I’m going to say this because, I’m starting to wonder if I’m the only one noticing, or maybe it’s not as weird as I think it is. But, seriously, have you noticed how many stories there have been about men killing their own families and then themselves? Or, to a somewhat lesser extent, just themselves or a going shooting spree that also involves family? Most of them are in some sort of financial trouble. Some are laid off. Some were living beyond their means. But I can think of at least a dozen cases since the start of the year, without even straining my brain too hard.
And I don’t mean this in a “men are dangerous” kind of way. I mean this in a “shouldn’t we be helping them?” kind of way. If there was a rash of teenagers or mothers wiping out their families and committing suicide, there would be headlines: “Teens in Trouble” or “Is the American Mother Overwhelmed?”. There would be Oprah shows and Dateline Special Reports. We’d be talking about counseling and resources, and there would be concern. Nobody seems to be making anything out of this. Or maybe I’m just seeing things.
Men are getting hit hard by the financial crisis. Sometimes I think they get a raw deal in this area. They don’t ask, and society doesn’t offer. No matter what our ideals are, men still carry a lot of the emotional financial burden in two-parent households. Nobody rushes to their defense. Nobody seems to take this kind of acting out as a cry of desperation. We run to offer help to women and kids, but men kind of get left in the wind. It just seems “not fair.”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I just do not see the connection from "I can't support my family" to "I'll kill them all and then myself." Just plain "kill myself" I can see how that leap is made (though not condone or sympathize with) -- but why the mass murder of your supposed loved ones? And why aren't the suddenly unemployed single moms with large broods doing it? There is definitely something broken in the male psyche and it certainly isn't a recent thing -- we just get to hear all the workwide instances in graphic detail now.
Women seem to have their own sad version of this in the post-partum killings, though they rarely take the spouse with them. Texas had a really bad run of those a few years ago, and it got big media attention. I think there must be a deep kind of hopelessness some parents feel when they can't care for their families in some essential way. Despair is a dangerous thing.
At least the guys who were committing suicide during the recession of the early 80's left life insurance policies. Still bad/sad, but at least they didn't wipe out their entire families!
Funny how these things come up in the "greed is good" eras. You have to wonder how much these guys had been using lavish lifestyles and over-consumption to anesthetize other problems. I had thought we'd come a long way from the repressed 50s, but obviously people will still look for ways to avoid handling their sh**.
Post a Comment