is just grief and that is not sexy.
I feel like these media circuses need a waiting period. I don't know how it could be constructed, but I just feel like I wish everyone would allow a week's grace period. Leave 'em alone, stop speculating - anyone ever hear of mourning anymore? For some reason I find it really rude, nosy and insensitive to try and milk the victims for soundbytes of suitable grief. Just the facts please.
Perhaps what I am really offended by is the using of emotion as a tool to get ratings. News used to be about getting informed and now it's about getting everyone on board a Hallmark card. It's about swaying people into a way of thinking. It's about pushing a groupthink as the acceptable response. The corporations run to the scene of the most tragic or violent or blonde or wealthy or dramatic event and stand around ooohhhing and aaahhhing over how tragic or violent or blonde or wealthy or dramatic everything is.
What should be happening is factual reporting, and if they must delve, then let's do look at root causes that produce these violent wild cards in society, less on their accessories. It is acknowledged that mass counseling might be needed on the Va Tech campus, then it is expressed that their resources will be stretched thin there, then the conversation jumps to taking the action around guns and adding security?!? Not logical.
Childhood Trauma overlooked problem
I have seen in what little I have seen that there appears to be severe childhood trauma in his background. This was a time bomb that sputtered for years before he went off.
It is not helpful to point to his personal daemons as an excuse for his behavior, but it would be helpful for society to create conditions where his ilk are much rarer than they are today. This is an excellent place to make the point that the Nutritive parent does not produce this pathology and the abusive father model does.
It is also almost gratuitive to point out that this is exactly what Homeland security should have been protecting against, but missed because they were more into jackbooting than any real investigations. They should not be allowed to say that this was unpredictable (it was apparently very predictable) or that they need to take away more freedoms (they did not bother with the tools they had).
Read them
Children will pick on the odd kid, and the newcomer, and I saw a reference that he might have had some autism, but his several references to hedonism of the folk he hated speaks to how be came the "odd person". Time and new information may prove me wrong but he certainly strikes as a SF upbring that may have been harsh.
The cycle of abuse
There is a fundamental problem in how many view the behavior of children. A lot of people think kids are by nature bad and therefore we have to make them good. This is the classic conservative viewpoint.
But this couldn't be farther from the truth. Kids who engage in abusive behavior do so because they are abused themselves. It gives them a sense of power and control which they don't have when they are being abused themselves. It's common for abused kids to act out what they are going through in inappropriate ways. It's really an attempt to undo the abuse. I know I have done so myself on many occasions when I was younger.
Everything starts at home. If you want to address the problems in our society, look to one's upbringing. Conservatives love to look for the boogie man somewhere out there, when the boogie man is really inside all of us. We are all capable of atrocious acts. Those who deny it are the ones who are in the biggest danger of becoming the abuser themselves.
New! Gun Control
For progressives, this is about gun control. A troubled kid walks into a gun store in Roanoke, Virginia and purchases a gun for $571 using a credit card. The problem is you can't tell a troubled kid just by looking at him.
For conservatives and "centrists," it is about the breakdown of morals and the so-called culture wars. I expect a lot of them to blame rock music, rap, video games, and other secular forms of entertainment in the coming days.