Just more musings:
Mr. Rhino gave a pretty fair rationale
for how homogenized America lacks community identity,
and this in itself can be somewhat or very alienating.
I grew up in Queens (NYC), and, though New York City is big,
I read a wonderful eloquent description of it due to Charles Kuralt
(who gave us some really fine descriptions
of slices of life in America),
that the City is composed of many neighborhoods,
many towns, the only thing differentiating it
from other towns being that there are no cornfields between them.
So NYC has this fierce sense of belonging,
at least amongst those native to certain neighborhoods.
Some parts of the country have it more than others.
Some lack it more than others.
The homogenization factor, at work since the '50s by my recollection, with rampant franchisees, seems a Big Negative.
But I agree with other folks who say that the responsibility lies with those kids. The responsibility is theirs.
Symptom of a sick country.
I don't blame the media explicitly -
as an aside, it sometimes really annoys me to hear the wailing over this is, or Oklahoma City, or whatever, which, though closer to home, seems far, far, far out of proportion to the miseries visited upon East Timor, Tibet, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and many others.
When I hear of these tragedies visited upon us by students,
it always seems that there is some Marilyn Manson death mentality
thing going on in their clique that's incredibly influential,
comes to dominate them beyond any connection
with family, community, school.
George |
