SOME REMARKS ON THE MAINE SHOOTING

      The news was breaking all night about the latest mass-murder, this time in New England around the vicinity of Lewiston, Maine. Like a lot of other towns in this area, Lewiston was once a major industrial center (textiles), which saw its Blue-Collar base eroded by Corporate outsourcing many years ago, and today is a rather gentrified community with few economic opportunities and substandard schools. Those of us who grew up in just about any Northern State east of the Mississippi know this type of town well: some very nice older homes, well-kept parks and cemeteries, boarded-up factories, railroad crossings that haven't seen a train in 20 years, a few chain-stores and gas-stations, and a conspicuous absence of young people and families. No matter where one goes in towns like these, one gets the sense that its better days are long behind it. 

    The suspect or "person of interest in the mass-casualty event," (as postmodern Media Newspeak expresses it), is a male military veteran with a history of mental health problems. He evidently planned this event in some detail and, as of this writing, has managed to elude the police. Not knowing many details, we don't wish to speculate; but if it follows the typical pattern of these kinds of crimes, he's likely either committed suicide or is lying low planning to carry out whatever Phase Two of whatever plan the voices in his head are telling him to do. Police are usually at a disadvantage because crazy people by definition are unpredictable; and police responses and tactics unfortunately are highly predictable. 

   There are two things common to nearly all of these cases, which our Media and Political Class never seem to want to talk about. The first is that they are invariably committed by relatively young men aged 15-45; and there is a high percentage of these men with connections to certain institutions, i.e., schools and the military. Connections to other institutions: government agencies, larger businesses, and churches also frequently appear. The Official Narrative focuses on peripheral things like lack of adequate mental health treatment, access to guns, drugs, and vague definitions of 'extremism;' but nobody discusses why this seems to be affecting only one particular demographic. Many women, the elderly, and others outside this demographic also have poor access to mental health treatment, have access to guns, abuse drugs, and hold extremist positions but they aren't flipping out and gunning down everything in sight. 

   The other interesting thing about male perpetrators in this demographic is that they cut across all racial, economic, and political lines. They're not exclusively lower Middle-Class White males as the Media likes to suggest. For example the Dallas Police massacre was carried out by a young Black man; the Virginia Tech shooting was perpetrated by a young Asian; the Pulse Nightclub shooting was committed by an immigrant. Eliot Rodger and the Aurora 'Joker' Theater shooter came from wealthy backgrounds. Nor are they exclusively Right-Wing extremists; the Oregon College shooting and the Las Vegas massacre were committed by flaming Leftists. 

    If we balance that against other statistics pertaining to young men, we find that among the same demographic, suicides are among the leading cause of death; and crime and addiction rates are very high. We've also noted here many times that younger men increasingly are not interested in fulfilling traditional community roles. Fewer are marrying; fewer are seeking long-term gainful employment, fewer are seeking higher education, and it's also noteworthy that community and political leadership are largely being filled by women or retirees these days.

   When we take those factors into account, we begin to see a clearer picture. Our culture is failing its young men. When men are continually depreciated and marginalized in a society, one of three things is bound to happen: either they drop out altogether and become pot-smoking, apathetic couch-potatoes; or they become limp-wristed, gender-fluid, and submissive; or that bottled-up rage boils over and they either die by their own hand or they grab a weapon and go out and take random others with them. Most are doing the first, but the other two make the headlines. However, it must be understood that those in the latter two categories are symptomatic of the bigger problem. 

  The problem is not guns. The worst mass-murder in America's history was committed by a team of young alienated Arab men who hijacked airliners at knife-point; and the second worst was carried out by a young alienated White man with a bomb. Knives, vehicles, explosives, and poisons have all been used in these attacks. The problem is not extremism. It's totally predictable that alienated people seek out cults and fringe political movements to join with others as alienated and as mentally unstable as they are. Drugs, sexual perversion, and untreated mental illness are likewise antisocial manifestations of alienated characters.

   The fact that institutions like schools and the military figure prominently in the backgrounds of these individuals ought not to be overlooked. Both of those institutions in particular have made it a point to purge themselves of so-called toxic masculinity. A man with any sense of dignity in either one of these institutions finds himself trapped in an existential paradox. Academic achievement or military accomplishments teach him what he is capable of and instills confidence---which is immediately shattered by constant preaching about how worthless he is to society, usually at the hands of some 'superior' who got their authority from anything but merit or achievement. One can imagine the resentment which must build up in some men. 

   Given that the same types of people who control the Official Media Narratives and Counter-Narratives are also people whose jobs aren't based on merit, they certainly aren't willing to discuss Male Alienation and its causes; hence this is another Third Rail Topic---one that isn't supposed to be touched. Besides, mass-violence plays into the Oligarchy's Strategy of Tension: tragedy and gratuitous violence keeps the masses divided and distracted while our so-called 'leadership' can grandstand, do photo-ops, virtue-signal, and pretend as though they're really doing anything. Meanwhile, such events will continue and continue to escalate, while Media ratings soar, the pundits pontificate, and the politicians capitalize---until the next 'crisis' comes along for further exploitation.