Yeah, yeah. . . . Send your complaints to Solipsist Central.
As the nation absorbs this latest example of chaos in our midst, I brace myself for certain inevitabilities.
The pundits will do what pundits do: pontificate. Already we've had the predictable calls for increased gun control, which I generally agree with, but which may or may not be all that relevant. A lot depends on whether "alleged" shooter James Holmes came by his guns legally. Considering that he was a PhD candidate in neuroscience, I suspect Holmes would have had no trouble obtaining whatever weapons he wanted legally, which certainly would call into question the wisdom of existing gun regulations. On the other hand, if it turns out the guns were purchased illegally, then the issue is really not so much that we need more gun laws, but that we must just better enforce the ones we have. At any rate, this is not the most annoying inevitability.
The presidential candidates both responded appropriately, expressing sympathy with the victims and their families and curtailing political activities for at least a day or two. No one's much in the mood for vitriolic rhetoric right now--with the possible exception of one Texas douchebag who claims that the shootings were a result of the "ongoing attacks" on Judeo-Christian beliefs. Kinda makes one hopeful that the next news cycle will bring revelations that Holmes was molested by priests at an early age.
Really, though, while it's somewhat reassuring to see both President Obama and Mitt Romney slip easily into the role of Comforter-in-Chief, this kind of event presents a political no-brainer. When tragedy strikes, anyone aspiring to high political office has got to know enough to drop whatever he or she is doing and respond. Only a total moron would go on conducting business as usual or, say, reading "My Pet Goat." Just sayin'.
These political response, however, are also not the most annoying inevitabilities.
No, my eye-rolling arises after seeing the immediate flooding of every movie-theater across America with reporters running up to people and asking if they are now worried about going to see movies in general and "The Dark Night Rises" in particular. Unsurprisingly, most people--because they are not congentially stupid--express little personal concern about their odds of making it home alive from the 3:40 showing. Sure, what James Holmes did--"allegedly"--is horrifying, but since all signs so far suggest that Holmes was a lone psychopath and not part of some Qaeda-esque jihad against all things Batman, why would this stop anyone from going to the movies? Any individual audience member is far more likely to suffer injury or death in a car accident going to or from the multiplex than from anything that happens within the theater itself. (They should, however avoid the popcorn "butter"--that stuff WILL kill you.)
Sadly, random acts of violence and mayhem have become a part of the fabric of American culture. But movies have long been a much bigger part of that culture. As one blogger has pointed out, one truly sad aspect of this shooting is that it took place during a screening of a film that, in a way that few movies do anymore, brings people together in a sort of communal celebration--a shared experience the likes of which grow ever-rarer in these days of high-end home-entertainment systems and internet-enabled fragmentation. This shooting should not make people afraid to go to movies; it should make them fear what I suspect we'll discover is the crippling sense of isolation that drives the James Holmeses of the world to murder.
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