There was another mass casualty incident (when did that become a daily term?), this time in Sweden. While the details are sketchy, around ten people have been killed by a shooter at a school that is mostly attended by adults. Mass shootings are pretty rare in these parts thankfully, but I believe that the world will fall apart in the footsteps of the US, and they will increase in frequency.
I think it comes down to the entire cultural ecosystem, one where people have pushed to be unique and differentiated to the point that they don't fit in anywhere. And while this might not be a problem in most cases, because we are polarizing en masse across narrow topics, there are plenty of outliers that get too close to the edge, and break. Emotional resilience must be the lowest it has ever been in the history of humankind.
We have become idiots.
We might have access to the largest collection of data in history, but we are unable to do much with it, because we are increasingly governed by our emotional self. We have evolved over the last few hundred thousand years to have high cognitive skills that can be applied to solve (and create) the problems we face now and in the future, but we end up debasing it in favour of emotional reaction. And, we are choosing to do this willingly, because it is "more fun" to act emotionally than rationally.
Making it easier also.
At least in the short term, it is more fun and easier, where we do what we want, eat what we want, go where we want, buy what we want - until we are in a world we don't want to be in. Our condition degrades, society becomes more violent, and we are constantly struggling indebted to our desires. We end up living lives we are trying to escape, avoiding the problems we face by diving deeper into the abundance of entertainment available to keep us occupied so we don't have to think, but emotionally engaged so we are more prone to react.
There are a million reasons given for why someone breaks down enough to kill others, but is there a good one? Essentially, all of these mass casualty events have become akin to a "crime of passion" where it is the emotional self that is unable to cope with daily reality, and snaps. The fragility of emotional state these days means that an increasing number are close to the edge and it is taking less and less for them to cross that line and go over.
Couple this with the mass desire for something akin to religious meaning, catalysed by online communities and siloed groups that provide a sense of identity, and a place to call home amongst uninvested strangers who have similar interests, and it becomes a breeding ground for extremism. And we are seeing it playing out near daily around the world, in thousands of different ways.
I don't know what the solution is at scale, but at the individual level it is pretty easy to build emotional resilience, but it is uncomfortable to do it. All one really needs to be open to is that discomfort, and through exposure and repetition, the emotional muscle memory will build. Yet, we have set up an economy and culture that makes it far easier to avoid discomfort, because there are still some people using their brains as evolution intended to create, but they are creating more places for escape, not growth.
Justified by the profits of course.
Maybe every generation feels this, but I think that on average, we are getting stupider as individuals, because we are less capable of applying what we know, or learning what we could know. We are very good at finding ways not to do things, even if what we end up doing has little value to even ourselves, other than taking up some time and making us feel like we are relevant. Yet, the only relevance most of us have to the world is, how much money can be extracted from us.
If anything is to change for the better, we need to reverse the trend and start to increase our practical intelligence, rather than increasing the trivia we consume. But, that isn't fun, is it? So, most likely, the majority of us will keep getting less capable, and minority will find it easier and easier to extract the little value we have, until there is nothing left. And a lot of emotional people will break along the way, setting off a chain reaction that might be unstoppable.
The biggest hurdles we face, are ourselves.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
I also find it very frustrating and challenging that everybody is constantly looking “to get help” from someone in the psychiatric zone. If they have a stressful drive into work - they need to call their therapist. If they have an inconvenience at work - they have to call their therapist. They are fucking pathetic in so many ways!
Yes there is certainly a time and place for those things but it goes to the emotional intelligence here as well. People don’t know how to figure out how to cope with things and adapt. They are softer than a pillow in so many ways it’s wild.
There is a space for getting psychological help, but as you say, the barrier keeps coming down as to what is a stressor, to the point that everything is stressful. When we rely on others to be our emotional strength, we never build the framework to do it for ourselves.
Do you have an example of what this means in a real world sense? How would I intentionally expose myself to emotional discomfort?
It is very easy. Start with whenever reaching for the screen to fill the silence, or avoid people, or when annoyed - don't.
Everything feels like it's falling apart...
It does, doesn't it?
I thought it was just me...
It's definitely sad to hear that stuff like this is starting to happen more and more outside the US. Hopefully it is a wake up call about the more widespread problem. It would be nice if there could be some resolution, but as you said people are so impulsive with little long term planning.
Impulsive - working on the conditioning.
https://philanthropynewsdigest.org/news/diversity-does-not-increase-civic-engagement-study-finds
I won't start reciting Kipling, but our current arc of celebrating our differences, hasn't done much to foster reciprocal empathy.
The more we identify with what makes us different, the more isolated we become.
Every corpo D,E&I would like to have a word :P
People are just people, let's treat them that way. (Unless they go an massacre many people)
Although the attackers who cause mass deaths are often thought to be immigrants, sometimes locals can also commit this act. What could be the killer's aim in attacks that are not carried out on behalf of an organization? Most likely revenge on society. I can't find any other reason. The attacker wants to destroy the society that hurt, excluded, humiliated and polarized him.
I have no idea who caused this event. It doesn't matter though - it is still pathetic. They want some celebrity, they want to feel relevant, even if it kills people and themselves to be so. It doesn't matter if for an organisation or the self, it is still an act of wanting to belong to something.
The terorism like the mass shootouts, rebellions and any large scale violence rooted from a thing they call religion. These beliefs from something imaginary makes human apart.
I don't think it is just religion, but "religious thinking" is a big part of it.
Sometimes cause by mental breakdown due to the influence of social media.
The problem, it could be said, lies in changing patterns of thinking and behavior in a world that relies on emotional responses rather than rational and realistic thinking
Perhaps. Robespierre certainly thought he was acting rationally, as did any other number of groups that centered there actions on any arbitrary pinciples.
It isn't just about being rational, but being balanced. We are emotional beings, but we aren't just emotional beings.
Changing behaviour is harder than people say it is :)
My mother showed my wife a photo of me when I was two. I make the same face now.
I am just a bit over two months without smoking a cigarette. I emphatically agree.
It's has become overwhelming! how this mass casualty incident keeps, revolve around the world, on the bench of one that happens few days without a clear trip of the trend. I still wondering what the future have for us with the technology advancement.
Growing enslavement.
That's really terrible how the humanity lives under the shadow of death.
People don't seem to really understand real discomfort and fail to appreciate when they have it. Same with all this entertainment you talk about as well.
Many ways to call it, but I wonder why human life is so "valued" in a capitalistic world, beyond the tears getting eyeballs and eyeballs = money for the media.