Thoughts on NIU Shooting

In the wake of a massacre, like the one that happened on the campus of Northern Illinois University, the brokenness of our world becomes immediately apparent. If you were anything like me, after hearing eye witness accounts of the shooting, you wonder how a man dressed in black with an expressionless face could destroy so many lives only to take his own in the end. This kind of event leaves me utterly dumbfounded and struggling to makes sense of the situation. I believe it’s a natural inclination to want a rational for something like this. The first thing we look for is a motive—a reason why someone would perform such a gratuitous act. Although this man might have been suffering from some kind of psychological disorder, my guess is that this man’s actions were in response to something—in response to some kind of mistreatment or other injustice that he felt had been committed against him. Perhaps he lived a life where he felt like the world was against him in such a way that his only response was to take aim at his oppressors and act out violently in a revengeful manner. I realize that I am making some rather wide speculations about this man's mental state and his disposition towards the people he knew and the life he led; however, other school shootings have been carried out by other people with revenge as their primary motive for killing. So here’s my question: “What is it about our society that motivates people to seek revenge to the extent that it would lead them to act out violently?” I want to offer up one suggestion that might partially answer this question, but before I do, I want to be absolutely clear that I am not attempting to point the finger at any one thing in our society that can shoulder the entire blame for violent acts of revenge. The world we inhabit is too complex for such a tactic. With that said, I want to briefly explore how some of these violent acts of revenge might be connected to the way we glorify revenge through redemptive violence in various forms of media, namely film. Take for example the Kill Bill movies, Man on Fire, Four Brothers, Gladiator, Braveheart, and V for Vendetta. The reality is that there is enough Revenge Movies in circulation to fill an entire section at your local Block Buster. All of these movies seem to glorify and yes—even romanticize—revengeful acts of redemptive violence. In my mind, this creates a societal mentality that views revenge as acceptable, justified, and normative. Now to be perfectly honest, I must admit that I thoroughly enjoy watching some of the movies I just referenced. There is something gluttonously entertaining about them. But I’m beginning to question their greater impact on our society. I’m not saying movies kill people or that movies make people kill people; I’m saying that certain movies have the potential to influence our society and to make violent acts of revenge and redemptive violence more acceptable and even normative.