What is causing people to snap in 21st c. USA?

[sixmile]

What is it about modern life that is driving Americans to paranoia and sociopathy?

Money?
Drugs?
Politics?
Boredom?
Loneliness?

I would guess all of the above.
The daily atrocities fill newspapers from coast to coast. It hasn't always been so.

[Duer 157099]

1. I'm more perplexed by what is keeping people complacent n/t

[sixmile]

2. Disassociation and lack of empathy

You're not complacent if it affects you...

[krabigirl]

3. Lack of money and jobs, living in a country bent on endless "wars" on ideologies, Rx meds.

[FSogol]

It has always been so. One reason? We used to have Government run Mental health facilities.

Reagan closed them and now the untreated mentally ill wander the streets.

Why didn't anything change after the VA Tech shootings? The Community College warnings were not taken seriously again.

[sixmile]

11. It has not always been as it is

To be fair we now have more than 300 million people up from 75 million in the beginning of the 20th c. so there's bound to be greater numbers. But, have you looked at a newspaper lately? People are going crazy.

[End Of The Road]

19. I have to agree with FSogol on this.

Statistically, I have been unable to find any stats that say we go nuts more often today than in the past. There are peaks and valleys, to be sure, and the economy has alot to do with it.

But, I believe, it has always been so.

[FSogol]

22. It has. In the past working on articles, I "surfed" those old microfiche reels

of old newspapers. No matter what date you pick you can find murders, assault, senseless violence, etc. It is nothing new.

As a kid, you either didn't pay attention to events like this or where shielded from those events. That is what has created a myopic sensation that it didn't occur in your past. I assure you, things of this nature are always occurring.

[Recursion]

25. Are you aware of the record low crime rate for the past decade or so?

I mean, what do you mean by "going crazy"?

[HillbillyBob]

4. Being on a f ing treadmill for lower and lower wages

and higher medical bills you cant afford, no decent job prospects in sight...

Thank the corporate and right wing . instead of going after a dem they should go after the kock brothers, and the gold man sacks sobs.
If I were of a mind to do such things, but people are getting desperate and desperate people do desperate and mostly stupid things.

[seabeyond]

5. i say as much as anything the nets. good and bad. the bad, people are desensitizing to ugly

in an anonymous manner that is filtering to real life. we can feed the ugly in groups, get affirmation from others we could never get in real life.

[sixmile]

6. Very true

Snuff films and near-snuff films abound.

[seabeyond]

10. all kinds of stuff. ugliest of ugly is becoming the norm. nt

[Heidi]

7. Violent culture, desperation and need for scapegoats, and incessant fear mongering. (nt)

[stray cat]

8. People killing public figures is not new to the 21st century

[Zanzobar]

9. The same things that caused them to snap in prior centuries

I don't think it's worse now than at any given time in our history.

The 20c was no dream. Constant war, assasination attempts, and social upheaval.
The 19c was no dream. Constant war, assasination attempts, and social upheaval.
The 18c was no dream. Constant war, assasination attempts, and social upheaval.

Et cetera, et cetera, a la Yul Brenner.

[sixmile]

13. Barring war from the equation

Americans have far more leisure time now yet seem to be more psychotic.

[Recursion]

24. You don't notice psychotics when they have to work down mill 20 hours a day

This was basically the robber barons' argument against the 8-hour day and the 5-day week: the proles will go crazy and start to do bad stuff.

[Hannah Bell]

18. however, the space not occupied by the mental creations of power

was larger & the connection to actual day-to-day physical reality stronger.

[Zanzobar]

27. I have no clue what this means

So I can't answer to it.

[Hannah Bell]

31. oh well

[Lurks Often]

12. Maybe people are not snapping anymore frequently

maybe it's all the 24/7 news that makes it seem like people are snapping more often.

The FBI crime statistics state that crime continues to drop and is as low as it's been in 30 years, but one would never believe it if they watched the news or read the paper.

[Statistical]

14. Violent crime is at a 30yr low.

Yet a record number of people are dying from obesity.
More people are scared of the one in a million chance of a terrorist attack than they are of the BigMac they chow down on twice a week.

This is no different than people being afraid to fly because they saw a plane crash on TV but have nor problem weaving in and out of traffic while texting on their phone.

[sixmile]

17. The OP is referring to mental diseases

Paranoia, sociopathic behavior, drug addiction, schizophrenia.

[Statistical]

21. There is no statistical evidence that rate of severe mental illness is on the rise.

24/7 news cycle and the fact that "bad" news sells more ads.

I do know our public mental health system is horribly underfunded. Even people with severe mental illness are much less likely to be violent when on proper therapy and drugs.

[name not needed]

15. Glocks, obviously.

[Cleita]

16. Something in the water? Frankenfood? Who knows.

:shrug:

[DragonCoolio]

20. Why does 'modern life' have to be part of the equation?

If anything, the advanced state of media outlets and the ability for anyone to spread word of a local event to a massive audience makes events which would not have circulated as far decades ago more accessible. In short, people are still loons just as they always have been and we have an easier time seeing what they have been up to.

[Recursion]

23. What made us snap in the past?

Whatever it is, there's less of it, since violent crime is at something like a 50-year low.

[slackmaster]

26. Television

I blame television.

[femrap]

28. Too many people crowded

together living such UN-natural lives.

Think about it....I watch all these silly people walking around typing into little boxes or chatting loudly at little boxes.

No one has good conversations anymore. I say something...I'm interrupted and the person goes on and on and on....never asking me a question.

And women are running around in these 4" high heels....now that's just not natural. And little designer labels. It's all ego.

There is no comfort, no ease, no great long meals with funny and witty conversations. Everyone bought into, 'I am what I drive, where I live, what I wear, what I do.' Everyone has become an un-natural asshole.

I used to be a real people-person. Now I just want to hide from them and be with animals.

There's a saying: Back in the '60's we did drugs to escape the normalcy. Today we do drugs so to handle how UN-normalcy the world has become.'

edit...typo

[haele]

29. Stress. Lack of control of personal destiny.

Watching one's paycheck get smaller and smaller as most large employers, lying to their workforce about the cause, are cutting wages and extending working hours in the name of "productivity" to benefit corporate management and shareholders. Watching available jobs and savings shrink.

Watching bankers, monopolists, and economic gamblers scam money and receive all sorts of benefits and cost breaks from the government and other small private concerns while the costs to the public are rising.

Watching homes, health, education, and futures being tossed onto the burning altar of Mammon. Watching their children being encouraged to be more ignorant and cynical. Being told by media, by society, by "their betters" that they're just not that important.

Hearing very little from most preachers other than platitudes like - "the next world will be better than this one" - "sinners have to suffer before they get into heaven" - and espcially - "No matter what you do, you only have to believe to be forgiven; once you beleive with all your heart, only then might Ghod reward you like all the others "he" favors get rewarded" - as if they are the co-dependant spouse of a Creator who's an angry, mean-tempered, miserly, impotent, dry-drunk, regularly beating the wife and kids when things aren't just right and actively gloating over any misfortunes of the neighbors - a spouse that you need to bribe before they'd be nice to you.

These people are feeling more and more isolated, trapped, abandoned.

And in reality, currently there's little hope they can see that will improve their lot. Most of the few people, the few organizations who are actually seeming to pay attention to them and telling them what they want to hear are also profiting off them, telling them who "the enemies really are" while laughing all the way to the bank about putting one over on political foes.

They get very little respect, they have little security or future, they have less and less to their names, and they're tired of being on their own.
And that's why they snap, pick up their guns and try to force what they think is a simple, quick, easy way out of the mess they didn't think they had a part getting into and certainly didn't deserve, and maybe get a little respect along the way.
*******
As for daily atrocities; they've been going on a long time. It's just that over the last few decades, technology has caught up with the timely reporting of them. And as the old news saying goes, "if it bleeds, it leads".

Haele

[Statistical]

30. Likely videogames, gay marriage, lack of family values, and too much sex on TV/movies. n/t

[Gregorian]

32. Population combined with modern society.

See the book by Gabor Mate called Scattered. It's about ADD, and how our social environment creates it. When you aren't nurtured the way we were intended to be nurtured (see simians for that answer), then we become neurotic.

It's that simple. Toss in a little fetal alcohol consumption, Reaganomics, and you've got uneducated families who don't know how to raise kids.

Basically, we've lost touch with what we are. We are animals. Not car driving people who pay mortgages. We are just like birds, monkeys, horses. We lost touch. And we're suffering for it. We're physically ill for it.

I've always seen this just as clear as day. But Gabor Mate's interview with Amy Goodman turned my head. I'm sure you can find it on Youtube.