By Leonard Klady Klady@moviecitynews.com
GROSS BEHAVIOR: Tears Dry on Their Own
In the best of all possible worlds when tragedy occurs – as it most certainly did two days ago in Aurora, Colorado – we can only hope that out of the rubble of something virtually incomprehensible to grasp some glimmer of understanding will peek through and we the people will do something about it.
This is admittedly lofty stuff, purplish prose and one wishes a quote one could ascribe to someone else. But while it’s hardly unprecedented for a lone shooter to wreck havoc it is thankfully sufficiently uncommon for us to respond with shock and disbelief. It doesn’t make sense and likely never will. I cannot think of a comparable heinous act that was logical to anyone other than the perpetrator.
In these realms it has the added significance of playing out in a movie multiplex. Under normal circumstances this is a venue where one escapes into dreams. It’s a safe harbor for our imagination.
Objectively speaking it’s also an ideal target for anyone who wanted to make a statement about the fragility of a free society. Following the 9/11 attacks there was considerable speculation that terrorists could readily inflict further damage to the American psyche by launching a lethal strike on a theme park.
The truth of the matter is that movie theaters, sports arenas, music concerts and the like are all places where someone (or ones) could go on a murderous rampage that would have a high human toll and reverberate in subtle and tacit changes in our daily life. I’d like to believe that the discomfort and inconvenience one experiences when one goes to the airport is directly responsible for a decade plus of hijack-free skies. However, numerous reports of TSA incompetence aren’t helpful to that conclusion.
It wouldn’t require a whole lot of suasion to convince me that having disturbed the “friendly skies,” terror groups have moved on to another devastating scenario. The one that comes to mind is the hitherto fictional Black Sunday. In the 1975 novel by Thomas Harris and the subsequent film, a terrorist organization plots to assassinate the U.S. president and hundreds of others during the Super Bowl.
At this point at least there’s nothing to connect James Holmes, the alleged Aurora gunman, with a political faction or terrorist cell. He’s yet to issue a statement about his actions. So for the moment the incident echoes last year’s rampage on the Norwegian island Utoeya in which Anders Behring Breivik assassinated 69 people at a summer camp following setting off a car bomb in Oslo that killed eight people.
Ironically, Norway ranked third in a United Nation’s study earlier this year of the happiest places to live. The United States was 11th in the survey.
Regardless bad, inexplicable things happen in otherwise nice places.
The question isn’t “why?” No matter the rationale of the person behind such ghastly acts, these aren’t things that follow in some comprehensible order. It’s only in hindsight that an acquaintance or medical expert emerges with a connective portrait that leads to the gruesome finale.
No amount of physical or technical surveillance is going to prevent another Columbine, et al. Early reports suggest that Holmes entered the movie auditorium via an emergency exit he forced open. In Breivik’s case he coerced his way onto the island by wearing a military uniform. In either situation only dumb luck would have stopped the two men from completely their lethal acts.
We all wish there was a quick fix that would avert these man-made catastrophes.
The wider issue is really about a free society. What is one entitled to in a democracy? I remember something about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But when those very things are threatened by external enemies or those from within, is it right for the government to dictate that one relinquish some or any freedoms for?
Certainly Aurora is going to raise anxiety levels. But can potential threats be tamped down by the presence of police or military in a movie auditorium? Is the typical movie goer ready to pay an additional cost to see a movie in “safety.” And what’s the psychological toll of being somewhere where the very presence of security implies a dangerous environment.
Notwithstanding the Norwegian massacre, one news report emerging from Aurora cited studies that revealed a comparable percentage of such violent acts in both the U.S. and European nations. However, America had significantly more fatalities as a result of the weaponry available to the assailant. And coverage of Aurora has repeatedly noted that the four firearms used were all acquired legally.
Back in 1791 America’s legislators inscribed in the Constitution the right to “keep and bear arms.” If one is a literalist about the document no one should be allowed to own anything more lethal than a flintlock musket. Holmes had two Glock pistols, an assault rifle and a shotgun. That arsenal seems rather extreme for either the protection of one’s home or to go out hunting for moose.
I’m still gasping to find the hopeful glimmer out of Aurora, Salt Lake City, Utoeya and countless other historic murders and genocides. There are glib homilies one could cite such as be a good neighbor. One’s also prone to assume a “do nothing” stance and hope time and circumstance will resolve the issue. It might but the likelihood that someone else will act in your best interests to your satisfaction appears to be an increasingly remote equation in present society. For the time being all I can offer is “do something.”
