War entertains and frightens, while heroism mixes with horror

Here is a trend that is so American: violent crime in some areas is increasing to level unseen for decades and citizens are arming themselves in record numbers.

The cause of the uptick in crime is likely complex but certainly starts with the pandemic and the grinding depression and feelings of helplessness that many people have been dealing with for over two years. Oh, and there is the torrent of violent rhetoric that politicians and media personalities have dumped on us all. And then there is the lure of fat profits for gun manufacturers, which leads to ramped up production and marketing and sales.

And, duh, there's a world war raging. Sure, it's not in our neighborhoods, but I suppose there is some comfort to be found in having a gun (or several guns) handy, just in case. You never know when the next Canadian incursion ("special military operation") will occur. 

And then there are all those liberal baby eaters and abusers... and they could be just down the block. Hey, one of their supporters is nominated for the Supreme Court.

That last graf is sarcastic, just in case there is any doubt, and an example of how the ability to create alternative realities has warped us. Thanks, social (or anti-social) media.

In a related trend, we are fascinated and gratified to find that people who are not Americans could be moved to defend their own country when it is attacked. "What? Do you mean that people all over the planet can feel patriotic emotions?" 

Every online and broadcast platform is filled with praise for the brave Ukrainian fighters, and all the Ukrainians who have willingly grabbed a rifle and are engaging the enemy. We are almost giddy to find that an estimated 40,000 Russian soldiers have been killed, injured, captured, or simply disappeared. Between 7 and 15 thousand is the estimate of the dead over the past month. 

It's March Madness, for sure. It doesn't seem all that different to cheer for a great basketball play in crunch time that decides the game and to cheer as a shoulder-fired anti-tank gun destroys a tank and everyone inside. 

“Every film about war ends up being pro-war,” Francois Truffaut, the famous director, once said. He exaggerated, but only slightly. War movies (and I include continual coverage of an ongoing war along with scripted films in this case) always feature good guys and bad guys, and the contrast is so vivid between the Ukrainians (classic good guys forced to fight) and Russians (classic bad guys choosing to fight). 

I assume that many of our friends and neighbors who love their guns, value their guns, and regularly train for conflict (or at least blow off steam at a shooting range) imagine themselves as potential heroes. They dream of the day they happen to be packing when their local King Soopers is attacked by a nut case. They take out the terrorist, at least in their imagination. 

As David Bowie sang, "We can be heroes."

Meanwhile, the nation is awash in guns and bullets, with estimates being that civilians (not police or military) possess nearly 400 million guns (more than one per American). Over 40 percent of households have at least one gun.

Perhaps the important question is why there isn't MORE gun violence in a country that idolizes weapons and becomes increasingly divided.