> I agree, Woj, but only to a degree. I think there's a lot more atomization
> and alienation these days, as capital has been very successful in reducing
> humans into target demos and market units. That naturally feeds one's
> fantasy cocoon. But pop-cult images of "cool" gangsters is hardly new --
> recall how film noir in the 40s was seen as a breakdown in social morality,
> and how lurid pulp novels supposedly inspired drug use and rape. It's like
> an endless cycle with this shit, and all of it serves those who own what you
> and I can never own.
>
> Dennis
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
I agree, its definitely extreme anomie. But this manifests itself in other acts, not just school killings - think of those IRA attacks recently. The real puzzler behind the school shootings is how they come across as so, well, psychopathological. There doesn't seem to be any institution or "Other" to fight against, its just pure destruction, pure aggression.
The question, when raised in this way, runs far deeper than people would like to think though. People seem today to be extremely badly integrated into society - as Thatch said: "There is no society"; and in a way she was right. Although this manifests in various degrees, school shootings probably being the most extreme, the results are scary as fuck - another extreme example is the new structures which gang formation/violence is taking around the world; from the structured mafia model to the implosive "gangland" model. With no society there are no "Others" as such and if there is no "Others" as such there is only the self and thus no responsibility. Without the proper ability to communicate with "Others", with society if the self feels like it needs to lash out and kill, then the self can lash out and kill... no problem.
This problem is also discernible in contemporary psychotherapy, which is in self-proclaimed crisis; resorting instead increasingly to pharmacological methods. The problem here is the same; but this is where you get a very immediate and nuanced sense of it. People don't really give a shit about society so they don't bother listening to certain of its representatives, especially those that try and reform them, if it doesn't suit them. A Belgian Lacanian analyst gave a very succinct lecture on this in Dublin about two years ago and it was caught on video. And - if people are willing to tolerate a lengthy spiel on the ineffectiveness of contemporary psychotherapeutic measures - although not directly related to school shootings I'd highly recommend it. It gives an interesting sense of anomie from someone who encounters it close-up everyday:
http://www.dcu.ie/health4life/conferences/2007/Paul%20Verhaeghe.shtml