Dark Shit Rises

People in Colorado went to see the new installment of Batman, Dark Night Rises, waiting to watch violence, mayhem, shootings, and that is exactly what they got, physically, in their own movie theather, LIVE. It is hard to miss the irony here – the perp who senselessly killed so many people was dressed up in tactical suit, wore tactical gloves, planned the whole thing down to smoke canisters, was armed for combat exactly like.. Batman (or Joker).

As we wrote in Covering the Distance, aggressive behaviour is a communication mechanism in America. People’s way of acting is a function of distance that are in between indiiduals who had to populate a vast landscape. Why are Americans so loud? Because there is a lot of distance to cover. Why throw keys, other things from to one person to another? It’s not only done in movies because it looks cool. Behaviour is a function of distance.There’s also the “prohibition / letting go” cultural fault line of course. Perp wanted to “let go”, and be cool.

But there is more.

Nowadays, everyone wants to be a knight. And for better or worse, they now have the tools to do it. Gun laws, outlawing this or that is not the issue. 21st century technology favors the individuals, in America you may get shootings because of bullshit culture codes, in other places, you might get hackers, or other forms of outbursts. But it is all different sides of the same coin.

We need a different form of art, different way of societal structures, different forms of community. This is just crazy shit. It cant be wished away, overlooked, ignored. Even the mass media picked up on the fact that Batman shooting took place 20 miles away from Columbine High School. Come on! Where is the penetrating analysis that can explain both events in one swoop? Where are the thinkers?