how much responsiblity do you think we, as a people and as a society, have?

((Froufrou))

All that keeps coming to my mind, right now, is this...

If we can't even get people, as a society, to care about what they post and say on this Yahoo site.. to take responsibility for their actions... what does it say for something of such great magnitude as that killing spree?

I know this isn't an exceptional answer, but I keep wondering how nobody saw anything that set off any kind of warning alarm in their heads.

We as a society are being DESENSITIZED by the culture (news, tv, movies, technology) I would say the US MEDIA has a lot responsibility for this because they always remember the KILLERS, not the VICTIMS. In 1999, when the COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL MASSACRE occurred in 1999 (also Colorado) there were actually TV CREWS filming STUDENTS who were escaping out the windows, while SHOTS were heard in the background INSTEAD of HELPING them!

The killers were both on the COVER of TIME, PEOPLE, NEWSWEEK. There were pages and pages of their lives, their pictures and every other publication you could think of, where the victims were just small footnotes, almost a list casualties with a small paragraph on each. They did documentaries, they caught COPYCATS before another tragedy occurred, they did studies about the two killers, opportunist director Michael Moore did a documentary about the shootings...

The shooter in Colorado is an example of "KILLING FOR NOTORIETY", or a "THRILL KILLER" to get FAMOUS. He used this as a PLATFORM to to get FAMOUS, because of the popularity of the DARK KNIGHT RISES, the villains within the Batman universe (like the JOKER). he could have gone out being shot by the cops, or shot himself, he didn't, he surrendered without a fight.

He now gets a trial and even MORE ATTENTION, which is sick but that's the way it works in the US. He's NOT CRAZY either, he PLANNED this entire attack out, he's a SOCIOPATH with an AGENDA and that's it. It would not surprise me though if the shooter in AURORA was trying to "top" the death toll of Columbine (since it occurred only 13 miles from LITTLETON COLORADO.

We have all the responsibility for what others receive -and for what WE receive- from TV, internet, movies, etc... Our society doesn't provide the necessary opportunities for people who are not what people expect -people who are shy, less self-confident, but desperately want to be liked... and still nobody notices they're there... then they shift to the dark side... and "ah, that person is evil...". Well, that's how society works nowadays... first nobody helps those who are left behind and forgotten, and then everybody complains because they turn into psychopaths and commit suicide or kill others... but the emptiness of being totally forgotten and never felt accepted and loved, is so terrible that it can lead to such an atrocity... it can... and it does... It's not just this particular killer... it's many others that don't kill but do other things... or kill themselves -and nobody hears about their story...-. Tragedies that could be avoided, just by offering those people an opportunity to shine and be loved, before it's too late and they become "evil"... even the kindest and sweetest angel would become a monster if they were treated the way many people are treated... either abused or just forgotten and left terribly lonely and misunderstood... that twists any soul...

So the responsibility is ours at last... for supporting that kind of violence in movies and everything (we support it when we go to watch the movies and pay... for example...), for behaving like the others, leaving shy people alone... for many things we do every day... but well, if we kill animals for "food", why should we care about other humans...? We should think about that too... a society that sees animal cruelty (animal farms and slaughterhouses) as a normal thing, can't be much better for humans... The answer is PEACE... for all... http://terranovauk.blog.com/being-vegan/

Why will have to society take accountability? I taught my daughter to not have intercourse until she gets married. I also have taught her that if she does she is going to get PREGNANT. I let her read over my shoulder "by accident" here... All these girls saying.. I am pregnant and my bf left me...Waaaaaa. She is aware of what occurs. We have now also discussed "what if" No i would not kick her out... However she would need to be liable. I believe families will have to deal with what occurs within. Of direction, not everybody is like that both. When they go on Welfare considering that they comprehend they can't have a baby and work and go to tuition too, guess what? Society is now in charge. When they neglect their youngster because they don't seem to be mature sufficient to know they're in over their head and then DHS takes the baby or babies... We're in charge. The whole thing in one way or one other falls again on our society.

We have to take responsibility for ourselves first...we are living in an age where responsibility always seems to be somebody else's. Wanna buy a beer at 16?? Go for it! It's the store clerk who gets arrested!! Fail in school?? Fire the teacher!! Going hungry!! It's Uncle Sam's job.

Everybody's a victim.

*sigh*

No wonder nobody's taking responsibility...they don't even KNOW what the word MEANS.

Responsibility shouldn't stop at any point. We got acquainted with them in the past, and the ongoing tasks we deal with each passing day still require that same sense of responsible thinking. There's no limit or excuse to it. We are each responsible for our actions.....and inactions.

I've always wondered WHY the 'inventors' of destructive tools and mechanisms are highly praised like wicked geniuses of our times? The so-called brightest of minds who are given privileges to freely formulate toxic solutions, or come up with sophisticated weapons? The licensed walk-in stores of guns and freakish ammunition? The advertised e-commerce of dangerous substances? Are we PROUD about all these? Isn't the crime of the proprietors the same, if not larger, than those of their perpetrators?

All inventions that support war and destruction are -----'UNLAWFUL' and INHUMAN. It's incomprehensible why governments and their leaders TOLERATE this with much PRIDE.....as though they're just 'business as usual'?.....and competition is high?

ultimate responsibility comes down to an individual. anybody who treated that shooter poorly or unfairly in his life is a slight contributor.

when individual people are cruel just a little bit in their lives, it can and often does pool together and finds an innocent person suseptible of cracking.

too many straws a person's back always results in that unfortunate tipping point where it breaks.

the shooter holds most of the responsibility, but society isn't completely innocent by any stretch of the imagination.

I think the responsiblility society has is to honor what opportunities you are given. There are people with such disorders, it would be impossible for them to live on earth (if a seen a documentary about a boy named Johnny whose skin fell off...it's on youtube).There are people who cannot love, or be loved----and even some people who are not allowed to be who they choose to be because of unjust laws. So, I think it's only best to appreciate our health and civil opportunities by living life to the fullest and being the best we can be.

I must copy and post part of my answer from your other question:

We live in a very sick society. When there's chronic illness, it usually requires that the person realize and admit that they are ill, before they can be helped and hopefully cured. And to cure illness, it is necessary to examine and thwart the cause of it.

Too many in our society do not want to admit the ways in which we are ill, and too many do not want to see what's really causing it.

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And Agent99 (below) is right. You may have heard that the best way to encourage a bully to keep bullying is to react to him in horror and fear and so on. They want your energy - the energy of your attention. When will Americans realize that it's really stupid to make events like this into a media circus?

We, as a species, are fully competent at the highest intelligence levels to take progressive and valid actions to prevent such events, but we as a social system are conflicted and our efforts are dispersed to conflict resolution in the legal system more than any other part of our social system, i.e. democracy.