Bowling For Columbine

Just watched Bowling for Columbine, about a year? two? after it came out.

What struck me (apart from the horror of the school killings) was the renewed realisation of how deeply the culture around us can affect the mental filters through which we interpret the world. For those unfamiliar with the film, the case put forward is that the reason for the disproportionately high number of gun killings in the US is because of the culture of fear instilled in Americans by the media and various consumer corporations, as opposed to the more popular targets of too-easily available guns, poverty, racial diversity (and implied disparity), broken families, teenage angst from music and violent games etc. etc.

It's a sad reality how people sometimes form opinions based on imperfect information garnered almost entirely from what others tell them, which is likely to be influenced by their own agendas. People believe what they want to believe. The more discerning ones will reject certain hypotheses if they have information which makes it seem absurd, like how most people i know wil reject the violent computer game theory simply because they realise from personal experience why the link between violence in games translating to violence in real life is tenuous at best.

On the other hand, in issues where people have little personal experience in, they're likely to believe something that's logical. So since it's easy to see why readily available guns might contribute to such tragic events as the above, some people take that as the main/sole reason and plonk that in their mindset that such gun laws are bad, because they cause tragedies like these. Stupid liberal Americans with their constitutionally protected rights to arms. What many people fail to do is to go the next step, and ask that if such laws are the culprit, then why is the violent situation not replicated in other countries where it's easy to get guns? In the film, Moore rolls out statistics saying how there're 7 million guns in 10 million homes in Canada but nowhere near as many gun killings as in the US, proportionately speaking. Not knowing such stats, many people think gun control is the way to go, the only way to go, hence all the activists advocating gun restrictions in the US.

I guess my point is that most problems are multi-faceted and not that simply explained, and although many people realise this academically, They tend not to analyse every situation and problem to such a depth, simply because there's no too much information to process and too little time. We probably only think deeply on issues that concern us directly. But even then, our opinions are heavily influenced by the opinions of the people around us, the media, the culture, etc. After all, it's much easier to just hang on to someone else's theory rather than develop your own, isn't it? Especially when it comes to things like government policy. Baaaa.

Recommended viewing: Bowling for Columbine, by michael moore. For those who haven't heard of it, it's a film-documentary about gun control in the US and the culture of fear, focused primarily on the human element exemplified by the victims of the Columbine, Colorado and Flint, Michigan school shootings. Anyone who wants to watch just lemme know.