Addressing the Roots of Mass Murder
The phone call came from the widow of a collegaue with whom I had taught a number of shooting classes.
“That guy who just shot up the music festival in Las Vegas? I remember him: You and Harvey had him in one of your classes.”
I was floored. It was possible. He kinda looked familiar, and he owned a home in the town next door to me. That call sent me on two missions. First, to find out if I had indeed taught him. And second, to learn all that I could about what motivates a man to commit mass murder.
This became somewhat personal to me. I discovered that one of my distant ancestors, Andrew Kehoe, was one of the first, perhaps the first, mass murderer in U.S. history, having killed 45 people by detonating bombs around a school in Bath, Michigan in 1927.
Here’s what I have learned…
Despite what many think, guns are irrelevant. This is about a very dark corner of the human mind where violence on an epic scale is seen to redeem a failed or meaningless life.
This is neither an American issue nor a strictly Western issue. When Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles became the Lieutenant Governor of Java in the early 1800s, he encountered a phenomenon known as “mengamuk” — roughly translated as a “furious and desperate charge.” A previously well-regarded member of society would suddenly attack an entire crowd of his former associates, killing men women and children, until he was cut down by other armed men. The Javanese attributed this to the murderer having been possessed by the spirit of a tiger. Not suprisingly, psychologists today have other explanations
For 150 years, Amok has been a listed malady in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Although it’s traditionally been thought of as a rare condition that occurs only in isolated tribal cultures (a culture-bound syndrome), research has shown that it actually exists in numerous cultures, Asian and Western alike. And strangely, that it is becoming more common than it had been in the past.
There’s a discernible pattern: The attacker has been dispossessed from society, having suffered a string of losses, bad luck and failure that lead him to lash out at the society that spurned him. And it is always a “him,” never a “her.” It was simultaneously a way of escaping his woes, and regaining fame (albeit posthumously) as a man to be feared. Culturally, this has been linked to the Nordic tradition of Berserkers.
In “Running Amok: A Modern Perspective on a Culture-Bound Syndrome” Dr. Manuel St. Martin argues that these mass murderers result from “a mental disorder, personality pathology, and psychosocial stressors. Early recognition of the risk factors for Amok and prompt treatment of the underlying psychiatric condition or personality disorder offer the best chance of preventing it.”
Fundamentally, it’s a kind of suicide in which the perpetrator tries to redefine his life by staging his death. Researchers have noted that these incidents occur in cultures where honor is highly prized, have a strong warrior culture where prowess in arms is idolized, and death in battle is regarded as heroic.
But today, these incidents occur all around the world — China, Serbia, Uganda, Austria, Britain, Germany, etc. — and the patterns are remarkably similar.
I think the answer lies in the old descriptions of Amok, and its classification as a culture-bound syndrome linked to personal honor and a warrior ethos.
Historically that is the case for Java and Sumatra, along with some of the Scandinavian countries, but it’s much less true for most of the other countries where mass murder is seen today.
I suspect the catalyst for many of these attacks is not the “real” culture but pop culture.
Starting back in the 1880s, writers in the US began pumping out cheap novels that sensationalized the violence on America’s frontier and created the myth of the “Wild West.” Most Americans don’t realize that the West wasn’t terribly wild. For example, pop culture tells us that Billy the Kid killed 21 people before being gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett, but the reality is that The Kid killed perhaps three people (the first at 13, when he stabbed a drunken cowboy in the bedroom of his mother, a prostitute), and might have survived to a ripe old age (look up Brushy Bill Roberts).
These novels enshrined in the American consciousness the myth of the lone cowboy standing up against all odds and overcoming the bad guys because of his superior prowess in arms and boundless, almost suicidal, courage. The mythos was dramatically expanded by Hollywood, and entire generations of Americans have grown up with this firmly embedded in their psyches. It’s so much a part of our identity as Americans that we refer to anyone who wants to go it alone in the face of great odds as a “cowboy.” That imagery was borrowed to create the Marlboro Man of advertising fame.
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This has been accelerated further by modern action movies, starting with the iconic James Bond series. Bond is essentially a cowboy in a tuxedo, taking down scores of bad guys and rescuing voluptuous victims. These early films led to modern action films like “First Blood” and “Die Hard,” which stretched the cowboy mythos to new and even more unbelievable lengths. And it spread around the world, propagating the myth of the lone, unstoppable warrior.
It’s worth noting that in many of these films, especially the early ones, the protagonist is an antihero, whose life is in tatters, and is redeemed in death by his battle with the overwhelming forces of evil. It’s a Dark Cowboy who rides out to meet his fate.
Now consider the typical perpetrator of a mass murder: An isolated loner with a history of psychotic or personality disorders, who has few successes and suffers a major setback in life — loss of money, job, girlfriend or wife, etc.
I’m not suggesting that movies cause mass murders — that’s as absurd as claiming that guns cause mass murders. Rather, American pop culture has created a redeeming mythos for those who feel that society has failed them and life is no longer worth living. They inject themselves into a narrative where they are the hero, fighting against impossible odds and dying heroically. If their life has meant nothing, they reason, at least their death will.
This is remarkably similar to the message fed to suicide jihadis, who are told that their fearless death in fighting against impossible odds will be rewarded with sublime pleasures and honors in the afterlife. When you have nothing to live for, that’s a very appealing mythos.
As a contrast, consider the situation in Japan. Japan does have a kind of pop-culture warrior mythos, as exemplified by jidaigeki (historical samurai) movies. Interestingly, part of that trend was fueled by American Westerns, and the two genres today have heroes (samurais and gunslingers) who are almost indistinguishable from each other. In fact, some of the early Clint Eastwood westerns were repackaged samurai movies.
Japan is going through massive cultural upheavals because of a stagnating economy, population decline and changing lifestyles. Suicide rates in Japan are among the highest in the world (three times that of the US, if I recall correctly). But there are no Amok-like attacks. This is almost certainly because it is culturally unacceptable. Historically, causing social disruption is taboo, and private suicide is considered an honorable escape from personal failure (hara-kiri, or freeing the spirit).
So what does this tell us about battling the culture of mass murder?
Start by:
- Reforming the cartoonish mythos of the Dark Cowboy in popular culture. This has been shaped over the past century, and will not be changed easily.
- Stop giving mass murderers so much media coverage, and focus on the victims, not the killer.
- Start taking threats on social media more seriously. Many mass murderers virtually confess in advance about what they plan to do. Surely, algorythms can be constructed to do this.
- Fixing the economy, which has been a factor in many of these incidents. When people see the possibility of a good future, there’s no incentive to lash out.
- Creating a functioning mental health system, which can screen for the mental diseases and personality disorders that predicate these attacks.
- Funding research into the psychosocial causes, and create specific profiles, and support-based therapies.
- Training school officials, law enforcement and mental health caregivers in intervention. Early intervention trumps the SWAT team every time. After each new mass murder, there are inevitably folks who announce that they saw the signs of disaster looming like staring at an oncoming freight train. The key is to get that information to trained medical personnel — not necessarily police — who can begin an intervention before bullets start flying.
But it is worth noting that in a surprising number of these cases, authorities were contacted but dismissed the warnings. The Parkland shooter was well known to school officials and police. He had been having behavioral difficulties since pre-school. A psychological review recommended involuntary commitment. But it never happened. Residents literally told police that he was terribly distrubed and was going to shoot up a school. All the signs were there, but despite numerous diagnoses of behavioral and psychological problems, no action was taken. The worst part is that this is a common theme in these incidents.
We know what to do. We know how to begin. We just need the will to act.
PS: I never found any evidence that the Las Vegas shooter attended any of my classes.
