Why We Can't Get No Satisfaction

by Steve Balaban

I like to rethink issues that are unwanted yet persist.  I believe that the best solutions come from looking newly at old problems that won’t go away. Most intractable issues remain stuck due to the notions of scarcity, no solutions and inevitability.

So think about this for a moment.  Imagine that at this very moment, there is an angry man, probably white….he could be younger or he could be older.  But almost certainly he is angry.  And he is almost surely white. (Shocker: spoiler alert-the most recent shooter was not white)

He owns guns. He spends time hiding out. His family, neighbors and friends would say he’s a nice guy. Quiet. Keeps to himself a lot.  He spends time online, in deep web chat rooms and on social media, sharing his anger and the only solution he can think of….murder fantasies…with his anonymous, like-minded virtual friends.  They tend to be racists, bigots, anti-Semites, “incels”…..basically people that “can’t get no…no no…no…they can’t get no…no…no…no…they can’t get no…SATISFACTION.  And there is someone they blame for this. 

Others may get sucked into watching their stock portfolio online, or shopping on Amazon or eBay, or watching porn.  Not him.  His  serotonin releases come from fantasizing about acting on his murderous impulses.  

He stews over how unfair it is that he can’t get laid, or how he was wronged by co-workers or how fun it would be to walk into a class of 6 year olds and blow them away.  He’s not happy that people who are different than he is exist.  Oh yeah. He’s gonna show them.  And just imagine what a hero he will be in the eyes of his fellow angry, white co-conspirators.

He may or may not be mentally ill.  He may or may not play violent video games. But for sure he is angry and probably white.

One only need turn on the TV.  Or wait a few days and then turn on the TV.  And you will witness the coverage of another in a seemingly endless string of mass shootings. 

Today, we didn’t need to wait. Today it is the murder of 12 innocent city works in Virginia Beach.(ok, this shooter happened to be black...exception to the rule?)  Yesterday it was a school or a movie theater, or a concert or a church or synagogue.

We, the people, ask why nothing is being done.  Those who run things, say we can’t violate our 2nd amendment rights.  An organization, the NRA, buys off politicians to silence them. The gun industry profits.

The left and the right are at a stalemate over doing anything about this problem.  All of the focus is on why or why we can’t have sensible gun laws.  After all, other countries have these laws and they don’t experience this problem the way that we in the United States do.

We regulate other things, such as driving a car or owning a boat and that seems to make us safer.  But nope, sensible gun laws would be a slippery slope right into an authoritarian government. I mean what would we do without this well-regulated militia? 

But let’s get back to our angry, friend who is, as we speak at his computer celebrating, yet another mass killing as he inches ever closer to the moment when it’s his time to shine….as he takes out as many innocent victims has he can before he ends his own life or is killed by the swat team.

So, let’s try to re-think this issue.  Let’s go back to square one and look at the problem with fresh eyes.  What can we do?

How can we intervene? How can we interrupt this deranged thought process? How can we disrupt this person’s impulses?  

This issue, this strain of like-minded people is a disease of society.  How do you cure a disease? You vaccinate, you inoculate, you operate, you treat it in the best way you can.  You look for biases and obstacles. You consider your own blind spots. You collaborate with others. 

It starts with acknowledging there is a problem, studying the problem and then being open minded to dealing with it as best you can.  You test possible solutions until you discover the treatment or treatments that are effective.  But we must start with acknowledging the problem and committing to the possibility of a solution. Something our leaders, with their own vested interest of political donations and getting reelected don’t seem to be able to do.

How can we interrupt the thinking and ultimate action of mostly angry white men? I think there may just be something to the idea of a vaccination.  Not as an injection of a serum into the bloodstream.  But rather as a way to fight fire with fire.  What is it that is at the source of this anger where their only solution is acting on a violent fantasy that destroys the lives of innocent victims?

I have no answers? Just questions that I think might lead us to answers.  I suspect there are a million and one possible solutions to the problem.  But we must first generate the will, both at a personal level and at the political level to discover solutions.

What say you?