Angry Americans [Thurs 07/28/11]
Psychologists are saying that the average american is angry. I first caught wind of this information around 2003 -the latter part- on a T.V. show. From that point to the present I often have stopped to reflect on just how this wide-spread anger may be affecting America, and the world at large. I looked at many of the extremely violent video games we (adults) are buying for our children to entertain their minds during their leisure activities. Video games with wild simulations of brains being blow to splatter, of heads being blown or chopped off, etc... Then I began to reflect on how the kids have become considerably more aggressive on every level (elementary, middle, high school) of our school systems. This also includes colleges and universities. They're bringing knives, guns, and other dangerous weapons to school in greater numbers than ever before. Whether these things are happening in big cities or small towns, it's still America. I then looked at out criminal justice system. The direction it's headed as far as crimes and punishment. I'm sure many of you out there have heard of the "3-strikes laws" by now. Every state has its own version of it. California have a version where if you already have two strikes , and you get caught stealing as little as a bucket of chicken, you can be sentenced to life in prison. What do you make of something like that? Class B felonies have since been jacked up to 60 years prison confinement. Many of you might just be thinking, "criminals should pay." O.K. I, also, think that any civilized nation needs laws to protect and sustain the people and the society. However, I do not believe excessive punishment is healthy for people and a society. Why not? Because a spirit, thee core of every human being, knows when it has been unfairly treated. And resentment, indeed ANGER, is what you produce when you mistreat people in any form. I continue on to stare at the fact that statistics show that the United States, alone, have the largest prison population IN THE WORLD!
I turn my attention to a more recent study. Eighty percent of Americans don't trust the federal government. This is a very large number to make up a number of citizens that distrusts its own leadership. More and more Americans, out of all things, are joining Al-Quaeda! What do you make of that? Recently, they said the number of Americans who have traveled over seas to join Al-Quaeda is greater than what they originally thought.
We're seeing ANGER on all levels of our society, The people - in growing numbers - distrusting the government, Americans joining so-called terrorists groups, etc...
On a world-level while America is rapidly falling behind in education (26th in math, 19th in science), and lagging behind most of the other technological countries in technology, we're waging the most wars. We're attacking religion everywhere we find it or its institutions.
We're passing perverse laws.
It's been proven by doctors that when one is angry he can't think clearly. This is because anger cloudy your normal thought process, resulting in an inability to think clearly and rationally. Psychologists say that anger is a form of stress that can take years off your life. I believe that America, in going farther and farther away from religion, is making a horrific mistake. One reason I believe this is because if a nation strips it self from having morals, that nothing - I repeat - nothing will stop that nation from becoming a totally corrupt people over time.
Take a look at Egypt today. Egypt was actually a spin-off from the greater Empire of Kush. Egypt lasted three thousand years. Only eventually succombing to savage outsiders (Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs) When it went away from it's spiritual base. Today Egypt is peopled by nearly every one, EXCEPT it's original and indigenous people. It's so much confusion in that land that it aint funny. America should learn lessons from past great civilizations and how arrogance, corruption, anger, and spiritual bankruptcy led to their downfall. Going back to America having more human-beings locked up in prison than anywhere else in the world. 30-40 years ago It was a couple of hundred thousand peoples locked in U.S. prisons. Today, there are two-million people locked in U.S. prisons. In my view this is mainly the results of an angry people gone angrier. Some will say, "Well, what are you supposed to do with criminals?" The most popular opinion is LOCK THEM AWAY. Infact, when you look at what's been happening around the country with prisons, you'll see that sinse the 1980's there have been a vast increase (all around the country) in the building of prisons. In addition, these newer prisoners are highly isolated. They're being built with severe "controlled" segregation units. Places where men and women are literally locked beinf as many as 3 steel doors at any one time. To add to that, these human beings are only allowed to come out of their extremely isolated cells for 1 Hr. a day during every twenty-four hr. period. So, twenty-three hours out of each day one is locked in isolation.
Let's deal with some serious topics here. Do we REALLY need prisons? I realise some crimes are much more serious than others. You have crimes that the circumstantial living environment can temp a person to commit. For example, being born and than raised in a poverty stricken neighborhood. Then there are other more severe crimes like rape and child molestation. What do we make of the large, large number of crimes like those being committed? We tend to lock the culprits up, but NOT seek the answers to these serious problems. What would make a man take a woman against her will? What would make anyone want to rape a child?? Is there something wrong with our society as a whole? Punishment is one thing, but taking the responsibility to answer the question to the serious problems of out otherwise great country is another. One example of what I'm trying to express, to all THINKING Americans, is this;
Remember Timothy McVeigh? Yes. He was a typical all-American young man. He came from a middle class family, he was a high school graduate, had lots of friends, etc... Then he's goes to the military. Her serves. He returns.. you all know the rest of the story. Eventually he was subjected to demise by way of capital punishment. I would NEVER have destroyed a mind like that. I would have kept him alive to allow psychologists (i.e. social psychologists) to study his personality to satisfaction. I would have had leading psychologists come in from all across the nation to study him. In this manner I truly believe we could serve society a lot better than just locking someone up, or worse yet murdering someone. I think that we need to build more schools, invest more in education, and be willing to study social ills. In this manner we may be able to cure society from these types of problems recurring in the future.
On the contrary, locking some one up may be a quick-fix, BUT does it address - really - the root of the problem(s) and.or what caused the problem(s)? I believe that much of the bizarre things we see happening around the U.S. today is due heavily to Americans being angry. Until we refrain from letting ANGER be our chief motivator in determining the decisions we make to guide our great nation, we will continue to slip farther, and farther down into the depths of degradation.

Note:Let's remove ANGER, and Replace it with LOVE.
http://betweenthebars.org/blogs/285

Al-Amin Akbar

For further discourse please contact me at the above site or address.