Yesterday, in response to the mall shooting in Maryland, a friend on Facebook talked about her experiences working in mall security in North Carolina. In the comments, people discussed the role of guns in American society, but she replied,

I just don't think this is about guns.
Something ELSE is wrong...
there is something new wrong with us.
And we need to figure out what it is.

I would like to suggest that there are, perhaps, several things happening in our world today that have come together to create this deadly climate.

The first issue, I think, is economic uncertainty. Here in the United States, and around the world, we’ve seen difficult economic circumstances. The meltdown of American financial institutions and the great recession. Financial difficulties in Europe and austerity budgets. When people think about the Arab Spring, they too often overlook the self-immolation of an impoverished worker in Tunisia which acted as a catalyst for the major changes there. Today, economic disparities appear to be getting worse and worse, and everyone is fighting to hold on to what they have.

Yet this is nothing new. The Weimar Republic was known for its economic difficulties as well. Let’s hope we don’t go down that road again.

Changes in our world, like the globalization of trade and climate change throw additional monkey wrenches into economic stability.

People who have studied Marx may feel inclined to link some of what is going on the Marx’s theory of alienation.

Alienation (Entfremdung) is the systemic result of living in a socially stratified society, because being a mechanistic part of a social class alienates a person from his and her humanity. The theoretic basis of alienation within the capitalist mode of production is that the worker invariably loses the ability to determine his or her life and destiny...

Although the worker is an autonomous, self-realised human being, as an economic entity, he or she is directed to goals and diverted to activities that are dictated by the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, in order to extract from the worker the maximal amount of surplus value, in the course of business competition among industrialists.

It is not surprising to see people lash out against a loss of ability to determine their destiny in violence.

This is further complicated by the increased role of money in politics. As economic disparity increases, the voice of all but the richest few get drowned out, and the richest use their money to have laws and policies instituted that protect or even expand their wealth. This in turn leads to greater alienation and greater probability of violence.

Related to this is how poverty fuels racism and homophobia. As poor undereducated people suffer from the economic disparities and alienation, they look for someone to lash out against. In the Weimar Republic, it was the Jews who were the primary victims of this out lash, although homosexuals and trade unionists were also lashed out against.

Here in twenty first century America, with homosexuals finally gaining equal rights to marry and with a mixed race President, people of color and homosexuals are a frequent target of these outlashes.

Yet there is one more factor, that is very important, and that is the changing media landscape. Again, we see the effect of money in politics as it relates to the political landscape. Large media corporations benefit from the money in politics and they seek to shape politics through their programming to protect their economic interests.

At the same time, we have Internet communications becoming more prevalent. Ten years ago, the media went after Gov. Howard Dean in his Presidential campaign by the now infamous misrepresentation of the ‘Dean Scream’. They took one of Dean’s campaign slogans, “You have the power” and appropriated it to themselves, asserting that the Washington Press Corps is really who has the power.

Now, as you look at discussions online, they are becoming more and more stratified and confrontational. We are living in filter bubbles’, where we don’t interact with people with other beliefs, except to yell at them.

Anyone who has read the anonymous comments on a newspaper website or watch Sunday morning cable news shows shouldn’t be surprised at the increase of violence in our country.

As the world gets smaller, the growing economic disparities become more apparent, and we see more violence.

The question is, how much worse will it get before we see a turning of the tide and a decrease in violence? What will it take to refocus from the culture wars to the effect that class wars are having on our society?

I don’t know, but I’m heading off to a church that is focused on feeding and housing the poor, and not on passing judgment on people because of the color or sexual orientation.