There is no mass killing without admiration for destructive power, and above all, one’s identification with destruction. This is the most obvious explanation, in my professional opinion, for the overwhelming proportion of mass killers being male, and moreover, heterosexual males. Male role models, nurtured from early years, unfortunately include men whose stature is entirely drawn from their destructive power. Female role models do not. Homosexual role models heavily weigh toward the creative. This does not mean that gays and lesbians are not capable of being homicidal; but destruction for destruction’s sake, as an ideal, has no place in gay culture.
Consider that the largest and most influential state in America elected as its chief executive, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He may have been the most brilliant man available, he may have had vision or even superior political potential, but he was recognized by voters for their having witnessed various incarnations of Arnold as a mass murderer. Clearly we have traveled far from manhood shaped by Benjamin Franklin, let alone Charles Lindbergh, Joe DiMaggio and Elvis. Is it any wonder that young males divert dollars and hours into violent gaming?
School absorbs the best waking hours of the developing mind from earliest skills to the end of adolescence, and beyond. Teachers, whatever the evolution of respect and authority in the classroom, still command the pulpit with which to guide the values of the maturing. Whatever the impact of genes and biology, whatever the influence of peers, teachers have the power to shape every person in their class. If we want to eliminate mass killing, we can no longer squander even an ounce of this potential. Some of their students may have benevolent, wise, and constructive parenting. Others, not so much. Some may come from intact homes with lots of love, and from neighborhoods of warm interdependence. Others may be abused by siblings, or bullied by neighbors, or preyed upon by hoodlums, or stumbling over drug addicts. But one’s classroom is what the teacher makes it. And for those who have risen above adversity, the influence of a teacher was often an integral component. In my professional opinion, teachers are also pivotal to the end of mass killing Here is what we need from you:
First, teachers must emphasize the ideal of creation, and seek to inspire creativity in children in whatever expression resonates with each young person. The child or young adult who recognizes the wonder of creating, who draws esteem from what he can create, how he can build more, or build better, is the adult who has neither the interest nor the appetite for destructiveness. These ideals are polar opposites – and the laboratory of the classroom, field trips, guest lecturers, books, show and tell, even the use of television can reinforce the capacity of a child to find his identity through what he loves to create.
We know who destroyed the Twin Towers. Millions of people are inspired by these devolved fools and seek to emulate them and the lie of their eternal reward, just as millions of Americans are revulsed by the loss of those we loved. But how many Americans know who built the Twin Towers, or even how they could have stood so tall in the first place? How many know the inspiration for the Freedom Tower that replaced them? How many Americans know who landscaped New York’s other major landmark, Central Park? It is not enough to be creative in the classroom, but to reinforce creation in all its forms as the penultimate and recognized pedestal of society. Artists, engineers, architects, songwriters, poets, cure-finders, the possibilities are endless for whom young people come to appreciate as heroes, and why they are heroes. The value of creativity should be a national imperative that is a natural extension of the American ideal. If you see this is very Ayn Rand, you are darn right.
At the same time, teachers must devalue destructiveness. Teaching moments abound; the site of arson’s ashes, where once stood the dreams and joys of others, is the consequence of fire’s intrigue. The places where books are burned and can never then be read; young people can relate to the stifling of imagination. A museum of a landmark gone teaches the value of something irreplaceable that was once cherished. For teenagers, a trip to a funeral of a child killed by violence to witness the absurdity of senseless destruction and what death means and those it hurts and how there are no do-overs. To those who cannot relate to permanence, indelible teaching vehicles that reinforce how destructiveness is not at all cool and why it is not at all cool are a responsibility that schools as a whole can easily embrace and must promote. Devalue destructiveness, mirror all of its forms for young people to reject, and bullying will take care of itself or encounter sufficient headwind among students before teachers ever need to get involved.
Second, those who care and build others must also be idealized as role models. Recall how the mass killer is self-absorbed in his own grievance, hermetically unempathic to the humanity of others. This is an endpoint reinforced by introversion. If reaching out to others, and restoring them when they are low is highlighted for school recognition and value, in the same manner as competitive athletics understandably are, students large and small, socially awkward and poor and otherwise unloved in their own minds can find value in the accessible imperative of giving and extending to others.
Those idealized as heroes are then peers or those in higher grades with whom they can more directly relate. When giving of themselves is equated with heroism, young people are incentivized to extend to others, diminish isolation, reach beyond nearsighted barriers like social unpopularity or unavoidable bullying. Most importantly, whether they are giving to the elderly, small children, the disabled, victims of hurricane damage, or refugees, young people are encountering people less fortunate than themselves – the antidote to entitled self-pity.
Third, schools and the examples they idealize must promote resilience. From academic comeback to recovery from illness to progress in extracurriculars, reinforcing the significance of resilience provides examples and role models to defy the void of hopelessness. It is hopelessness, along with paranoia, that is the most relevant symptom to the life choice of mass killing. Paranoia is not so easily penetrated. Hopelessness, however, is a quality we can all learn to self-manage. Schools as well as parents and families are best equipped to instill these capabilities.
Fourth, teachers and the schools in which they teach must engender students in attachments to institutions and their communities. Mass killing is the act of an alienated man. Alienated does not only mean alone; but it means unable to identify with the community he later destroys, and it means…unaffiliated…with any aspect of the school, community, or workplace. As we have discussed in earlier parts in this series, one must be sufficiently alienated from one’s surroundings in order to summon the contempt to summon the dehumanization to destroy. Institutions abound to enable affiliation – clubs, houses of worship, local sports teams, fellow collectors, and more.
Fifth, teachers can promote how young people express themselves. For those struggling through development, especially those encumbered with persecutory thinking that biologically steamrolls them, the capacity of expression is a lifeline to those to whom they can connect. When the resentful and isolated are further handicapped by poor expression, destructiveness is a non-verbal outlet. It should not be surprising to learn that so many mass killers are described as “quiet.”
Expression is a lifelong skill. Unless ravaged by mental illness that has markedly changed them, many mass killers never mastered interpersonal communication to begin with. Most schools appreciate communication skills as essential at the pre-school level. But the necessity to cultivate proper human expression never ends. Mass killing is inhuman expression. Teachers must develop the alternative capacity of expression before destructiveness becomes both identity and expression.
Next in Part 5: What Priests, Rabbis and Clerics Must Do to Eliminate Mass Killing
