12 Comments
User's avatar
Elarion's avatar

Perhaps, the island from Lord of The Flies has now infected society.

I thought about it for a bit, and that was the only thing I could think of.

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

That’s a good analogy. I think it’s one of those topics that makes our mind look for things that can explain it. Really there aren’t any ‘good’ explanations…but we do our best…

Joshua Bell's avatar

Amen, Violet.

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

Thank you, Joshua.

Phyllis Robinson's avatar

It's truly terrible when this becomes part of a child's reality and they think killing another child is okay. truly frightening.

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

My heart broke this week, with this story, and the story about the little girl who died after other little girls beat her up - it’s horrifying! 😔

Lord Skei's avatar

This is so incredibly sad. Unfathomable. Pure evil.

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

I can’t help but wonder what environmental influences in these children’s lives could lead to the thinking that this is all right at any level.

Dennis Bodzash's avatar

In the USA, we've normalized violence to such an extent with our movies, TV, music, and especially video games that young people who cannot yet fully comprehend the consequences of their actions have become completely desensitized to it. Our mass media needs to clean up its act as it's now impossible for parents to control their kids' media usage like it was 25 years ago.

Is violence so common in other countries' media? If not, that's probably a major reason why other countries don't have this problem.

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

I honestly don’t know the answer to that - although I think far more movies get banned in other countries than here. I remember once seeing mentions about ‘Game of Thrones’ on a forum, and having parents say, “Oh, my kids love GoT!” and how old were their kids? 9 and 11 - yikes! I could not get through the first episode…

You know, Cannot Name It's avatar

There's something specifically important about naming the silence instead of rushing to explain the headline. "Sit in the silence that steals breath and language alike" — that's not avoidance, that's the beginning of actually reckoning with it.

Thank you for not reaching for easy framing.

— @lintara

Violet Encantada, PhD's avatar

Thank you for noticing! 🐿️🐝🦌