Any hope left for humanity?

[Asylum Steve]

I'm still stunned by the news of Charles Roberts' brutal and cowardly murder of innocent Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania Monday. Today's revelation that he probably intended to sexually abuse the girls (but didn't get the chance before police stormed the school) simply leaves me dumbfounded:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?i...C-RSSFeeds0312

I feel a very dark sadness over this. I understand much of today's brutality (even against innocent victims), and the mental sickness or life circumstances that often trigger it, but this event goes so far beyond that, I'm completely at a loss.

Anyone have any answers?

[mwfanelli]

I'm still stunned by the news of Charles Roberts' brutal and cowardly murder of innocent Amish schoolgirls in Pennsylvania Monday. Today's revelation that he probably intended to sexually abuse the girls (but didn't get the chance before police stormed the school) simply leaves me dumbfounded:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?i...C-RSSFeeds0312

I feel a very dark sadness over this. I understand much of today's brutality (even against innocent victims), and the mental sickness or life circumstances that often trigger it, but this event goes so far beyond that, I'm completely at a loss.

Anyone have any answers?

I have a thread a few posts down that discusses this as well as the other three school shooting incidents that occurred in less than a week. Quite a few Columbine student copycats have been stopped in time as well. Politicians acting just like Catholic priests: sexual predators are protected to keep a political agenda in place (the republican seat). The use of torture is approved, North Korea set to explode a nuclear bomb... This society is going straight to {insert your personal bad place here}.

[Greg McCary]

I certainly don't know what is producing these preditors, but something is. Are other countries through out the world having these same problems? What is the common things that these preditors have in common? Were they abused as children? What about it you guys on the other side of the world, do you have the same problem?
If you want to do something scary. Do a google search in your area of registered sex offenders. You will be shocked and amazed at the number of them. Last time I checked in our area, a couple of years ago there were 78 or so as best I can remember, and this is only the caught and registered. We have a population of around 100,000 give or take. It makes me sad as well, being a father.
I read an artical in a magazine many, many years ago that after a Ali, televised, fight that violent crimes in the streets of NY grew for a couple of days. I think that the US is just becoming a more violent society as a whole.
Greg

[zrfraser]

Greg I just did a Google search for sexual predators in my area and I think there is 48 in a 10 mile radius, not to mention quite a few less than a .1 of a mile from a school. We are as a whole becoming a more violent society. If look back 50 years things were totally different. TV was different, music was different, life was different. If being a student of history has taught me anything its that there is always an ebb and flow of patterns in society. The 1920's were incredibly violent in metropolitan areas, and then it tapered off after the second World War. Things picked back up later in the 60's even though we were supposed to be giving peace a chance. Things were relativley calm in the 80's with a few certain excpetions. We are just in the high point of violence in society right now. The scary thing is that perhaps 50 years from now this will be looked at as calm, because violence gets progressively worse.

Z

[mtbbrian]

Anyone have any answers?

No, I just continue to hold onto hope...
And do my part to be a good person.
Brian

:thumbsup:

[Greg McCary]

Does the violence get worse during war times then? It seem as though all of the times in your post Z, there was a war raging along. I also know that music is changing. I took some teens to see M.Manson a few years ago thinking, how bad could it be, I have seen the Stones and everyone else in my youth. Bit WOW was I shocked. And I also went to Oz Fest with the same teens. Being a nice dressed middle aged man I thought I was going to get burned at the stake as a sacrifice before I made it home. But Ozzy was the only tame thing there. But he was just an old man too.

[zrfraser]

I had to ask my girlfriend on this one since she is a Psych major and will be attending grad school in the fall. She told me that there was a study where they put people of various ages in a room. One room had violent images and toys, the other had calm images and toys. The violent room people all displayed more violence than the control group and the calm group. If you correlate the violent images as the ones we see in the news and other media forms then it makes sense. All we see nowadays is a increasing level of violent media forms. War times create strife and suffering which in turn make people more angry or violent than they usually are.

Z

[adina]

What's funny is that sex can get a movie rated R, but violence gives it a PG-13, at best.

I'm with Brian. I just try to do my part, and continue to have a postive outlook. There is good out there. It's just not as widely published as the bad.

[Greg McCary]

Give your girlfriend a big thanks. This is a great think to know since I have little ones. But it already seems that Bugs Bunny and The Three Stooges are out.I also remember watching the news every night as a child and watching the violence of the Vietnam war. Thank God Nixon ended it before I was draft age.
Greg

[zrfraser]

Greg,

If you want to do some research on your own then my girlfriend has an assignment for you. Look up Banduras social modeling theory in a google search and look for anything to do with the Bobo doll. This shows how much children are receptive to your actions as a parent. I will give you a brief rundown.

Bandura showed that when the children saw an adult playing with the Bobo doll then they would mimic that behavior and learn to associate that you should play with the Bobo doll. However, when the same child saw the adult hitting or mistreating the doll the chold would immediatley mimic that behavior and associate that they too should mistreat the Bobo doll.

The best thing you can do for your kids is be an example. Be a role model in their lives and show them that way in which they should go.

You are lucky to never have to experience the Vietnam War. My father did 2 tours in Vietnam with the Marines and what little he talked about it, it was nothing more than a constant nightmare.

Z

[Greg McCary]

Thanks again Z, My wife and I will look it up and save it as a favorite. We are always looking for new ideas that help with our kids. They have never even been spanked. That concept is strange in this neck of the woods. We feel violence breeds violence. We police what our kids watch on tv pretty close, and on the positive side,they very seldom get into a physical fight. One might not share and take a toy away from the other but they are less physical than most kids I have seen. I am 47 so I have seen a few. One of our kids is actually our grandson but the other is my late in life gift...
Greg