Long ago in a land far away, I attended public school. By today’s standards, that school would be considered barbaric.
After all, we lacked armed security guards. Or even unarmed guards. We didn’t even have hall monitors.
Yet we felt safe.
We did not have armed teachers. We did not have lockdown drills. We did not have surveillance cameras. Yet we felt safe.
Visitors were requested, via a sign, to check in at the main office. But nobody was there to enforce the request.
And we felt safe.
The doors to the building were not locked. Yet we felt safe.
There were no metal detectors. Yet we felt safe.
Okay, to be candid, some schools in the larger cities had metal detectors. A relative in Brooklyn (part of New York City) attended a high school that had a metal detector at the entrance. But its purpose was to confiscate knives, not guns. If guns turned up, that was an unplanned bonus. The students there felt safe – at least from shooters, if not from bullies who liked to beat up others.
Without all the security features of today, we all felt safe.
It didn’t occur to anyone that someone would WANT to go on an armed rampage, killing indiscriminately.
I wonder if today we are more barbaric and yesteryear was more civilized.
But why have today’s schools – and let’s face it, pretty much most of society – become hunting grounds for humans?
That’s a tough one to answer.
I think part of the answer lies in other “advances” that we lacked way back then.
We did not have smartphones. Or cellphones. Or personal computers. Or the Internet.
We did not have “social” media, which can also be rather anti-social.
We did not have cable television. We did not have streaming.
The seven or so television channels we did have, some stopped broadcasting at 1 or 2 a.m. And stayed off the air until 6 a.m.
There was no 24-hour news cycle. If you wanted an update, you turned on the nightly half-hour news show or waited until the next day’s newspaper.
But now we seek and receive nonstop updates and other emotion-triggering information and images, around the clock.
Used to be that the voices of wackos with far-out views – either far right or far left – did not travel far. But now we’re barraged by those voices.
Used to be that wackos who wanted their views known had to write them down by hand, or type them on a typewriter, and then pay postage to mail a copy to each potential reader.
Now those wacko views are put onto the Internet, at no charge, for millions or billions to see.
Sometimes, today’s acts of mass killing are committed solely to get others to read the perpetrator’s online manifesto.
What did we do after school in those slower days? Some of us stayed on school grounds for non-electronic school activities. Some went to after-school jobs. Others went home.
And unless we picked up a telephone (plugged into a phone jack in the wall), we did not natter away nonstop with others.
There was no constant connection to others.
More importantly, there was no fear of being unconnected.
But today the majority seems afraid of being disconnected from the crowd. There is constant electronic stimulation. Somehow, the social media circus, whether it be watching video after video, or reading one posting after another, makes people feel connected to a web of comrades.
This constant connection to others leaves us unwilling or unable to step back and contemplate.
As Henry Kissenger observed earlier this year, “The daily impact of events overrides reflection about its meaning.”
Consider the following quote from Stephen Bertman’s “Hyperculture: The Human Cost of Speed” (Praeger Publishers, 1998):
“The handwritten letter of colonial days that took weeks to reach its recipient represented a method of communication that invited reverie and reflection before reply. E-mailed, the same message today demands an instantaneous response.”
Individuals seldom pause nowadays for reflection. We feel compelled to react instantly.
Perhaps that means we are too connected to others.
If school shooters had been shielded from the views of others over social media, shielded from the websites and chat rooms and all other electronic activity in a “connected” life … well, maybe we wouldn’t have so many school shooters.
For the onslaught of constant electronic stimulation – and its emotionally charged content – leaves many of us wired up, juiced, on edge.
And leaves a few folks lethally ready to explode.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.