Eight people shot in five hours today in Chicago today

smerka

It is getting really effing depressing. This isn't about gun control. It is a lack of respect for life, hopelessness, the drug trade, poverty, thug life, etc. So if any of you have thoughts on how to fix it, I'd love to hear them.

smerka

And then there's this...
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-more-than-100-people-have-been-shot-in-chicago-so-far-this-year-20160111-story.html

nkjacobsma

It's unfixable by politicians because it's about the culture.  I hold the media and big corporations largely responsible. There are no ethics in the way things are being portrayed on the media and the way things are marketed and sold to people. It would have to change there, but it's difficult to do without the government stepping in and censoring, which is also a no-no in my book.

MommyLiberty5013

Yes, but you won't like my idea.

Bring God back into the culture - or, at least religion that outwardly espouses life and kindness. People have NONE of this. There is not evident teaching or instruction from anywhere on morals or ethics. Kids are not being raised with this sort of stuff any more. Unfortunately many people are learning to only be nice if and when it suits them, not just being nice and kind and honest for the sake of it. We have a very self-centered, egotistical culture saturated in materialism.

There was a rural tribe in the Amazon that would murder for ANY reason. A person could look at someone the wrong way and they'd kill that person, not even an outsider, just somebody who offended them in that tribe. Religion came in and the morals and the morale of the society got better. They began to be kind and learn that conflict could be resolved in other ways besides death. Their name escapes me at the moment, but I recall seeing a documentary about them.

Religion is not without flaws. But, it does help a lot.

nkjacobsma

MommyLiberty5013 said:

Yes, but you won't like my idea.

Bring God back into the culture - or, at least religion that outwardly espouses life and kindness. People have NONE of this. There is not evident teaching or instruction from anywhere on morals or ethics. Kids are not being raised with this sort of stuff any more. Unfortunately many people are learning to only be nice if and when it suits them, not just being nice and kind and honest for the sake of it. We have a very self-centered, egotistical culture saturated in materialism.

There was a rural tribe in the Amazon that would murder for ANY reason. A person could look at someone the wrong way and they'd kill that person, not even an outsider, just somebody who offended them in that tribe. Religion came in and the morals and the morale of the society got better. They began to be kind and learn that conflict could be resolved in other ways besides death. Their name escapes me at the moment, but I recall seeing a documentary about them.

Religion is not without flaws. But, it does help a lot.

I think you have a point. Postmodernism is the idea that everything is relative, there is no objective truth, which logically follows to "morality is relative." As Nietzsche pointed out - when everything is relative, "God is dead." There is no more meaning to life and everything is just hopeless and meaningless. But again, I think this is the media and big corporations who are promoting that idea further. I think that the government could help by encouraging religion, spirituality, and faith in SOMETHING. That doesn't mean we have to make the Bible a school textbook, but religion/faith is currently treated as something invaluable to society.

Also, I'm a very strong Catholic. So I may like your idea more than you think.

smerka

There are many churches in the area. I am sure they are doing what they can but it is working.

And BTW, religion is not a requirement for morality.

nkjacobsma

smerka said:

There are many churches in the area. I am sure they are doing what they can but it is working. And BTW, religion is not a requirement for morality.

Faith is something helps. Doesn't even have to be a religion. I'm just saying that our current philosophy is stuck in postmodernism, which leads to hopelessness because it basically says everything is relative. If everything is relative, then there can't be any truth, then there can't be any true meaning to life, then life is meaningless.

short+sassy

nkjacobsma said:

MommyLiberty5013 said:

Yes, but you won't like my idea.

Bring God back into the culture - or, at least religion that outwardly espouses life and kindness. People have NONE of this. There is not evident teaching or instruction from anywhere on morals or ethics. Kids are not being raised with this sort of stuff any more. Unfortunately many people are learning to only be nice if and when it suits them, not just being nice and kind and honest for the sake of it. We have a very self-centered, egotistical culture saturated in materialism.

There was a rural tribe in the Amazon that would murder for ANY reason. A person could look at someone the wrong way and they'd kill that person, not even an outsider, just somebody who offended them in that tribe. Religion came in and the morals and the morale of the society got better. They began to be kind and learn that conflict could be resolved in other ways besides death. Their name escapes me at the moment, but I recall seeing a documentary about them.

Religion is not without flaws. But, it does help a lot.

I think you have a point. Postmodernism is the idea that everything is relative, there is no objective truth, which logically follows to "morality is relative." As Nietzsche pointed out - when everything is relative, "God is dead." There is no more meaning to life and everything is just hopeless and meaningless. But again, I think this is the media and big corporations who are promoting that idea further. I think that the government could help by encouraging religion, spirituality, and faith in SOMETHING. That doesn't mean we have to make the Bible a school textbook, but religion/faith is currently treated as something invaluable to society.

Also, I'm a very strong Catholic. So I may like your idea more than you think.

My dad (he is with God now) had a fondness for t-shirts with funny sayings on them.  One of my faves:

"God is dead." -- Nietzsche

"Nietzsche is dead." -- God

short+sassy

I hear ya, smerka .  I live in NOLA and, while usually not in 5 hours, 8 shootings is a typical week...sometimes weekend.  But then, we are also at least 10x smaller than Chicago.  It's just horrifying and hard to imagine...yet there it is.  And on a regular basis.

short+sassy

Agreed with other PPs.  It's about having a moral compass.  Not just with violent crime, but just with living by the golden rule and being a fair and good person.  Whenever my life here on earth is done...the greatest compliment that I hope people say about me is that our world is better for my having been here.  I don't mean in any huge way...but just that I did my small part to leave things better.  To have made other people's lives easier when I could.