HUFFINGTON POST – I’m not saying that putting a bullseye
on Arizona Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional race – as
Sarah Palin did – was an explicit or intentional invitation to violence.
Nor am I saying that the “Get on Target for Victory”
events held by the guy Giffords beat – “Help remove Gabrielle Giffords
from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly” – was the
reason her assassin went after her. This tragedy is still unfolding,
and the questions of motive and incitement will be argued about for a
long time to come.
But I am saying that the “lock and load”/”take up your arms” rhetoric of American politics isn’t just an overheated metaphor. For years, the language of sports has dominated political journalism, and discourse about hardball and the horserace and the rest of the macho athletic lexicon has been a factor in the trivialization of our public sphere. This has helped dumb down democracy, making a serious national discussion about anything important too wonky for words.
The “second amendment solution,” though, does something worse than make politics a branch of entertainment. It makes it a blood sport. I know politics ain’t beanbag. But words have consequences, rhetoric shapes reality, and much as we like to believe that we are creatures of reason, there is something about our species’ limbic system and lizard brainstems that makes us susceptible to irrational fantasies.
If you’re worried that violent video games may make kids prone to bad behavior; if you think that mysogenic and homophobic rap lyrics are dangerous to society; if you believe that a nipple in a Superbowl halftime show is a threat to our moral fabric – then surely you should also fear that the way public and media figures have framed political participation as a shooting gallery imagery is just as potentially lethal.
Article by Marty Kaplan, Director of the Norman Lear Center and Professor at the USC Annenberg School
© 2011 Huffington Post
NASA friend and pianryg for Representative Giffords’ complete recovery.I know that Security issues are out of your focus, but perhaps pass this on to the right ones:Please get some action on improved security at such functions. Even the simple DMV test would have revealed that the perpetrator had a record and he would not have been permitted near the display and Rep.Giffords and the others.This is unspeakably sad. America’s Students have so much power and youth to give impetus to things that work.Won’t you?My Dad’s Hands made the gold foil on the LLM and I paint the stars when I can, and try to be at least aware and active of today’s sci-tech options.Like Occupant safety and escape pods for planes and tall buildings. My Dad and aero-tech buds had it all sketched and good to go 50 years ago, but easy tech was not there to do it up. So at Nineleven, there was all that death another one that did not have to happen, but we missed the mandate.But what about now? thanks for this forumelle fagan