Using Physical Weapons Instead Of Spiritual Weapons

 I find a lot of offensive, ridiculous, funny, arrogant, ironic, etc., type shirt slogans.
I don't agree with half of them, but simply ask permission to take the picture,
and hope a discussion can be sparked regarding the clashes of identity
despite our common humanity and collective desires to be at peace.

Another tragedy called 'mental illness' is realized and inanimate objects are blamed.

Perhaps a discussion about the psychology behind school shootings may reveal the social challenges some people experienced in school in the past, and still today for those currently attending.

However, as mob mentality would have it, it is easier to repeat arguments already framed and nicely packaged.

To parrot what is emotionally argued in the news is not surprising, but the arguments fall on deaf ears.

Why?

Mental convictions that are fearful of worse-case scenarios.

Also a clash of ideologies accustomed to simply rejecting thoughts from people outside a group.

Also a lack of critical thinking skills in many people.

Various rapid fire weapons have existed prior to the 19th century, with a wider use rising out of the early 20th century wars.

Consumer rapid fire weapons is the spotlight issue, yet these have existed for several generations prior to school shootings becoming a sad reality to worry about.

Although gun ownership existed prior to public schools, and social stresses between school children has existed since public schooling began (or between children in general), the thought of indiscriminate violence upon children in a school environment can be argued as a recent trend.

Many times there is a comparison with immigrant terrorism, or religiously motivated terrorism, and school gun violence.

Sadly, these are usually polemic and wrought with fallacy... yet they attract and magnetize minds who cannot decipher propaganda from logical arguments.

These are ignorantly framed arguments that distract from a viable discussion having answers.

Speaking briefly to religiously motivated terrorism:

Historically, there is a recent rise (latter part of the 19th century) in religious fundamentalism that sparks violence (labeled terrorism), yet this ideology has sadly existed since the inception of certain religious movements... only once again becoming popularized and a trend to be mimicked.

It is by violence, either internal or from an external force, that has promulgated certain religious ideologies since their inception.

Islam is one such example.

Yet the facts from Muslim historians and scholars is widely ignored because such facts are unpopular.

The definitive reality found in Muslim-authored ancient and modern writings regarding violence as a manner to forward ideology is usually pushed aside due to political challenges.

One such example is with the refugee crisis and much needed safe harbor for people fleeing war ridden regions of the world.

Where one pundit argues 'Islamophobia', another argues 'historical legacy'... and minds are divided while still ignorant of the sources themselves.

The same could be said regarding school shootings, and while the motivation could be argued as 'mental illness' in both a religious indoctrination and a domestic child's violence against their peers, the issues can also be quite different when including a variety of factors.

For me personally, my religious influence or the things I was thought as a child or as an adult never justified violence or any action that was outside of peace.

When I contemplated (or enacted violence), I was not invoking a religious scheme or justification.

If anything, I was ignoring what I was taught regarding God and religious ideas.

Some individuals may claim to be aligned with the same religious convictions I hold, yet may confusingly justify violent activity as some 'right' or some 'allowance'.

However, the sources hold no such idea and is not supported by the belief I hold.

The belief they argue agrees with mine is not the same, but something very different.

Such an effort and confusion can be called of conflation of state religion and the faith.

For some kids, the mindset fostered during the schooling years eventually breaks once school is over.

For some, perhaps they were bullied or troubled by certain people in school.

Yet after school is finished, and they either go onto college or the workforce, they may realize the mindsets made popular in school either dissipate or are gone altogether.

However, for some others people, they are forever fixed and self-identifying by a bad mold.

We can sometimes identify such things in popular media through certain entertainers, or politicians, or when we read about some person that is made famous and their words and actions.

We can sometimes read how an older person seemingly never matured; they simply grew old in their ignorance and continued in an ignorant stupor regarding certain things.

A recent news story about a young man's journal entries reveal a bit of the psychology behind motivations for widespread violence in school.

Reading portions of his writings reminded me of past struggles I had in school.

To address the tools and methods of violence only speaks to a lesser matter.

The more difficult issue of systemic mental disorder is usually ignored, because it must include a cultural identity, societal prejudices, inculcated attitudes, and media's role and responsibility in all of it.

I think there are far more 'mental cases' in the broader society than people would be willing to admit.

One has to tackle depravity.

Yet doing so would reveal how far and wide this disease is in society and in the individual, and this is uncomfortable for those accustomed to excusing their humanity as 'normal' and blaming everything and everybody else except for themselves.

The effort in using a tool or weapon is I think less significant than the warped goal of violence.

Blaming inanimate objects as the 'cause' of wicked activity is illogical and irrational.

If all guns were to be outlawed or made to miraculously disappear from not only physical reality but even from our minds and memories, would senseless or wickedly motivated killings cease to exist?

Man is keen on making and manufacturing people-killing tools, and almost every government that has ever existed has either promoted the use of, or utilized themselves, such people-killing tools.

Why?

Mankind is inherently evil 'now'; it is the nature of man.

Mankind was not initially created to be such, but this 'nature' is due to a consequence.

The consequence came about from having to make a choice.

The first man chose to disobey a single 'thou shall not', and the rest is the history of mankind struggling to make better or right choices, and how some people have made bad or the wrong choices.

There is a degree of truth to the relation of a particular tool / weapon and the manner it is used.

But what is beyond the obvious while not ignoring this reality or fact of weapons?

The human's responsibility.

Much how nuclear technology is argued as a clean energy, that technology has been used to decimate populations of people and is used as a bluff in political rhetoric.

Realize it is how that particular technology is used.

I personally wished it never existed due to the great responsibility in managing it properly, and the fact that most human are irrationally irresponsible at least some time in their lives.

The mind through whom the idea of nuclear technology was manifested eventually came to lament how the knowledge was turned into something nefarious and evil; a weapon and idea he never intended.

What should have been a gift of great amounts of energy for many people, became an evil weapon capable of eliminating many (or all) people.

That man wished he had never written down his idea.

That man was Albert Einstein.

To speak of the psychology behind the increase in domestic violence, and particularly shootings in schools, I can't help but notice media's influence.

Violence is celebrated in movies and music.

How is it 'celebrated'?

It is argued as a means to 'change' things when discussion doesn't work.

It is part of an industry is selling movie tickets and video games (action movies and action games).

Certain depraved thinkers, at times praised as philosophers or heroes, have argued that violence is a means to change people's ideas and systems of government.

It is glorified or honored when looked at critically and according to the psychology behind motivations.

The news is constantly repeating the horrors humans commit towards one another, as if we need to be reminded that evil exists and is manifested through people.

Besides making people afraid, what is another consequence of constant negative programming?

Imitation.

Specifically to school shootings, there is a current of young people and some adults expressing their undignified support for violence and evil; it can be searched and read about or hear throughout social media.

You can find arguments behind ethnic prejudices, religious intolerance, political polemics, and almost any narrow mind-numbing hateful idea throughout social media channels.

Often times the root of all this negative speech is hate; hate in response to hate, or to lack of love.

Often times we point to the obvious manifestation of hate, but rarely do we take personal responsibility for being a part of a collective indifference to the hate.

Some may now say 'oh, this man is now turning the argument around onto ourselves'.

Consider how the vast majority of kids who decided to hurt and kill their classmates had some sort of gripe or issue with either themselves, or their peer groups, or society at large (and several other things I'm sure).

Did you ever laugh at anyone, either as a child or as an adult, or make fun of someone, or agree with the ridicule of someone?

Our silence can sometimes be viewed being an accomplice.

Speaking to this world's dynamic of good and evil:

To be sure, the good outweighs the bad in this world... yet young people seem to be drowning in a sea of negative programming and confusing media promotion.

Activities expressed in media are seemingly copied.

This is the way product marketing works... so why not for ideology and any social argument?

When coupled with a particular upbringing, it should be no surprise some young minds deal with mental pressures in an adverse manner.

Can any of us recall a troubling or challenging time growing up?

A popular phrase I heard growing up from adults was how they "survived high school".

This expression sadly exists for a reason.

People sometimes talk about "how I survived high school" and have lots of stories to tell.

Sometimes, the storyteller is as an offender, and sometimes as a victim of offenders.

Perhaps we readily remember when we were offended, but not when we offended or caused harm.

I think some adults forget or are often not reminded about the madness, hate, indifference, violence, low attitudes, and abuse the social pecking order in young people's minds.

Do you remember yours?

In recent times it is labeled 'bullying', yet such an attitude has previously existed not only in schools, but life and history in general.

Politics sometimes expresses, although subtly, such pecking orders and socializing... at times justifying it, other times condemning it, depending on how the politician or government will be viewed.

This is is yet another part of our humanity than only love can rectify.

I recall a time when I was a wild teenager, not trying to be good but simply rebellious and ignoring my conscience.

While in public high school, myself and friends had been tempted on occasion to respond violently to violence or hate or indifference towards us.

Times of an ethnic insult, or economic insult, or social insult, or simply something drawn from the air to inflict pain and offend were experienced.

Let me tell you a story from my past about a night of car racing and a physical assault:

I am in the passenger seat of a friend's fast car along with another friend sitting in the back seat.

We are driving around town looking for other people to race, usually young people with similar vehicles.

We are 17 and 16 years old, speeding in and around the west hills of San Antonio, Texas, circa 1991.

We see a similar vehicle to ours and I shout out my signature "do YOU wanna GO?" which includes hand signals pointing to one another and an invitation to race down the stretch of road.

They agree and a race was on.

We were ahead of the other car and likely 'won' the race after several minutes of recklessly speeding through winding turns in affluent neighborhoods... our usual raceways.

When we came upon a stop sign onto a main road, a right turn was the only option.

We waited our turn in a single lane behind much traffic ahead of us.

We were jovial at yet another racing victory and were not minding much the losers behind us, what they were doing, but simply celebrating in our car.

Suddenly and to my surprise, my passenger door swings opens up and two individuals begin to pummel me, kicking and punching my face and the side of my body.

Moments later the door is simultaneously closing as my friend speeds away.

Part of my tooth was chipped, besides part of my face feeling numb from their punches and some ribs feeling tender from their kicks.

For a moment during the beating I was able to 'see' the face of one of the individuals; he was a stranger to me.

However, a few days later I happen to recognize a car similar to the one we raced that night.

When looking closely, I match the driver's face to the stranger's face that assaulted me... there in the school parking lot.

I realize he's just another teenager who attends the school.

Tempers flare inside of me, I begin to sweat, my mind races with rage.

Later I see him in the hallway and see where his school locker is.

My mind is again overcome with dark thoughts.

My mind begins to plot.

My flesh desires revenge, a righting of the wrong I experienced.

I think about the several guns my dad has at home.

I play out a scenario.

I then think about simply using a bat, perhaps on the person or maybe just on their vehicle.

I ponder how all of these nefarious actions would simply come back to me.

And even if somehow my wicked acts would not be found out, or I would escape consequence, I think if I could live with myself for doing any of these things I am contemplating.

Even damaging the kid's car would, after careful thought, bother me.

I thought about what would be accomplished by retaliating or realizing revenge.

I realized there was no way to 'win', for all of my actions would simply make my life worse, and harming this kid would just makes all things worse.

Yet, all the while these dark thoughts are trembling throughout my being and attacking my heart.

Eventually, I think about about forgetting about it.

The most difficult exercise was forgiveness and letting this trespass go the way of the past.

It would have been personally 'easier' to return violence for violence inflicted.

It was harder to rise above the overwhelming fleshly temptations.

I think every generation has its survivors.

While specific conditions may change from time to time, place to place, and generation to generation, there is always a struggle for a child to become an adult.

Although the years may eventually come, maturing is not guaranteed.

I think for a lot of kids, going to school seems like a battlefield.

It seemed like a battlefield for me sometimes, with idiotic kids and their rampant violence for whatever reasons (likely abuse at home and other issues).

Recalling my childhood and adolescence, I was not well equipped to deal with certain issues.

To put feelings or struggles into words at such a young age was not possible for me in every instance.

I didn't have a fear of mass violence at school aside from perhaps a certain group of thugs or some individual that either started something with me, or I made some mistake in offending them.

Yet I never had the thought that someone would be so bold as to bring weapons to school... because I too had this temptation and realized how corrupt and wicked such a thought was, I was ashamed.

Sadly, this fear is now something far too evident today.

When people point to the tools of destruction instead of what is behind (abuse or major challenges at home, peer pressure, hateful children, lack of adults able to draw out a trouble child's issues), I think this is why we see violence has now made its way into the schools like never before and people misplace their accusations or argue illogical arguments poorly framed.

The kids committing and planning such violence don't see, nor understand, that one day the social war among their peers will end.

They may not perceive a time they won't be subject to such a battlefield environment.

To dismiss these sentiments as 'part of the program' is to speak directly to the problem: program.

I recall one friend trying to comfort me after I asked why did people who seemed to have it all had a desire to make others feel worse by talking down to them.

He said 'these popular athletes will likely grow bald, fat, and become used car salesmen and have miserable lives... their 'glory days' having been star high school athletes'.

This isn't to disparage used car salesmen, nor bald men (I'm bald), nor overweight people, nor people who look to the past instead of today and the future regarding better times... but to make a point that life goes on and that one is supposed to grow into adulthood, school being temporary.

In other words, the notion of people 'peeking' in high school - the formative years - and not throughout the rest of their lives.

To simply scoff with 'get over it', is to display the very indifference and bitterness that is manifested when a child unleashes wickedness onto others... and ignore a societal problem or accept it as something that can never be dealt with.

It is accepting defeat socially, while not exercising the power of the written and spoken word in changing people's minds, hearts, and lives.

These retorts reveal that not everyone grows up and away from petty school-ground identities.

The bad choices I may have made after that car race would have changed my life, and the life of that other teenager, our families, and everyone else within the conscience-distance forever.

If my wickedness would have been hidden, I may have been tempted to further committing wickedness in darkness and be emboldened to think I can continue to escape justice on earth.

Today, the messages and sentiments in social media (and mainstream media) continue to carry whatever messages found in public, and sometimes repeat very old and depraved messages.

Are there contrasting messages to balance out all the negative and wicked news?

Are there responsible or mature messages?

My carnal self desired to exact revenge on some kid for something I now consider insignificant, but at the time it was a major ordeal to me.

Me taking personal offense although he was a stranger was an immature response, but it was where my mind and heart was at the moment.

Not everyone overcomes an immediate temptation to respond violently to either violence, or ridicule, or the many other challenges people experience daily.

We would expect children to be more challenged, notice how immature many so-called leaders of this world are in their words and actions.

If you think your favorite 'leader' is wholly mature and capable, you may be idolizing someone instead of identifying their humanity.

If better tools are non-existent in dealing with a guaranteed indifference in life, how is a young person equipped to survive not only their formative years, but a life where, in some cases, indifference, prejudice, economic bias, and other forms of lack of love will perpetually exist?

If kids are taught in school or in popular culture that there is no God that will exact blessing and / or judgment for decisions made while in the flesh (what held my hand steady when tempted to exact revenge), but instead are taught the ancient 'eye for an eye' death spiral by default since that is the human constant, or are rather taught a warped understanding of God that conflates carnal sentiments with religiosity, a society that claims to follow Yeshua as their Lord should not be surprised when their children fail to act loving towards all others.

An individual who fails to reach their child in the most intimate and trust-building way should not be surprised to find their child is inclined in a certain way when the adult is living a hypocritical life, or is expounding indifference and hate.