Wow. My circle of relatives, friends and acquaintances includes more suicides than seems reasonable (one is too many) but no murders, unless you include two of my dad's dental assistants about 40 years ago, drug related "executions" in Miami many moons ago. One girl was the sister and the other the girlfriend of the wrong guy, apparently tried to get cute in a drug deal and they all paid the price. Sad.
For a while I lived in New Orleans, a place with many murders, and, indeed, a woman living across the street was knifed to death by a burglar, but I did not know her.
Washington DC is a place of many murders, but we live in Fairfax, VA, a "bedroom community" with few murders. Even robbery, burglary and rape are relatively infrequent.
This despite the fact that we are racially, ethnically and culturally diverse. Thus, I conclude that race, ethnicity and culture are not causes of violent crime, but economic advantage and disadvantage seem to be, and perhaps also educational advantage and disadvantage.
Not to mention that certain je ne sais quoi I call general fuggheadedness.
Example, methamphetamines. Some people taking methamphetamines work harder, longer, and are more productive. Fighter jet pilots. Long haul truck drivers. Assembly line workers. Others become violent, crazed and destructive. It's something in the genes, or in the wiring.
Freud on cocaine was a genius. Your average mediocre movie star on cocaine is a loser.
This is not a "too good for the common people" argument. I could not handle methamphetamines or cocaine myself, and prefer not to try. Caffeine, alcohol and occasionally nicotine are about what I can handle. |
