On “Aurora, Colorado tragedy: The latest mass shooting in the US”
The articles on the Aurora massacre by David Walsh and David North are excellent, important starting points for contextualizing such events.
Why did Holmes choose the Batman film midnight showing? I do not think the choice was random.
These Batman films have long been acknowledged as depicting deeply misanthropic views of US society. They teem with sociopathic and fractured personalities presented for both approbation and opprobrium.
Another point may also be suggested about the Nolan Batman films specifically: they may come to constitute a nodal point of nihilistic death-fascination: the massacre, on top of the death of The Dark Knight star Heath Ledger, may become for the yellow press and big business cable TV the elements for a “Batman Curse.”
Jay
Ohio, USA
23 July 2012
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Another bullseye article from David Walsh. Nice work.
Eric M
Florida, USA
21 July 2012
On “The Aurora Massacre: Once again, evasions rather than explanations”
One wonders the about the numbers at this point. Is there any kind of public record of these things? Probably not an existing category. Just filed under family violence.
For example, less than a year ago, out of the blue (no history of child abuse), on 15 June 2011 a mother beat her 11 year old daughter to death in Sherwood, Oregon.
4 July 2012 a father kills his wife and two children (11 and 13 years), then himself, Dundee, Oregon.
Now the Aurora massacre. These incidents have touched my sister directly. She knew each of these victims.
My sister says, “So much carnage, so close to home. Seems like these things are increasing in frequency.”
One is left wondering. Who is going to put the pieces together? When is anyone going to understand?
Thanks to WSWS for working towards alleviating this information gap.
Kim A
22 July 2012
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Thank you for this.
Thushara
23 July 2012
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So the perpetrator will be forgotten “after he has felt the full force of our justice system”? Although current circumstances make this difficult, surely the usual definition of the US justice system involves presumption of innocence before being found guilty? As in the case of Bradley Manning, President Drone seems to have a very shaky grasp of American law. This is not surprising since he has virtually abolished the Constitution and continues to allow torture and mandatory death sentences like a judge in court. Rather than his birth certificate, I think it is more important we all have access to his law school grades if only to discover whether this is another bad case of “affirmative action identity politics” that often aids certain ethnic groups in their rise to the top when they often become eager participants in the cause of reaction.
Tony W
23 July 2012