Insanity

  .Our Insanity 

 It's not surprising that there are mass shootings in our country. It's not surprising that a negative identity neurotic ,military armed teen murdered unarmed individuals in a residential setting. It's also not surprising that there’s an increase of bias, hostility and hate in our country. Might this be a clue? This brief essay addresses a few significant causes for the continuation of our insanity.

The baby's main issues of insecurity, helplessness and dependency begin early, accompanied by seeking survival. Survival depends on acquiring proper and necessary amounts of satisfaction and security. It doesn't take long before  a  rivalry develops for meeting one’s satisfaction and security.  It's important to be first, favored ,pampered, loved and liked by one's parents. Initially there is rivalry and competition for satisfaction and security for favoritism parents. Then, a competition and rivalry becomes apparent between siblings called a sibling rivalry.One example arises with the arrival of a newborn. The child is expected to  be joyous.happy ,thrilled and say ” I'm so happy” “ I love the new baby.”  The child doesn't dare admit “great, now I have competition, that infant gets all the attention, praise, love, affection-I hate him.  Get rid of him.”  If the child told the truth about his feelings for this new arrival, that would be met with a negative reaction and rejection. If sensitive to rejection, that would be catastrophic. Actual feelings of anxiety, resentment and hostility don't dare get expressed but instead are hidden from the parent and  psychically repressed . Of course there are other examples when frustration occurs impairing satisfaction and security. In those anxious experiences, the feelings of resentment and  hostility are also hidden from others but internally repressed from consciousness.  As a result, in childhood, children frequently  experience anxiety, repression, resentment and hostility that occurs because of rivalry and other people encounters. With repression, it's like there's a festering reservoir of enriched uranium-235  of semantic memory traces that with low frustration tolerance can be violently erupted without any apparent external cause or by some minor infraction . The tendencies for a verbal and/or physical volcanic explosion erupts as if it comes out of the blue. As the child progresses mentally and physically, eruptions become more frequent, severe and damaging. However, with repression,the danger exists that a child can ,on the surface, seem to others to be generally quiet, reserved and well mannered as both  self and others  are fooled.

Rivalry, competitiveness and conflict continues during the school years as well, interfering with acquiring satisfaction and safety.  If one can be the teacher's pet, that can be super; if one gets to be picked by the teacher more than anyone else, that can be super; if one gets to be picked first by classmates, that can be super.  In school, teachers grade and evaluate students.  They have favorites and rank students accordingly.  Are there competitions and rivalries in elementary school, you bet?  Who's the best reader; who's the best speller; who's best at math; and, importantly, who's the prettiest and whose best at sports?  Peers are aware of rankings as well as the teachers.  There are those that are popular and are those that are not.  Moreover, with rivalry we have success and we also have failure and fear of failure.  Not everyone can be first.  In fact,one acquaintance told me coming in second was the first loser. Rivalry, success, failure affects the development of self-esteem.  With more satisfaction and security results in higher self-esteem and greater expectations.  With too much failure, we have anxiety, repression, resentment, hostility, hatred and low self esteem.  Often these emotions become repressed.  However, we've all seen bullying in elementary school.

 On the other hand, interactions can become associated with anxiety which sends the individual into isolation, loneliness with fears of rejection. Further, it should be noted that hostile impulses are a main psychological factor in promoting anxiety. Repressing a hostility means pretending that everything is alright and a refrain from assertiveness and making oneself heard.  This repression generates a feeling of defensiveness and reinforces previously feelings of defensiveness.  In essence, this allows others to take advantage of the child or teen.

Rivalry, competition and friction expresses themselves in high school as well. Once again, being liked by the teachers and especially by the peer group becomes important. During my high school years, there was rivalry between being popular; the "hoods" and the “socialites;"  becoming class president; making the team; becoming first string; and the dreaded and fierce rivalry with Pershing High School.  In fact, there used to be Friday night football games.  But due to a knife fight between Denby and Pershing patriots, Friday night games became Friday afternoon games.  Once again, rivalry competition comes with hostility and hate.

Our Republic, and the capitalistic economic model, thrives on competition and rivalry.  If one is to make a profit, one has to be better than his rival.  One can only make a profit by being better than the rivals.  Large companies take over small companies.  Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook , etc. slam the competition.  Being number one is so important.  Also, take the competition among universities, as they are ranked on so many dimensions- majors, degrees etc; - the football rivalries as well.  In fact, college football teams are ranked months before the season begins.  Further, there are rankings of the wealthiest in our country; the rankings of CEO salaries; the rankings of best places to live, start a business, etc. We even have competitions for Grammy awards, Tony awards, Academy Awards, etc.In fact there is competition for one's voice as in The Voice and American Idol.  Currently, the NBA has its playoffs for a world championship.  As of today, there are only four teams fighting for that top spot, the top ranking or the very best.

Politically, we have elections, rivalry between the Democratic Party and the Totalitarian party.  We have polls. Our government is set up for winners and losers for the wielding of power.  There certainly is competition , opposition conflict and antagonism between the  have and have not  groups. Make a long story short, rivalry,  competition,winning and losing with envy, jealousy and” I’m entitled” which is a victim stance plays a significant role in our culture.

Back in the 1950s, there was rivalry and competition among the white folks.  The high school educated white could and did enter the middle class with a home in the suburbs, TV, two cars and send his kids to college.  At the college level, there was a token black athlete and a small number of Blacks attending the University.  The football team was white; the student population was white; and the local, state and federal government was predominantly white.  The music world was predominantly white; the movie industry predominantly white; the Ed Sullivan show, Dinah Shore, Milton Berle, etc. were white.  With segregation and discrimination, there was an absence of competition or rivalry between white skinned and darker skinned individuals.  Competitive slogans galore- dream house, most toys wins, keeping up with the Jones, state of the art etc. were capitalistic propaganda for white’s only..

Today, we view our country through a different lens.  Dark skinned individuals, once perceived as being inferior intellectually, are seen on TV.  They are articulate, well groomed, good-looking, and very popular.  The sports world, currently the NBA has four teams competing for the championship.  Three of these teams have coaches of color.  We have a black VP from California, a US California Senator, a person of color .The movie  and music industry are well represented by people of color.  On the other hand, Musk ,Bezos, Gates, Buffet, Zuckerberg exemplify income inequality; and Trump, McConnell, Tucker exemplify white power with hate.  Further, the militia groups also exemplify white hate. Economically , the benefits go where? Follow the money.

The White hate slogan of” replacement” refers to the inability to compete in today's society.  If you have  a high school education, what are your chances for coming in first with positive self-esteem?  In today's cutthroat capitalistic competition, what are your chances of becoming promoted; not being left behind economically; with a buildup of anxiety,repressed resentment, hostility, hatred and prejudice? 

 In essence, many of these teens are not in a good position to  successfully compete. They are being left behind with much  frustration affecting satisfaction, security , coupled with anxiety, and build up of hostility and hatred that's fostered within a severely inept parenting style within a dysfunctional family. Add severe disproportionate economic inequity within and to a  broken ,defective and toxic political system.We have created a sick, insane society. These broken teens have plenty of models to imitate and identify based on TV coverage and social media propaganda and lies.  The First Amendment gives them permission to lie and be misled and our Second Amendment permission to kill. Therefore, with rivalry and anxiety, the reservoir of hostility and hate accumulates and festers. Our competitive driven society allows hate speech and purchasing of killing weapons. Thus,we have an algorithm equation for profit and mass killings. Some might argue that there are more variables required to explain mass shootings or why aren’t there even more mass shootings?  I agree, I presented just a few psychological concepts pertaining to killing with more to follow.  The concepts I presented - satisfaction, security, anxiety, repression, hostility, rivalry and  hate are basic character foundations that are  to be found in evaluating the adolescent shooter. With each individual, there are an infinite number of situational experiences and reinforcements found within parenting and within the society of these individuals.  Therefore, the above concepts are the ground-floor  or building blocks for everyone with an array of  normal and/or neurotic tendencies .Isaac Newton “Truth is never to be found in simplicity.”

PS

While engaging in play therapy, I experienced children unable to express their actual feelings verbally of hostility and aggression towards parents .However ,with toys, they freely expressed their rage regarding their family situation.

Reference 

Freud,Sigmund. Totem and Taboo.