It's not about guns or gun laws it's about the nature of American society
What would drive someone to commit a great act of evil like mass murder and then proceed to kill themselves? That is a question that many people are left wondering after every major mass shooting that occurs in the U.S. A lot of people say it’s about gun laws. It’s not about guns or gun laws. It’s about the nature of American society and I’ll get into that later. So what motivated Anthony McRae to go onto the University of Michigan campus, a school he had no connection to, and open fire on 8 people, killing 3? On the surface, it appears that the killer felt as though he had nothing to live for. Anthony McRae was a 43-year-old unemployed loner who lived a bleak life with his father in Lansing, Michigan. Although Anthony and his father lived under the same roof, they had little to no communication. His mother died in 2020 and he apparently suffered a mental breakdown after that. McRae was hit with a misdemeanor weapons conviction in 2019 and was recently released from probation. His sister claims that he was the “oddball” of the family, but there is no easy way to really measure that. All in all, given the facts that we know now, Anthony McRae was on the fast track to self-destruction.
After reading up on the story, it seems to me that McRae's father dropped the ball. Everyone knows that losing a loved one is very difficult, but McRae’s father failed to provide the support that his volatile and emotionally withdrawn son needed. When someone rejects mental health or other forms of therapeutic assistance, if major red flags are apparent such as being in possession of an illegal weapon or exhibiting extreme antisocial behavior, it is still mandatory to take decisive action to mitigate a potential threat. Anthony McRae displayed both of the aforementioned red flags, so his father should have made sure that he was medicated, institutionalized, or put under surveillance. The senior McRae decided to ignore his wayward son and several people were hurt and killed as a result. The senior McRae is extremely lucky that he was able to avoid being murdered while living in the same household as his reclusive, “evil angry,” and mentally unstable son.
People talk about the “American Dream” all the time, but more and more Americans are in fact living the “American Nightmare” with no job, no family, no companionship, no assets, and no hope for the future. There really is no good reason why a 43-year-old man cannot easily find gainful employment in the United States. McCrae wasn’t able to stay in the workforce and the reasons for his inability to do so are unclear. However, the warehouse job that he had before becoming unemployed was definitely not enough for him to create a meaningful life for himself, and eventually, for a family. The American capitalist system is still alright, but it is decaying rapidly. Over the past 50 years, real wages have not risen alongside the rapid rate of inflation and most people are stuck working dead-end jobs that don’t provide much economic mobility. College graduates with advanced degrees are stuck paying off massive student loans before they can even find high-paying employment. There is an astronomical pay gap and wealth gap between greedy bankers, crooked politicians, mindless musicians, and empty-headed athletes and the honest, everyday working man. That is disgusting.
America is a rotten nation that is broken beyond repair. For that reason, extreme outbursts of violence will continue to occur until something drastically changes for the better. The hyper-individualism that defines American society robs people of their joy and it is extremely detrimental to mental health and psychological wellness. Alienation and extreme isolation have become the norm for millions of Americans and that is a major contributor to what has become a nationwide mental health crisis. The United States contains well over 300 million people but many Americans feel hopelessly lonely and that’s too bad. It is painful to live in a society where you often feel as though nobody cares about you, and as though nobody would bat an eye if you died. Human beings are social creatures. We should be living in a vibrant society in which adulthood means developing more friends, and more connections, not less.
America is a callous and cynical society in which you are effectively forced to figure out a rigged financial system yourself by yourself or live a miserable existence and die. While social safety nets like Social Security and Medicaid do exist that allow people who are poor or unemployed to remain afloat, strong families and tight social units are not emphasized here. At least not as much as they are in more socially healthy societies like Spain, Peru, Italy, and China. In communal societies like China, random mass shootings and other similar outbursts of extreme violence are exceedingly rare because there are stronger social networks, better familial support systems, and a greater sense of duty and responsibility towards other human beings. People feel more loved in those places and that matters a lot. It saves innocent lives.
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