Yesterday was one of horrific senseless violence: murder, maiming, painful memories, and loss. The Las Vegas massacre authored by Big Al adduced a large number of thoughtful comments. I wish to discuss this subject with a different intent and hence differing ideas for change.

First, and this is amazing, all the comments to Big Al's essay were right on point. My essay does not minimize nor dismiss either the essay or the commentary.

Understandably, this LVM (Las Vegas massacre) is viewed from a domestic point of view. Hence the commentary is framed almost entirely in that perspective.

I think most of us on this site are anti-war, definitely against "pre-emptive" war. Yet, there is no large peace movement in the US. Many reasons exist for this including struggling to make a living, bread-and-circuses, cynicism, disinterest (NIMBY) and others.

One Is More Impactful Than A Million

There is a gulf between stories of one person and statistics about a million. We are more touched and affected by the tales of trials, success or failure of single individuals than by recounting mass numbers of these many individual stories. Advertising (commercial propaganda) teaches us this. The most successful ads usually tell the stories of one, two, or three individuals who used product X or engaged in practice Y to obtain the desired result.

Emotional impact determines most responses. 90% of decision-making is based upon emotion. We are not very rational at all. Altruistic or other noble ends to our actions are cognitive wallpaper plastered over our basic emotions to justify them to ourselves and others.

Despite suppression of much factual material about the effects of war by the media, enough evidence (real news) escapes into the general population to achieve some measure of public notice. If a 65 year old grandmother is run over by a drunk driver, this story will elicit more emotional response than news about the numbers of drunk driving-related deaths, which is a much higher number.

Statistics tend to distance ourselves from the base level emotionality of single case (anecdotal) stories. The greater the abstraction of events, the further emotional distance of an event is from us. Most people do not do well in calling forth the cognitive, as opposed to emotional, traits to help introspdecgt the event. Hence, one is more than a million in an emotional sense. This is true for both negative as well as positive emotional/pseudo-rational responses.

We live in an advertising-saturated environment from before birth (mama has ears) to death. Over-saturation of anything inevitably induces a deadening response, diffusing or habituating us to the badness of anything. This dulling of responsiveness to tragedy and horror is a main factor in the lack of outrage afforded to so many outrageous events.

Mass killing, indiscriminately, purposefully, senselessly can NEVER be understood. What makes a person "tick" would require the study of a whole of that person's lifetime. This pursuit is fruitless. Common factors in such cases will abound but "decisive" or instigating factors will be so individualized as to preclude precise definition and to preclude general solutions to the "crazed, lone wolf killer".

Looking Into the Abyss

Who are the monsters? WE ARE. We, including the selected-for-us government, its enablers both active (lobbyists, PACS, etc.) and passive (the 99%). Yes, we must take a share of the blame. We get the government that we deserve.

While much crying and wailing and blaming is yet to come from the LVM, the actuality that our country has been doing this to other countries since its inception, although with far more efficiency and lethality accompanying technological advancements.

How many people perceive the connection between the LVM's impact on our society and our ceaseless wars against other societies? Regretfully, I can recall very little, if any, mention of this in the comment thread following Big Al's essay.

War is a racket (Gen. Smedley Butler). It is a rich man's game. It is a lethal game. Human lives are meaningless to the puppeteers pulling the strings of governmental puppetry. Just like their disdain for the well-being of our own citizens economically (and physically--see health care issues), their insatiable greed for profits is just a giant game of one-upmanship. "Look I got more billions than you!" It is an addiction, as much dopamine-releasing as a cocaine hit.

Can we break this addiction to greed and unconcern for human suffering? Maybe. The salient question is how this is to be done.

The Monsters Among Us

The real culprits here are numerous but still a small, yet powerful minority. It is impossible and impractical to name them all. The top of the recent list is: Bill Clinton, George HW Bush, George W Bush, Barack Hussain, DJ Trump, and of course Killary Klinton.

Other key players:

Many others belong on the list--but not in this essay.

These procreators of war have no perception of personal suffering (other than deprivation of some personal political attainment). They haven't suffered significant physical hardship, other than the champagne not being cold enough. They have not suffered loss to their families (if they had one or even cared about them). They are by all definitions sociopathic monsters.

The people of America are numb, insensitive, and/or blind to these realities in large numbers (dwarfing by factors of 10 blogs like c99).

The Solution

First of all, I don't have one. But I am not ceasing to search for one. Many of our community, and elsewhere, are painfully aware of this problem. 98% are not.

What are possible solutions? I doubt that only one solution will carry the day. The following is a partial list, about which useful debate is encouraged in this comment thread and in other essays.

1. Revolution, peaceful or violent
2. Education (i.e., counter-propaganda)
3. Financial (boycotts, strikes, slow downs)

I am sure that many of you will think of other avenues for change. I do not have the answer but I will discuss each of the three possibilities.

Revolution

Peaceful revolution will come only from mass citizen involvement. One form it might take is cleaning the legislative house and starting over. This of course would be dependent upon multiple preparatory events such as governmental funding of elections, placing a cap on expenditures; ridding the Congress of non-elected parasites, otherwise known as lobbyists; ending the revolving door completely between government and private sectors.

Could this work? Maybe. The bill pending in the House to stop funding and enabling Saudi's genocide in Yemen is a start. Tulsi Gabbard's efforts to end military spending for pre-emptive wars is another start. But they are starts only, not accomplishments.

Is it possible to change government in any significant manner as to eliminate the lust for empire, oil, rapaciousness, and other greed-driven ingrown habits with which we are now plagued? So far, the Green Party has been quite ineffective in expanding its base (despite a recent "conversion" in Maine). The putative third parties are, for the present impotent.

Reforming the Democratic Party from within? Doomed to failure. I see Bernie's efforts to do this as a place-holder for himself in 2020. He is dutifully playing the good soldier giving the Dems little excuse to plot against him. But the Dems don't need excuses, and when they do they make them up. Have you listened to the love songs of the Clintonites wooing the Berners? "Get the F outta here, you misogynisitic, xenophobic, disloyal bastards". Reforming the Demonic Party will be about as successful as teaching a pig to sing.

Thus, peaceful revolution does not seem likely.

Violent revolution is as unpredictable as it is bloody. Things never go as planned. Unlike coups fomented by civil/military powers which have a definite political objective in mind, spontaneous revolutions are thus unplanned and unpredictable. The outcome could be better than the overthrown system, but could be just as bad or worse than before.

Revolution is a form of pre-emptive war. The pre-emption of course is preventing the continuation of the status quo. This is the very thing that my essay concerns itself. Pre-emptive war, in any guise, is evil. But what about "rogue" states, such as North Korea? Yeah, what about it? What have they done to us besides figuratively spit in our face? If anyone wants to make a case for war against NK, let them write their own essay. And if anyone does this, then they have entirely missed the point of what this essay is communicating.

Education

Teaching the true facts of life as opposed to governmental fiction is important and necessary. One again, the problem is not knowledge but emotion. A successful educational campaign MUST involve appeals to emotion. As mentioned above, the appeal to emotion is a basic necessity for effective propaganda.

Currently it appears that the only source of this type of education reside in alternative news sites both online and in print. Problems arise in that these very channels are filled with so many conflicting points of view, many definitely governmentally-driven, which acts as counter-counterpropaganda. The expertise of propagandists then may determine the direction in which opinion changes--or doesn't.

Financial

The Achilles heel of the elite, but strongly protected by law and force, is attack on the profitability of any business venture. What business ventures are most susceptible to such interference? These would be businesses like clothing manufactures, food producers, entertainment projects, sporting events (look for my upcoming essay on Colin Kaepernick), etc.

One can boycott some clothing providers--but not all.
One can boycott food producers or sellers--but not all
One can boycott an automobile dealer--but not all
One can boycott entertainment projects--possibly all
One can boycott sporting events--at least commercially organized team sports like baseball or soccer.

The problems are that there are too many targets to boycott and the need for an underlying theme to make the boycott effective. How to decide upon this is a considerable undertaking.

Summary

The citizens of the United States have become inured to the misery of the "other". No prominent drive has yet emerged to deal with this. The NEED for war is caused by an obligate parasite called the MIC. No effective countermeasures currently exist to kill the parasite, let alone tame it. Rational education will not accomplish what is needed, without strong emotional underpinning. Financial restrictions (possibly including a generalized tax strike) might work, providing a suitable target AND goal are pursued.

Revolutions are both bloody and unpredictable.