The history of Ukraine’s abuse from Russia is a sad tale of starvation (Holodomor), banishment to the gulags and ethnic cleansing (1947). Newsletters are available from The Kyiv Independent and try to connect the present Putin-Ukraine war with regional history. This is an email publication that originates in Ukraine and is written by Ukrainians. They try to explain “WTF is wrong with Russia.”
One eastern European scholar, Timothy Snyder, has written extensively about Russia and its influence on Ukraine. The Bloodlands is especially enlightening. After much civil conflict with Ukrainians after the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin relented and allowed Ukrainians to have their “own” state with the proviso that the new Ukraine must be part of the newly forming Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR (or CCCP in Cyrillic alphabet).
Ukraine has a bad history with neighboring Russia dating back to near the beginning of the USSR. Putin’s goal is reclaiming the territory of the former USSR. including Ukraine, Because Ukraine has considerable productive farmland and minerals, and because it provides a land barrier to Moscow, Putin very much wants the land back.
Where are the Nazis that Putin claimed to be running Ukraine?
As of this date, Oct. 21, 2025, the Putin-Ukraine war is no longer dominated by Putin’s army on the Ukrainian battlefield. While Ukraine continues to gather sympathies from NATO countries and elsewhere, Putin has turned Russia into an international red-headed stepchild. Sanctioned into bankruptcy and pounded by the Ukrainian military, Putin continues to put on a brave face to the Russian people. The hybrid warfare conducted by Russia continues and is especially problematic for NATO states, USA included.
Even though Putin has won presidential elections in the past, the transfer of power remains very murky to those outside the Kremlin walls. Yes, a new Russian president could conceivably win an election but detaching Putin and the layers upon layers of nervous sycophants as well as his dark income streams will be a problem. It is a stretch to believe that Putin will leave office alive. Maybe they’ll find an apartment for him in Pyong Yang, North Korea?
Adding to the political complexity, there is considerable distrust between the Russian military and the security services, two of which in particular are the FSB and GRU. Some have claimed that the FSB would not allow a military coup owing to past animosity and distrust. Putin’s authoritarian state, while extensive, still is subject to the frigid winds of economics.
Videos posted featuring a larger-than-life President Trump. A video was posted on Truth Social and appears to be straight out of 8th grade. Screen grabs are shown below.
King Donald flying a jet ready to defecate on his opposition.
Shit Bombs away!
This is straight out of National Lampoon. Way to show ’em GOP. Slam dunk those libs.
Is it even necessary to comment? I’m posting this primarily so my small international audience can see the adolescent work of MAGA. I doubt this was posted by the White House, though I’m sure it drew laughter there. To paraphrase someone at the McCarthy hearings, have you no decency sir? Trump loves stochastic troublemakers- when random followers do something political of their own accord.
For international readers, liberal and centrist US citizens are reeling from a rogue wave of an all-Republican power structure in Washington DC and in many ‘red’ state governments too numerous to list here, Plus a radical conservative majority in the supreme court and in congress who are implementing a strategy conceived of by a far right think tank called The Heritage Foundation. They released Project 2025.
Americans are trapped between elections with the majority Republican Party running things. Only the Republican Party doesn’t exist anymore. They have transmogrified into a movement for illiberal democracy. They are convinced that American democracy is a failure and are moving to install a government that is structured in favor of conservatives.
There is also a theocratic element built into the MAGA strategy. Conservative evangelical Christians are pushing to put supernatural forces into US government.
I can’t get over the feeling that the present revolution underway in the US is a libertarian maneuver aimed at privatizing everything in the US and putting into position a MAGA government workforce owing fealty to the MAGA President. MAGA libertarians (?) are convinced that every service provided by the government is a lost profit opportunity for some capitalist. This reminds me of John Birch Society ideas.
Democrats are engaging in politics, but the MAGAs are not. Theirs is a preplanned armored attack on liberal democracy and they don’t care who knows. This has been brewing since the Reagan years and has now been activated in a safe 2-year slot with a Republican super majority. Trump unified the people now described as “MAGA”. He promised to go after people targeted as responsible for “waste, fraud and abuse” of federal government services and money.
Democrats need to fight dirty for survival like the MAGA movement has, but I don’t think the Dems will. The MAGA movement was built on and is sustained by anger. Dems are playing by the norms of politics and are not resorting to the whole grab bag of dirty tricks the other side enjoys. That is my take on the matter.
We had the opportunity to visit the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, VLA, near Magdalena, NM, last week. They hosted an open house for visitors on the 11th of October, 2025. After we visited the two famous big holes in Arizona, Barringer Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon, we turned east to the VLA. Recently we toured the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawai’i and saw the optical observatories and NRAO radio astronomy dishes up there.
One of 26 radio telescope in operation dishes at VLA. Photo by Arnold Ziffel
Each dish has 8 antenna receiving elements clustered around the center of the dish, each detecting a different frequency. The continuous receiving range is 1 – 50 GHz. The dish antennas have 4 receiving configurations that they cycle through approximately every 16 months. Looking the secondary reflecting element of the dish in the upper left of the image, you’ll notice that there is a curved reflector. This reflector has a rounded surface that is designed to rotate, steering the focal point to the desired detector.
Looking at dishes in the distance from under another dish. Note the concrete pylons upon which the telescope rests. Photo by Race Bannon.
The rails on which the dishes move are of a “high speed rail” quality. The machine that moves the dishes is shown below. We were told by our astronomer tour guide that it takes 2 weeks to re-adjust the entire array of dishes. The “crawler” carrying a dish moves at 2 miles per hour.
The “Crawler” that carries the dishes into position. Photo by Quentin Quest.
Below is a shot of the proposed next generation of radio telescopes.
In the center of the photo is a prototype radio telescope successor to the dish design of the VLA. Photo by some jabbering old guy.
NRAO has an image gallery at this link. The Astronomer’s link at the VLA website has a wealth of information available. A link to the next generation VLA is found here.
Well, it seems that the Trump administration landed some kind of deal with Netanyahu and Hamas. Kudos to Trump. It took the intervention of a bigger a$$hole than the a$$hole Netanyahu to move the dial. In an opinion article by Shira Efron of the Rand Corporation in her opinion piece in the New York Times lays out some high-level thinking on the deal. (A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 13, 2025, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Trump’s Peace Plan Dismantled Netanyahu’s Vision for Gaza).
From a Rand Corporation newsletter: “In Foreign Affairs, Efron says that the “tactical brilliance” of the U.S. plan is that its ambiguity affords each side a narrative of triumph. However, that deliberate vagueness cuts both ways. Sustained pressure on all parties will be required moving forward, she writes: “The most demanding work begins now.”
In the NYT piece, Efron concludes: “… that Israel’s longest major war in history, hostages held captive for over two years in unbearable conditions and many dying in captivity, some 2,000 Israeli casualties, more than 67,000 Palestinian deaths according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, Gaza reduced to rubble, Israel’s international isolation — all of it led not to the promised vision but to a negotiated settlement resurrecting the very ideas Mr. Netanyahu spent his career opposing. Their defeat is a victory for Israelis, Palestinians and others in the region who seek an alternative to prolonged bloodshed.” Shira Efron, New York Times, 10/13/25.
Shira Efron is the distinguished Israel policy chair and a senior fellow at RAND.
Note: This is a repeat of a post I uploaded in 2017. I thought it was worth posting again for the new folks.
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The weighty voices of the GOP evangelical propaganda wing have activated following the awful soaking that Houston received. The wagging fingers of TV evangelists were not far behind to remind us of the looming existential threat.
We’ve witnessed a burlesque of righteous-sounding preachers leaning in from the video pulpit and warning, solemnly and in no uncertain terms, that hurricane Harvey is only the latest in a series of calamities to befall our nation. Our corrupt society is wallowing in a fetid pit of sin and depravity. The storms were heaven sent they intone, to show Who is actually in charge.
It’s all so very clear to these folks. According to many evangelicals the root cause of the mass murder at Sandy Hook and hurricanes Katrina, and now Harvey is the grievous sin of omission. But of what? For failing to put an end to abortion and gay marriage. They’ve been connecting the dots and these dots lead to perdition. An existential threat is on the move. It’s Old Nick up to no good.
The conservative fear machine has kicked into full ruckus configuration. They deploy their weapons of incitement via their heavy presence on AM radio and cable TV. For elections and in the face of national debate, these evangelical conservatives know that they can dependably frighten just enough people to swerve the Republican hive mind. Who are these pliable voters? I think more than a few of them are people who for one reason or another did not take advantage of the education opportunities decades ago and now find themselves near the terminus of a life of toil.
Conveniently for those left of center, the Democratic Party is comatose and strapped into an iron lung, wheezing away the years in an undisclosed location.
9/10/17, Addendum. In case I was not clear, it’s my observation that conservative protestant evangelical organizations have become a menace to American civilization. It seems to me that the election of Trump and the support bestowed upon him by conservative Christian groups, many of whom can be found out in the open on his evangelical board, has opened the door to opaque theocratic influence on the large scale conduct of American government.
It’s axiomatic that people have an inherent right to worship as they please. So imagine the nightmare of trying to control what people believe when religion is folded into the curriculum of the public schools. What a tragic misunderstanding of human nature it would be to attempt to impose religious doctrine upon students. Public school parents would have none of it. But, a private school may have much more flexibility to teach a particular sect of religious belief. Is it a coincidence that privatizing schools is favored by many religious organizations?
Finally, there is the matter of magisteria. Steven J. Gould wrote about religion and science as being non-overlapping magisteria. A magisterium is defined as a “a domain where one form of teaching holds the appropriate tools for meaningful discourse and resolution”. A magisterium may or may not recognize an external system of laws, facts, or values. Gould maintained that science and religion were non-overlapping magisteria in the sense that the tools of science were of no use in solving religious questions.
The secular world can be thought of that which describes what is human made and of human concern. It can also be thought of as that which is independent of religion. It is not atheistic or better or worse in any way. In chemistry we might say that the secular is orthogonal or perpendicular the religious. A bolt, an integrated circuit, or a tractor would be in the domain of the secular. So would the National Electrical Code, city ordinances, and state and federal law. All of these items are contrivances made by people for purposes living a better and safer life. Added to these items would be mathematics, the sciences and engineering. That which is measurable like the volt or the kilogram have no defining attribute which traces back to religious definition.
It has been said that the purpose of government is to protect ourselves from each other. I would extend that to include the general domain of the secular. Having secular government means that subjective interpretations of religious matters must be secondary. This is owing to the reality that there are many religious beliefs in the world and the question of whose religion will prevail in an action involving the public will rapidly become intractable due to disparate beliefs. The secular world has elements of logic, measurement and guidelines for evidence or objective observation. All of these examples could be contained within a secular magisterium.
Public schools have long been the institutions where secular matters were introduced and learned. Government at all levels has been steadfastly kept within the secular domain. There was and remains to be a need for government to manage the secular details of a thriving civilization. The religious magisterium has a heavy reliance on beliefs which is a subjective matter subject to interpretation. A democracy requires a goodly amount of objectivity and evidence.
The notion of non-overlapping magisteria raises an interesting question. What if elements in one magisterium want control of elements in another magisterium? To have elements of a subjective domain in control of elements in the objective domain is to introduce chaos in both. Since neither side has the toolkit to operate in the other, we have to conclude that this circumstance makes no sense for either domain.
The awful shooting in Michigan recently as well as other shootings in the last several days are a reminder- as if we need it- that this mass shooting business is not a bug but rather a feature of current American culture. It is yet more male violence. So far, Americans have failed to acknowledge that males as a group have a problem. The way we raise boys in general needs to be rejiggered to produce better citizens overall. Obviously, there are a great many good and decent fellas in the US- maybe most- but a minority are quite problematic.
Surely there must be a way to address this matter without heavy handed interference in people’s lives. This is in large part a civics problem. The question is this: How can we guide everyone to be better citizens, maybe males especially?
I am convinced that the current political conundrum in the USA is in large part due to poor education. The primary responsibility for a child’s education is borne by the parents. However, all too often the schools are held responsible for this. Yes, the expectation is for K-12 schools to properly educate students and prepare them to get along and prosper after graduation. Plainly this model is failing many students.
Presently, many parents seem to want to put the entire responsibility on the school system. Yes, the schools have much responsibility, but in the end the parents must be held accountable for their child’s education. Sitting passively and watching your child fail in school while complaining about it is as far as many can go. If your child is unable to add, subtract, multiply and divide by graduation, you have let your child down.
Having gotten a child through K-12 and college, I realize that remedial home schooling is tricky. In our case, the curriculum for math was alien to me (a PhD in Chemistry) and my teacher spouse (MA in Special Ed). Our kid was required to learn many different techniques for basic calculation and problem solving. Because using methods I learned was not in the curriculum, to instruct using methods I learned would contradict the teacher and the worksheets from the curriculum. To avoid this, I refrained from teaching my methods and tried to absorb the curriculum, which I failed.
A great many US citizens are forced to endure gun violence because any argument that might impede any aspect of anyone’s ability to own a gun is met with howls of indignation and angry hand waving arguments based on the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. Okay, fine. Conservative politicians are loathe to touch this electrified 3rd rail of politics. Candidates for the US Congress will sometimes post pictures of themselves in ads holding a firearm with a flag somewhere in the picture. This is meant to assure conservative voters that they as patriots will uphold the 2nd Amendment to the US constitution. I understand this and I cannot believe that any liberal politician could ever separate gun owners from their guns. There would be shooting and violence. The government confiscating American citizen’s guns is in no way politically feasible.
Source: K-12 Shooting Database. The Mormon church shooting or other shootings in public places aren’t part of this data set.
For the most part, school killings were unusual prior to the Columbine shootings in 1999. What has changed? One notable change relates to the emergence of smart phones and the internet. According to Wikipedia-
Above is a graphic from the K-12 Shooting Database. In the USA K-12 refers to the 13 years of basic education all children receive in public and private schools.
If you wade into the language, you’ll find that the definition of ‘mass shooting’ might vary a bit. Sometimes the definition refers to 3 or more deaths, but for the most part there is no agreed upon definition.
As a kid I recall exploring with a .22 caliber rifle out in the grassy river bottom. Maybe it’s just me, but I was always itching for an excuse to fire the gun at something like a badger or a fish. Never shot a badger or a fish, thankfully. I’m only saying that possessing a gun and ammo gave me a sense of power and authority. My imagination tells me that there are others.
These shootings are the status quo and usually fail to generate more than a day or two of concern but ring hollow. Except for Charlie Kirk. Thoughts and prayers are offered by many, but to no useful end. Flowers and stuffed animals are left at the crime scene, but most people return to their streaming episodes of TV with gunplay being central to the show.
Americans have a fascination with murder as a plot device for their entertainment. Or is it that the writers and producers in showbiz have a fascination with murder? Better yet, is it that murder as a plot point is easier to mold into a drama? The chore of producing one new and original script per week must be exhausting. Hollywood feigns some concern over the violence but continues to bang out more grotesque violence in their creations.
The prevalence of violent video games exposes young men, women and kids to wanton destruction of human beings. Some deny that these games promote violence, but the enthusiastic death-dealing and mayhem produced by the players is telling. People are immensely entertained by it. I’ve seen where the military even encourages its active-duty soldiers to play games with violent gunplay. That is the job of soldiers. Causing casualties is what they train to do because it is necessary. I get it.
Military training of combat soldiers focuses on efficient destruction, killing and survival. Could there be any room for civics exposure sometime in the soldier’s hitch? Would it be so bad if converting 1 or 2 hours of heavy physical training per week into learning about how to conduct themselves in the culture they are actually preparing to defend? Obviously, continuous training builds muscle memory and reflexes for maximum readiness, however it seems likely that trainees get into diminishing returns eventually.
We want citizen soldiers to exit the military and become productive members of society. But if they enter the military absent the basics of how a liberal democracy operates, how does nothing but weapons training and military tactics prepare them to re-enter civilian life? As a nation we exploit their best years of youthful energy and enthusiasm like other nations do, but afterwards we bump them out without practical job skills.
If the above definition is “woke” then I’m certainly woke.
A good question is, why were these large-scale killings scarce before 1990? For the school shootings, the hockey stick curve above shows that from about 2010, the incident count exploded to 2018 where it leveled off briefly but rapidly took off again.
Before 1990 there was an internet in its infancy, but no smart phones. Unless you had access to a computer, electronic entertainment and news reached a very few people. Unlike today, people were isolated from events and politics. There were only the 3 major networks plus PBS, newspapers and magazines. All suffered from time delays owing to content production chores. The standards and practices required discipline and ‘proper’ content absent speculation and hype. There were the tabloids like the National Enquirer that indulged in gossip, but their credibility low, at least among educated people.
Today, with the 24 hr news cycle, content is broadcast immediately and most of the entire population are free to take half-baked news items and wind themselves into a tizzy.
Finally, I must say that I’m pessimistic about controlling gun violence in the US. Unless a large fraction of the population adopts something similar to how Japan schools their children, Kids will continue to process the contradiction of problem solving with guns and whatever peaceful examples they see around them.
The stars lined up just right to attend an open house at the Very Large Array (VLA) near Magdalena, New Mexico, on October 11, 2025. But first, a diversion to Arizona from Albuquerque, NM. Our first stop was the Barringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, AZ. This gaping hole in the ground is maybe the best example of an impact crater anywhere. If you happen to be driving along on Interstate 40 in Arizona, is it worth the 5 1/2 mile diversion and the admission price? I’d say yes, but is it worth visiting after a long drive from Chicago for a single destination? I don’t know. Your call.
Out of order sign at the Meteor Crater. Photo by Arnold Ziffel.
At first glance the sign seems to say that the Meteor Crater is out of order.
Without a wide angle lense this is the widest shot we could get from the walkway. Photo by Arnold Ziffel.
Too small to see clearly are the remains of mining operations at the center of the crater. Mining engineer Daniel M. Barringer dug a 200 ft deep mineshaft looking for remains of the meteor believing that it should be rich in iron. Not much was found. The boiler and steam powered winch remain in place, rusting away. Barringer received a land patent for 640 acres centered on the crater. The crater remains in private hands to this day.
Gaping Hole #2.
Gaping hole #2 would be the Grand Canyon. it was my first visit. We enjoyed a helicopter tour over this famous canyon. We rode in an Airbus H130 and were treated to a smooth ride. The pilot played the song Danger Zone from the movie Top Gun as we lifted off. It was a little corny, but who cares. Helicopter rides are always spendy, but often worth it as this one was.
Is there anything new for me to say about the Grand Canyon? Ah, nope.
After the fog lifted out of the canyon, this appeared. Photo by Arnold Ziffel.
The stratigraphy of the canyon is fascinating. The Grand Canyon has been eroded out of the Colorado Plateau by the Colorado River over geological time. As the plateau lifted upwards, the river cut downwards. The many buttes and ridges in the canyon remain to show the fickle nature of erosion. Meteoric water and gravity cut through the canyon walls from the rim all the way down to the present course of the river- a mile deep in some places. The basement rock of granite is even exposed in some locations. It is striking how the many layers of sedimentary rock have stacked from such great depths. Deep geological time is impossible to comprehend. Each layer was put in place in a way that driven by the climate and location of surface of the earth at a particular time. Many variations of sandstone, limestone and dolomite are found resulting from the unique sedimentation processes of the time.
The major media outlets and the myriad sources online seem to be failing to ask certain key questions and avoiding important topics all together. For example-
Who and where are these “radical leftist terrorists” the White House keeps mentioning?
Where are the communists, socialists and Marxists Trump keeps referring to?
Where is even the slightest bit of evidence for “war torn Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, New York City?
Why, oh why is Stephen Miller in the our White House? Journalists, if this guy does not ring alarm bells for you, we need better journalists!
Is Trump really the author of his policies? Or does he just endorse the ideas of others?
Such questions should be asked loudly and repeatedly, just like the right-wing media does. The Fourth Estate is today a miserable failure.
Corporate media are primarily responsible to their stockholders like all corporations are. The vindictiveness of the Trump administration worries corporate executives and I understand that. But to have a broadcasting apparatus and not use it to closely cover the obvious lies of the Trump administration is to stand by the roadside and watch the American civilization collapse.
This morning two quanta of good news squeaked out of the ether. First, it came out in the news that French military forces boarded and temporarily took control of the oil tanker Boracay off the French Atlantic coast city of Saint-Nazaire. The ship, also called Pushpa and sailing under the flag of the west African country of Benin, was intercepted September 28 and boarded by French military. The ship had days earlier left the oil terminal at the port of Primorsk on the Gulf of Finland near Saint Petersburg, Russia, allegedly headed for Port of Vadinar, India. This Vadinar facility is on the upper west coast of India and is the location of an oil refinery partially owned by Rosneft, a Russian oil company. As of the time of this writing the ship is near Gibraltar enroute to the Suez Canal at 11 knots. The severing of sea floor communications cables in the Baltic has been attributed to Russia-connected ships dragging their anchors and pulling the cables to the point of breakage. Apparently, the ship was observed departing from the Port of Primorsk.
The boarding of Boracay was good news because the ship is alleged to be part of the Russian ghost fleet quietly transporting crude oil contrary to international sanctions. French president Macron announced the ‘revelation’ that Boracay was part of Russia’s hybrid war against NATO, Europe and the USA. This follows the September 28 drone incursion of Copenhagen, Denmark recently. It is believed that a ghost ship launched the drones.
The ghost fleet oil tankers are typically quite old and not well maintained. The ships of Russia’s ghost fleet also tend not to be insured and therefore not allowed to enter many ports or canals. These ships are known to change their names and national flags to confuse observers. Because the Straits of Denmark are relatively shallow, oil supertankers are not allowed passage, so Russia’s fleet of oil tankers from Primorsk are of smaller size.
The other quantum of good news is that the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) decided to uphold the lower court’s decision and declined to hear the appeal of Ghislaine Maxwell’s challenge to her criminal conviction for recruiting and grooming teenage girls for sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein. Just when a person loses their faith in SCOTUS, they manage to make a sound decision. Hurray for SCOTUS on this one decision. Well done boys and girls of the court! I imagine a wave of well-deserved schadenfreude is sweeping parts of the country about now.
Note: This essay is written mostly for a foreign audience whose members may lack a more nuanced view of America if only by virtue of distance or language.
The awful shooting in Michigan recently as well as other shootings in the last several days are a reminder- as if we need it- that this mass shooting business is not a bug but rather a feature of current American culture. It is yet more male violence. So far, Americans have failed to hold males culpable for this trend. The way we raise men in general needs to be rejiggered to produce better citizens overall. Make no mistake, there are a great many good and decent fellas in the US- maybe most of us- but a minority are quite problematic.
Surely there must be a way to address this matter without government interference. This is in large part a civics problem. The question is this: How can we make everyone better citizens, men especially?
A great many US citizens are forced to endure gun violence because any argument that might impede any aspect of anyone’s ability to own a gun is met with howls of indignation and angry hand waving arguments based on the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. Okay, fine. Conservative politicians are loathe to touch this electrified 3rd rail of politics. Candidates for the US House of Representatives will sometime post pictures of themselves in ads holding a firearm with a flag somewhere in the picture. This is meant to assure conservative voters that they as patriots will uphold the 2nd Amendment to the US constitution. I understand this and I cannot believe that any liberal politician could successfully part gun owners with their guns. There would be shooting. The government confiscating American guns is in no way politically feasible.
I also support anyone’s right to stand in a pool of gasoline and play with matches, barring any violation of local ordinances of course.
For the most part, school killings were unusual prior to the Columbine shootings in 1999. What has changed? One notable change relates to the emergence of smart phones and the internet. According to Wikipedia-
Below is a graphic from the K-12 Shooting Database. Of course, in the USA K-12 refers to the 13 years of basic education all children receive in public and private schools.
Source: K-12 Shooting Database. The Mormon church shooting or other recent shootings in public places aren’t part of this data set.
If you wade into the data, you’ll find that the definition of ‘mass shooting’ might vary a bit. Sometimes the definition refers to 3 or more deaths, but for the most part there is no agreed upon definition.
As a kid I recall exploring with a .22 caliber rifle out in a grassy river bottom. Maybe it is just me, but I was always itching for an excuse to fire the gun at something, maybe even a badger or a fish. I never shot a badger or a fish, thankfully. I’m only saying that possessing a gun and ammo can gave me a sense of power and authority. My imagination tells me that there are others.
These mass shootings are the status quo and usually fail to generate more than a day or two of concern for most Americans. Except for Charlie Kirk. Thoughts and prayers are offered by many, but to no useful end so far. Flowers and stuffed animals are left at the crime scene, but most people return to their streaming episodes of TV with gunplay being central to the show.
Americans have a fascination with murder as a plot line for their entertainment. Hollywood feigns some concern over the violence but continues to bang out more grotesque violence in their creations. As much as actors would like to think, the artistic qualities of film are no more than secondary. A movie project is much like a speculative construction project- plans are made, money is secured, contractors are hired and the building project is begun. The whole thing is based on a fair probability that eventual sale of the building will sell at a healthy profit. It is a wager made by people who believe that they understand the market in the near future.
Investors in a movie or TV series also bet on a spec project where their money is gathered on the guess that the production will be a hit and rake in profits. Whereas a building project depends on scarcity in the real estate market and vanity to some extent, a movie project is all about vanity. Investors believe that they alone can select a project likely to be profitable. Directors and writers believe that their work product will put butts in seats or eyeballs on the TV screens. In film, the artistic elements are complex and expensive. However, the artistic sensibilities of audiences are fickle at best.
All of this leads to a critical point. Spec buildings and movies both rely on the notion that if you build it, customers will come. Buildings can be designed and located in appealing ways to attract buyers. Movies can be produced with stars, popular directors, and the myriad specialists who put a successful film together. So, why would investors back a movie project that lacks large scale appeal to audiences? If gunplay or other violence puts butts in seats, investors may require it before committing funds. Writers, producers and directors understand this and may only go forward with a movie project having a minimum of violent action sequences, car chases and a bit of nudity to dial in some edginess. Very often, though, star power leads the charge to success. Stars are likely to favor certain types of movie projects with ‘action’, where action includes scenes with combat, one-on-one fighting and gunplay which add to ticket sales. Think Tom Cruise, Keano Reeves and many others
Having been in the theater exhibition business, I can verify that people will line up in droves to see a new Tom Cruise or 007 movie. The appeal of shoot- ‘em-up action movies is undeniable and bankable. So, the question is-
Why fund a movie that is less than best effort, where ‘best effort’ means attractive elements known to draw crowds? Why leave out scenes of gun violence when the public expects it?
Our citizens are programmed early on to tolerate or enjoy gun violence. Guns are used to solve conflict. Violence in entertainment is something that we have normalized by sheer repetition leading to satisfying conclusions.
The prevalence of violent video games exposes young men and kids to killing. Some deny that these games promote violence, but the enthusiastic death dealing and mayhem produced by the players is telling. People are immensely entertained by it. I’ve seen where the military even encourages its active-duty soldiers to play games with violent gunplay. That is the job of soldiers. Causing casualties is what they train to do because it is necessary. I get it.
Why were these large-scale killings scarce before 1990? For the school shootings, the hockey stick curve above shows that from about 2010, the incident count exploded until 2018 where it leveled off briefly but rapidly took off again. Has entertainment conditioned us to tolerate or even enjoy gun violence? The actual fallout from untimely death is brutal for family and friends.
Before 1990 there was an internet in its infancy, but no smart phones. Unless you had access to a computer, electronic entertainment and news had limited reach. Unlike today, a great many people were isolated from events and politics. There were only the 3 major networks plus PBS, newspapers and magazines. All suffered from time delays owing to content production complexity. The standards and practices required discipline and ‘proper’ content absent speculation and hype. There were the tabloids like the National Enquirer that indulged in gossip, but their credibility low, at least among educated people.
Today with the 24-hr. news cycle, content is broadcast immediately and most of the entire population are free to take half-baked, poorly content edited news items and crank themselves into a tizzy. Unlike the past, today producers of news content rely on ‘clicks’, ‘likes’, or other indicators of viewing to base their advertising invoices on.
Scrolling through content online is driven by our curiosity and FOMO- Fear Of Missing Out. I can personally add that it is certainly say this is true for myself. While I do enjoy ‘action‘ movies, I must occasionally remind myself that the violence on fellow humans is only a plot element. But like Jane Goodall observed in ape and chimp behaviors, our human primate behavior includes sometimes extreme violence. It’s built in and for many it lurks just below the surface, waiting to spring out.
Much of what we learn is based on observation of other people. Are we saying that civilized social norms can screen out or ignore violence in entertainment? For most mature people, the aversion to violence is strong and a 2-hour movie will not change that. But for some, the application of violence may get considerable thought. The realization that a violent act may be called for. Socially or mentally fragile people may see the application of gunplay as a plausible solution to their problem. To become a social issue, only a very few violence prone individuals are needed.
Gun violence is our own fault as Americans and will only be solved by a concerted effort in America to see violence as an undesirable aberration. We cannot expect a change of heart in the entertainment business. As long as there is profit in violence, they will continue to produce it.
Lamentations on Chemistry 