by alex felipe (alexfelipe.photographer@gmail.com)
The Connecticut mass shooting was a tragedy, it was the seventh this year alone. The media, mainstream and social, have been ablaze with justified outrage. Many fingers are being pointed in so many directions that for those seeking to understand why, they would equally be justified in being left in a daze.
The Western Left, in its decades long insecurity, has allowed the field to be dominated by voices placing blame on symptoms rather at the root cause.
The aftermath of Newtown has shown the need for a coherent and inclusive narrative from the Left. Instead, what we see are calls for small reforms to the system that has already failed us.
It’s time for the Left to step up. To again allow itself to think big. To again dare to put forward a grand narrative.
According to Mother Jones magazine, six of the twelve deadliest shootings in US history have happened since 2007. And according to Time Magazine’s “The Worse Mass Shootings of the Past 50 Years,” sixteen of the twenty-six took place in the USA.
In response to this the internet is ablaze with blame: poor gun control, poor access to treatment for mental illness, male violence, White male violence, etc…
And yet are not all these explanations, while containing valid points, unable to truly get to the source of why this is happening so much more often now, and why they are so much more common in the US.
The two most common explanations focus on mental illness and gun control. Clearly these are very important issues. However, they fail to explain why mental illness has been on a shockingly disturbing rise since the 1970s, or why gun ownership was on the decline since the 1950s only to spike up again in the last four years, or why the dates to mass shootings directly link up to these events.
It was in the success of the Western Left that led to concessions to the working people in the decades previous to the 70s. Yet this success led to decadence, to a relaxation of organization and struggle, and thus a catastrophic chain of events followed that led us to the social, economic, and political crises of today.
Without a strong and unified Left, the economic crisis of the 70s brought about the reemergence of a more ruthless form of capitalism that had lay dormant since Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Real wages went on a decline, and job security dramatically decreased.
It was then that the mental health issues that were already an inherent part of the capitalist system was exacerbated.
Mass shootings in America became commonplace. Using Time magazines’ list, there was one in both the 60s and 70s. In the “greed is good” 80s they became part of the new normal. From Mother Jones magazines’ list of mass shootings in the US since 1982 there were eight in the 80s, twenty-three in the 90s, and twenty-four from 2000 to 2011.
The 80s also gave rise to a series of financial bubbles followed by increasingly worsening crises until the major collapse of 2007-08–a crisis that we are still mired in, and one that threatens to grow worse, much worse.
After 2008 gun ownership sharply rose, and with the threat of an even greater collapse on the horizon, this year we saw seven horrific acts of mass shootings.
Why is the Left not talking about how these narratives are interwoven together as a part of the fabric of our social system?
It is as if we are afraid of our own hard won lessons: that all our issues are tied together, that far from them being intersections–which imply independent issues that meet at certain points–that in reality the critical social problems we face today, have their roots within the capitalist system itself.
The link between mental health and capitalism is not new. Theorists and researchers have been making this connection since the early days of industrialization.
Oliver James, clinical psychologist and author of “The Selfish Capitalist” has looked at the empirical evidence.
In his book he points to research showing how mental health issues, which he prefers to label as “emotional distress,” have been on the dramatic increase. Knowing how definitions differ, he cites studies like those conducted internationally by the World Health Organization (WHO), and by researchers like Joseph Veroff, who uses the same methods over a forty-year period, so as to allow proper comparison.
The WHO study notes a doubling of the incidence of mental illness in the US, Australia, and Britain from the early 80s to the turn of the century. It also shows that citizens of these English speaking nations are twice as likely as those of mainland Europe (who while also being capitalist have stronger social welfare systems), and six times more than poor countries like Nigeria, to exhibit mental health problems.
Veroff’s research of American emotional well-being conducted the same study in 1957, 1976, and 1996. It found a 15% jump in emotional distress from 1957 to 1976, and in 1996 those numbers were 2/3rds higher still.
Further, James cites that in a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2000, an analysis on the distress levels of 269 US youth found that “by 1950 standards, the average child of 1990 is in need of professional help.”
Since the financial collapse of 2007-08 things have only gotten worse, and its ramifications have been there for us to see.
James calls the link between mental health and capitalisms’ return to full prominence “affluenza.”
Mass killings are an extreme symptomatic manifestation of this ailment.
Capitalism today, James writes, stokes up “both aspirations and the expectations that they can be fulfilled. … In the entrepreneurial fantasy society, the delusion is fostered that anyone can be… Bill Gates, never mind that the actual likelihood of this occurring has diminished since the 1970s – a person born in 1958 was more likely than one born in 1970 to achieve upward mobility through education, for example… [The] toxins that are most poisonous to well-being are the systematic encouragement of the ideas that material affluence is the key to fulfillment, that only the affluent are winners and that access to the top is open to anyone willing to work hard enough, regardless of their familial, ethnic or social background – if you do not succeed, there is only one person to blame.”
To take these linkages further, it is no coincidence that when capitalisms’ renaissance in the 70s occurred in the West that the relationship with the developing world also began to morph.
Salaries and job security declined in the West as production was shifted to the Global South. At the same time cheap foreign labourers were brought in to work in the West.
It was then that countries like the Philippines began to export its own people as commodities, both to meet their local economic needs, as well as to meet the worldwide need for cheap disposable labour in the face of economic crisis. It too is no coincidence that post-2008 this trade in people radically expanded.
It is for these same reasons that we can infer why it is usually White men behind these mass killings. They feel the most betrayed by the loss of the American/capitialist Dream. Racialized communities in general have always been on the outside of that dream, and its loss is no significant loss at all. But with White men the changes since the 70s have been a slap in the face–a slap with serious consequences for all.
The interwoven nature of economics, politics, mental health, and access to guns are clear. And yet both mainstream, and ‘alternative’ media for the most part are focusing on the symptoms. This, is in a very specific way, is an even greater tragedy.
In these critical times when capitalisms flaws are there for all to see, we on the Left need to shake off our insecurities, to reaffirm the need for a shared grand narrative. It is in seeing how all our struggles are linked that we are able to create a shared movement for social change. In this shared narrative we can realize the collective “We” that is necessary if we are to present a real alternative.
The reaction to the Connecticut killings demonstrates the need for the Western Left to reevaluate itself, and to remember that it was once a potent force, in order to become one again.
The individualism that dominates Western culture has spread to the level of ideas. When events like Newtown happen, society tends to look at it as an individual event, devoid of history. We forget that in society, as in an individual life, effects have causes that go beyond what happened at that particular moment.
As the Left moved from collective rights to individual rights in the 60s we forgot what made our movement strong. That it was in fighting for our rights as a people that resulted in our gains as individuals. In flipping the script we have basically accepted the core ideology of the system that oppresses.
The Left today needs to rediscover the “We” that made it strong. It needs to break away from self imposed segregation. From the self-contained groups that fight symptomatic issues–halting any chance of an overarching coalition united in its shared antagonism to the root cause of their hardship.
The tragedy of Connecticut is a wake up call.
It is not enough to feel sympathy, sympathy fades with each new report of a new mass killing, and as these events become normalized.
It is not enough to blame the symptoms, no matter how important it is to try to reduce their severity, the ailment is not remedied until we get to the root cause.
We have to face up to the fact that this issue is tied with so many others. That it is in the very DNA of our society itself.
It’s time we faced up to the truth. Our society is hurting us, and for some of us, that personal hurt is translating to a personal vendetta.
It is time the Left pull itself together. That we stop fighting individual fights against various symptoms of the same root cause: be it racism, sexism, gun control, or whatever other single issue.
It is time that we join all these struggles together as they spring from the same source: Capitalism itself.
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* hyperlinks to sources are embedded above *
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Contact me at: alexfelipe.photographer@gmail.com
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22/12/2012 at 11:34 pm
A thoughtful reply via email:
I think you are correct in trying to create a macro analysis on this issue, but it misses two very important points
(1) The first and most important, especially if this piece is meant to be an intervention into activist circles is the cultural aspect. I am not sure how this compares to the United States, but in a piece I am reading it dates the rise of Thatcherite consumerism as a cultural ideal around the 80s. The rise of consumerism, linked into post-modern identity politics, I think is an important element here you should go into detail. I think the psycho-analysis might also point out how purchasing a gun in the United States is equivalent of purchasing security and empowerment. This when linked into the idea that one can buy themselves a life or meaning is a powerful critique. I also think the fact that this analysis misses out the horizontal gun violence that is at pandemic levels in urban and inner city youth needs to be touched on. Possession and use of guns is seen as a path to empowerment in traditional ‘gangsta rap’ hip hop, which was often times based on the vicious cowboy capitalism of the drug trade. A macro analysis of Capitalism should be able to link both white and black – American communities, even if each respective community doesn’t share the exact same position. In essence it isn’t simply neo-liberalism; rather neo-liberalism + consumer culture + post-modernism (which are all interlinked economically in other fashions) is the problem. Neo-liberalism creates the insecurity; consumerism promises security, power, and prestige through gun ownership; post-modernism raises the subjective individual as the only point of focus and thus destroys any communal or objective ethical and moral models thus justifying mass murder to gain prestige, self-worth, and self actualization through the destruction of the other. The axis of neo-liberalism + consumerism + post-modernism is a much stronger case for a macro analysis of the epidemic of mass mental illness then any one of them individually. Otherwise why doesn’t this kind of mass shootings exist in African American or Indigenous communities that never benefited to the same extant from labours gains. Why aren’t such mass shootings endemic to the periphery where neo-liberalism has been the extreme rule for far longer then for white Britain or America. Such an analysis would also point to why leftist activists have never been able to intervene in the discussion around such mass murder in any meaningful or consistent manner. Because post-modern politics, aka identity politics, and the consumer culture have generally been the basis of activism for most of these people, thus a proper critique can’t be expressed without abandoning post-modernism. I hope all this makes sense, it’s late and I’m typing stream of consciousness. I think it’s also important that this kind of mass shooting violence is endemic to white middle class males, the subject of American capitalism, not to black males, or young poor males. I think this is telling, as well as the fact that the often times people with strong communal identities and cultures that counteract post-modern politics and consumer culture, such as Hispanics, that have never had access to the kind of economic security lost by neo-liberalism, aren’t displaying such violence. It goes to say without doubt that neo-liberalism leads to consumerism (commodification of culture) and post-modernism, and this process also works dialectically and reinforce neo-liberalism; another reason that modern Marxists and leftists haven’t been able to throw up a convincing resistance against neo-liberalism.
(2) I also think there is place to mention in a macro-analysis the fact that the fall of really existing, if flawed, communism on the world stage supports the dominance of shitty post-modern consumerist culture and politics. With no real world alternatives, which I feel played an extraordinary role in helping working class organizing during the 40s, 50s, and 60s, neo-liberalism became dominant. It should be pointed out that McCarthyism predates by a little the rise of neo-liberalism. I think this plays an important part in differentiating Canada and America in the lag that exists between both in the advent of neo-liberalism. Both countries implemented social democratic reforms to Capitalism during the Great Depression, but one disassembled it’s reforms far sooner then the other. This analysis is to avoid the use of term decadence or to describe the working class as having gotten lazy. I think statistically labour disruptions actually grew in frequency during the neo-liberal era as well as political militancy of the 60s: civil rights movement, the Black Panthers, Women’s Liberation, Gay Liberation. People were militant, but labour organizing didn’t provide alternatives. But not because of laziness or decadence. I’m just against using the term decadence, that’s the whole point of this paragraph. Essentially the Rand formula and Right to Work legislation were meant to be anti-communist, not anti-labour, legislation.
22/12/2012 at 11:35 pm
More from the same person:
I realized while sitting on the subway that this analysis can be transferred to the international level by deconstructing the war on terrorism paradigm with this analysis and which essentially would say that the War on Terrorism promises that security, democracy, and liberation can be delivered at the point of a m16 or hell-fire missile. Afghanistani and Pakistani women are protected by dropping hellfire missiles and bomblets and Iraqis were liberated by a violent invasion and occupation that demolished half their country. The multitude of invasions in the War on Terror era have all been invasions promised security for Americans who under-wrote them (consumerism), the violence would supposedly provide democracy to the unfortunate victims by demolition pre-modern and modern ideologies (Afghani Islamism, Iraqi Baathist Nationalism replaced by post-modernism), and all commidified by neo-liberal plunder of individual states. This paradigm conveniently obfuscates the need for a transformation economic and social relations to provide the basis for meaningful democracy, liberatory social progress, and revolutionary transformations. This is why the Left has a difficult time articulating a unified anti-war movement against American Imperialism because the triad of political forces have replaced historic anti-imperialism with international humanism which only supports doctrines of humanitarian intervention and R2P, and doesn’t recognize armed resistance of the oppressed.
This paradigm conveniently obfuscates the need for a transformation of economic and social relations to provide the basis for meaningful democracy, liberatory social progress, and revolutionary transformations. This paradigm is then taken up by anarchists, who used to be mainly white males a similar demographic to mass shooters, as meaning that revolution can come at the end of a brick breaking a window and ignores the need to build the revolution through dual power, communities red bases, hegemony, etc. This mistake of fetishizing the ability to conduct armed resistance, armed struggle, popular resistance, revolutionary violence, people’s war, or what ever else said groups call it is also taken up by other radical forces that fail recognize that revolutionary violence that isn’t in the service to protect and promote revolutionary social relations isn’t very revolutionary.
I think such a meta-analysis should be able to tie in the local, the national, and international situations if it is going to be centred around capitalism.
There is also a link with neo-liberal colonial states such as the Phillipines and Sri Lanka deciding to deal with the violent social contradictions of their social fabric with increased military repression and force without actually trying to change the violent and oppressive social relations that support neo-liberalism.
23/12/2012 at 1:18 am
It’s a good piece Alex. And a perspective that hasn’t been talked about much, if at all.
The US has always been a super competitive society. Social Darwinism at its best or worst, depending upon how you look at it.
But in the last 30 years, the States has become hyper competitive. The resulting stress has resulted in a huge spike in mental illness, notwithstanding the exponential increase in the number of psychiatric disorders one can now be diagnosed with.
The number of days lost from work due to stress related disorders is staggering. Fewer people hired to do the same amount of work, all in the name of squeezing as much profit out of a business as possible. Add to that longer commutes and less job security and it’s a perfect recipe for mental breakdowns.
That stress takes its toll in the form of addictions, depression, suicide and mass killings. The only difference being that addictions, depression and suicide don’t make front page news, unless it’s a public figure.
Killings do. Especially when they involve young children.
John
23/12/2012 at 2:55 am
Thanks Alex and commentators. It is a relief to see some kind of analysis and reflection which is not glib. Those of us who live outside the USA are puzzled and bemused by the behaviours, legislation and debate, which unfortunately also draws us into conflicts like Viet Nam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan, to say nothing of the utter materialism of consumerism. The consumerist and capitalist ethos is more than capable of spreading and letting spread its sickness. Darwinianism as one commentator says makes all enemies of one another and so does capitalism. Tocqueville’s observations of Democracy where individualism was mastered at the expense of social values stands.
It seems to me that guns and their misuse are only a symptom of the fear, distorted ideas of individuality and ignorance. Any reasonable person reading the above could be convinced that the situation is complex and that like all social evils has its vested interests. But how do those who suffer and are exploited get a voice in the USA when votes and politicians are bought and sold by powerful forces n parties and business? Surely we must acknowledge that governments are no longer in control. The average person is the plaything of the powerful media distortions and sadly the education system, which I encountered while teaching in the US does not engender basic skills and serious critical assessment. Maybe this is not much help, and reflect more on my world concerns, but thanks for the writing anyway.
Best Wishse,
Michael
23/12/2012 at 2:57 am
thanks for your thoughtful comment Michael. you write that you are outside the US, may I ask from where?
(I’m writing from Toronto, Canada)
23/12/2012 at 3:02 am
I live in Australia, fairly close to the East coast in what are known as the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Have been to Toronto twice and dis post graduate study and work at Boston College. Best Wishes,
Michael
23/12/2012 at 3:36 am
Best wishes to you too. And pls feel free to share this, I don’t see much discussion of this on mainstream or alternative media…
23/12/2012 at 3:51 am
That’s the point Alex the shallow discussion is mostly from vested interests appealing just to blind fear.
Even an attack on the current vested interests will not get at the real issues. I have just ordered Chris Hedges’ “Death of the Liberal Class” and enjoy his analysis.
I also appreciate your reminding the left that we need to be positive and proud of the ideas and movements which would assist greatly,
Michael
23/12/2012 at 4:55 pm
Jodi Dean, author and professor of political theory reposted this piece on her blog (as well as twitter and FB) and wrote, “great piece — well argued and compelling.”
Thanks Ms. Dean, I’m a fan and am honoured.
http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2012/12/the-lefts-failure-post-newtown-connecticut-alex-felipe-ramblings.html
23/12/2012 at 6:10 pm
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary. I will repost.
23/12/2012 at 6:17 pm
thank you for reading (and reposting)
23/12/2012 at 7:50 pm
[...] Alex Felipe [...]
25/12/2012 at 2:04 am
Some depressing US stats… given the Christmas treatment:
“On the first day of Christmas my employer gave to me a penny for every $3 the richest 130,000 Americans make. It’s been a national tradition since 1980.
On the second day my doctor showed me TWO Americans needing mental health care, but only one of the two could afford treatment. The doctor informed me that the fifty states have cut $1.8 billion from their mental health budgets during the recession, and that the 2013 Republican budget proposes further cuts. “It’s crazy,” I protested. “Some states are allowing guns in schools and daycare centers and churches and bars and hospitals, but they’re cutting mental health care?” The doctor just nodded in frustration.”
Continue reading at: http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/17712-for-christmas-twelve-days-of-capitalist-inequality-ho-ho-ho
25/12/2012 at 8:06 am
This is a good piece of writing. One could be forgiven for thinking it was fiction. Where the **** do you start or we start? It is so sick. Surely it is time for the American Spring. After all the poor have had it so good for so long.
Anyway for a little break this is worth a listen and watch. Cheers, Michael
25/12/2012 at 8:20 pm
Mark Ames is one of the people who often writes about the connection between income inequality, neoliberalism and mass shootings, in articles and his book “Going Postal”. One should not forget that mass shootings started in workplaces in the 80s, around the same time when more and more workplaces became de-unionized, and in general more unpleasant as a result of Reagan’s economic policies. The term going postal originated because thats where the workplace shootings first occured, only years after the Postal Service was privatized, unions busted, pressure on the workforce increased, etc. For a German who’s never been to the States it was fascinating to read. I mean, I know all those statistics, crime rate, inequality, 60hour-weeks, but he gives a good impression of the kind of vicious culture that is the result. Good book….
25/12/2012 at 8:29 pm
Thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check it out!
03/01/2013 at 3:44 pm
[...] estilo ng pagsulat at pag-iisip na si Myfel Paluga! Nakakatuwang nagbalik na rin sa pagba-blog si Alex Felipe. Magandang pagmumuni ni Marck Ronald Rimorin tungkol sa mga pitik ni Noynoy Aquino sa [...]