Gripping the Country
By Dr. Will Miller & Dr. Glenn Sparks
There is his picture on the CNN web page—just over 24 hours after he unleashed an unprecedented attack on innocent victims. His name was Cho Seung-hui. The headline says, “LONER Unleashed Massacre.”
There is undoubtedly much more that we’ll learn about this young man in the days and weeks to come. But the initial report that we’ve been given identifies him as a “loner”—someone who authorities are having a difficult time coming up with information on—someone who students reported they sometimes said “hi” to but never received a reply—someone who students say no one seemed to know very well. It seems like a familiar profile by now. Haven’t we seen this before? It is too late to help Cho Seung-hui. How might we help ourselves? A starting point might be to reflect upon this incident and to ask ourselves what it might tell us about how we are living today in America?
Go back to the Founding Fathers. Our country was certainly founded on the core value of “freedom.” People carried firearms. They were free to move about. They were free to speak. But the operating assumption was that freedom was inextricably tethered to the experience of living in community with others.
In community our self-identities are forged. Our grievances are heard. Our victories are celebrated and our defeats are cause for empathic expression. Our unthinkable thoughts of doing outrageously evil things are contextualized by people who care for us and who help us consign evil impulses to their rightful place--far away from the part of the mind that urges us toward doing the unthinkable. In community, we come to share a common set of values that provide a sense of harmony and noble purpose. In community, we are held accountable.
Freedom used to be firmly attached to membership in great institutions (family, school, and church). There can certainly be dysfunctional families, bad schools, and churches filled with hypocrites. But functioning properly, these institutions help us to stay connected to each other. And in those close connections, we discovered who we were. Our identities were molded.
But today, we are drifting away from each other. Incivility is on the rise. A larger portion of us admits to having few close friends. We easily recognize the living rooms and kitchens of sit-com characters but have never seen the inside of the home of the family living next door. We are increasingly isolated. We have lost “Refrigerator Rights.” Our self-identities are much more difficult to forge apart from a strong network of significant others who care about us.
The late Marshall McLuhan once observed that terrorists are people who are “minus identity.” They will do anything to get noticed. They will literally die to get coverage. Desperate for some sense of identity, they will seek any sort of recognition that the culture can provide. The media become willing accomplices in their quest.
Some commentators are asserting, “You can’t prevent something like this.” We beg to differ. It may be true that once a person determines to go on a rampage in a free society, preventing it from happening is nearly impossible. But we’re not helpless in preventing these catastrophes. True prevention involves a relational investment that begins when a child is born and continues for life. A society that helps to facilitate closer connection and works against isolation can not only do more to identify potential perpetrators before they act—it can even prevent them from developing in the first place.
A society that continues to champion freedom but persists in creating a culture of isolation and disconnection may find itself in a very scary place. Reneging on our freedom is a poor solution to our dilemma. Instead, it is time to recognize that we are all in this together. We need each other. “In unity, there is strength.”
