The most recent mass-shooting tragedy sets into stark contrast two national misfortunes. At surface, they seem similar -- crazed gunmen opening fire on citizens and lethal misbehavior by a minority of bad cops. But in several important ways, the trends are diametrically opposite.
First - random shooting sprees by deeply sick civilians seem to have no end in sight. Over half of the world's deadliest mass shootings that have occurred in the past 50 years were in the U.S., whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. Limiting easy access to weaponry by psychopaths is one blatantly obvious path. So would be courageous investment in education and mental health...
... but the top Roseburg police official mentioned another option we should add to our list of responses. Said the local Sheriff regarding this shooter: 'You will never hear me mention his name.’ Indeed, soon after, the community at-large responded by adopting this approach.
At last! I have only been proposing this for 20 years. See my article on the Erastratos Effect: "Names that live in infamy. Killers want notoriety. Let's not give it to them."
But to be fair and honest, all of this will just nibble at the edges. In
one of the most sad-but-clever satirical gambits, The Onion simply re-posts its gun violence article with updated locations and dates, each
time this occurs, with the same title: "No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." Go read it and laugh while
you cry, knowing you will read it again and again, in the future....
== Commentary ==
== What's your rating? ==
First - random shooting sprees by deeply sick civilians seem to have no end in sight. Over half of the world's deadliest mass shootings that have occurred in the past 50 years were in the U.S., whose citizens are 20 times more likely to die of gun violence than those of other developed nations. Limiting easy access to weaponry by psychopaths is one blatantly obvious path. So would be courageous investment in education and mental health...... but the top Roseburg police official mentioned another option we should add to our list of responses. Said the local Sheriff regarding this shooter: 'You will never hear me mention his name.’ Indeed, soon after, the community at-large responded by adopting this approach.
At last! I have only been proposing this for 20 years. See my article on the Erastratos Effect: "Names that live in infamy. Killers want notoriety. Let's not give it to them."
But to be fair and honest, all of this will just nibble at the edges. In
one of the most sad-but-clever satirical gambits, The Onion simply re-posts its gun violence article with updated locations and dates, each
time this occurs, with the same title: "No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens." Go read it and laugh while
you cry, knowing you will read it again and again, in the future....== Commentary ==
If I may offer a few of my own spins on our most recent tragedy?
--
First, an extra bit of sadness for me, as Roseburg featured in my novel
The Postman. If you know the topic of that book, ironies redouble.
--
Second: across all of these morbid tales, it's worth noting that in not
a single case has the perpetrator been brought down by an armed civilian bystander... not once. Ever. Though that is precisely the incantation that the NRA uses, while promoting the Campbellian notion of a gun-lugging population. Voodoo, only surpassed by Supply Side "Economics."
In fact, many mass-shooters have been brought down by heroic un-armed bystanders - like those three young Americans aboard that French train, a month or so ago - who bravely charge the lunatic, usually while he is changing clips. Of
all the NRA's insane positions, their fierce opposition to limits on clip and magazine size is
the most criminally culpable, without a single justification in defense
of normal gun owners. Only... let me swivel and point out that they do not have a monopoly on craziness here.
--
Supporters of Gun Control share some blame! Dismissing their opponents as "gun nuts," they show no
inclination to study the deep underpinnings of the "slippery slope"
argument that motivates Second Amendment supporters to oppose even the most reasonable
reforms. This despite the fact that political victories are best won by peeling away moderate pragmatists on the opposing side.
If you take the time to dig deep, you'll find a possible way
to get around this obstinacy - and peel off moderates - by offering a fair trade. (Especially
since any fool can see that the 2nd Amendment - as currently worded - is
by far the weakest in the Constitution. Some day the phrase
"well-regulated militia" will be interpreted more strongly! Gun fans need to
start negotiating now, for a better amendment.)
But someone has to drop simplistic sanctimony first -- getting
practical. And you know it will not be them. See this laid out in
detail... along with a pragmatic proposal to give all sides what they
deeply need.
But someone has to drop simplistic sanctimony first -- getting
practical. And you know it will not be them. See this laid out in
detail... along with a pragmatic proposal to give all sides what they
deeply need.
In sharp contrast... the apparent wave of cop-on-black violence on our streets, while tragic, is not an acceleration of the problem, but a sign of good trends taking hold! Because the spread of cameras in the hands of civilians -- protected by recent declarations by the courts and the Obama Administration -- is now giving the poor and minorities... and good cops... at last the 'ammo' they need to start getting rid of bad ones.
Cameras are proving to be the Great Equalizer that guns were supposed to be... but never were. (See this forecast on p. 160 of The Transparent Society (1997) and in EARTH (1989).)
Cameras are proving to be the Great Equalizer that guns were supposed to be... but never were. (See this forecast on p. 160 of The Transparent Society (1997) and in EARTH (1989).)
One of these trends - while tragic in each case - offers hope for the future.
The other makes us all want to tear our hair out.
The other makes us all want to tear our hair out.
== What's your rating? ==
And... the transparency wars continue!
One to five stars for you? Of course this had to come. Launching soon: Yelp for people: You will soon be able to rate anyone you have interacted with on this new app: with reviews and star ratings assigned to "your exes, your co-workers, the old guy who lives next door. You can’t opt out — once someone puts your name in the Peeple system, it’s there unless you violate the site’s terms of service. And you can’t delete bad or biased reviews — that would defeat the whole purpose," reads a review in the Washington Post. The launchers of Peeple say they will ban racist and sexist comments, as well as profanity and hateful comments. Yet, announcement of this app has raised a storm of protest on the internet, with potential legal woes down the road.The good news? This will light a fire under creating real reputation mediation services, a potential billion dollar business – and don’t let anyone tell you that reputation companies already exist. Currently, they are jokes.
== Your data: Sold ==
Want an entertaining jeremiad? Then swing over to the latest from Gregory Maus: How corporate data brokers sell your life, and why you should be concerned:
“For nearly two years, media coverage of the NSA has been near-constant, over concerns about the extent of their data collection on people around the world. But, there’s an even larger behemoth in the shadows gathering information about you. Unlike the NSA, they are accountable to few laws, very little accountability, and no oversight, laughing off investigative inquiries at even the highest levels of government. This is a massive ecosystem, with an insatiable desire to learn every detail of your life and then sell it to those who would use it to persuade you. In effect, it’s a sprawling black market—and as one would expect with a black market, many of the purchasers of this information are criminals who are using it to steal the identities and valuables of many. We can only hope that they’re the worst of the buyers.”
Without any doubt, this is an industry meriting application of searing light and scrutiny. For example: “MEDbase 200 was selling lists of rape victims for 7.9 cents per name, as well as similarly-priced lists of those suffering from HIV/AIDs, genetic diseases, addictive behavior (conveniently broken down into sub-categories like gambling, sex, alcohol, and drugs) and dementia. The listings were taken down soon after Dixon’s testimony.”
But… isn’t that the point? It was sufficient for such behaviors to be seen for them to be stopped. To whatever degree they continue, it is precisely proportional to the degree they can get away with it, in secret. Indeed, that is the only anodyne or answer. It is wholly necessary and wholly sufficient. Well, almost wholly sufficient. What is not needed is panicky legislation to shut info flows down, with the best of privacy-protecting intentions. Those selfsame laws will inevitably be used to shelter the very miscreants they are meant to stop.
== Vanishing your data ==
And finally... Xerox PARC engineers have developed a chip that can explode into teensy little pieces as part of DARPA's Vanishing Programmable Resources project. Yes... explode.
Who’d want that? Self-destruction of chips is central to the goal of securing data from thieves — criminal or national. Someday, this chip could be used to keep, say, encryption keys needed to access sensitive data. The self-destruction process can also be triggered not just by a laser, but also via radio signals or a physical switch.
Does this conflict with my goals as “Mr. Transparency”? Nonsense. Anyone who thinks that simply has not bothered to read or understand.
