By our interests and pursuits, emotions and behaviors, we create the outlines for the scripts that define the roles which people assume in our society: mother, father, policeman, judge, homeless person, religious leaders. Look at images of saints and holy people and see just how much they are forced into the same model of holiness. Most of them look very much alike. It is not, however, they who are perfect images of each other, but it is we who insist on viewing them according to the set of holiness rules we have established.
We also define Mass Killers.
Sick people are not invariably drawn to murder and mayhem. They look about their society and milieu to see what roles are available to express anger and hate. They are actors looking for the juiciest parts which we, as vital members of society, have created for them in news reports, films, books, images, jokes,... any form of information.
If we obsessed about other ways to express anger as much as we obsess about using violence to express anger, things would be a bit different when it came time for a troubled soul to pick up the bushwhacker. But we do not. Our violent way of expressing anger has been around a long time, and it has been anointed by a great numbers of movies and stories which use violence to restore law and order and to render justice.
Violent films and games do not lead to violent behavior, but they do define violent roles and ways to act, and they provide scripts and stories and ideas........
Homage !
Homage is a word used in cinema criticism. It is used most often to describe a director who shots a scene just like someone else has done before, in order to honor that someone else.... or to get out of a corner into which they have painted themselves and from which they lack the creativity to extricate themselves.
So, in the recent mass murders, do we see any
Homage to our stories and films and imagery, etc.?
Guns do not kill people; people do... with their acting out violent roles which have in great part been defined and outlined for them by the rest of society.
These roles contain guns; you cannot do "For A Fistful Of Dollars" without a gun.
The mass killings with guns are often very similar because the shooters are acting out the very same roles
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