ritual sacrifices
Its an American thing
Posted on July 22, 2012
in the day and a half since the Aurora massacre another 100 or so people have been shot to death in America. The land of the free. The home of the brave. Andrew Cohen, on gun violence in America. (via: thepoliticalnotebook)
http://www.thepoliticalnotebook.com/
.....the one thing that we've decided that's worth it, in lieu of most of the above, is engaging in a well-practiced national ritual: the nonstop replay of the crime; the mourning of the victims; the dissection of the killer; lastly, the hollow demands and promises of action, before returning numbly to whatever it is we do between the massacres. the ritual is necessary because we refuse admit to ourselves that we won't do anything else. the victims are the necessary sacrifices that allow the rest of us to continue enjoying the american way of life. the ritual is the necessary trade-off that allows us to trade away the guilt.
It is of course possible that there is actually nothing we can do or agree upon that will prevent another massacre, but who really believes that? so if this latest tragedy goes by without our acting meaningfully to prevent the next, it's because we've decided that it's not worth it or maybe we think that it's worth at least one more senseless massacre.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/22/1112515/-ritual-sacrifices