Fanfare for the Common Assassin-Sitting back watching it get worse...

Psychology is hard.

I am not equipped to parse through what is happening to humans these days, from a psychological standpoint.

But I would like to tie together some aspects of psychology, with interpersonal communication, which I DO understand.

I wonder how many of you are familiar with Andy Warhol. He was an artist, who was at the height of his career in the early 1960's.

He spoke many quotable quotes, and yet many of them were silly and useless.

But if anyone ever said anything, that would turn out to be so unexpectedly true, so on-target and so pervasive, it was he, when he uttered that…

"In the future, everybody will be famous for fifteen minutes."

With the advent of social media, I am reminded of this uniquely enduring prophecy - daily.

Life in the 21st century is almost a testimonial to the human need for personal recognition.

Psychology will suggest that needing attention is a normal human response.

However psychology seems to deal mostly, with the human need for positive feedback... say, from your boss or from your parents.

Western culture has, over the last 50 years or so, bred a civilization that fundamentally relies upon others, to feel good enough.

We fill our gaps in confidence with clothing, lavish lifestyles, shopping, gadgets, alcohol, mindless television, unstable relationships, and yes, a burgeoning need for repetitive recognition - looking outside of ourselves, to make us feel happy and fulfilled, inside.

However I am a bit more concerned with the human being whose quest for public notoriety leads them to take selfies and make tik tok videos. Or commit public assassination.

Whatever it takes to get the most 'eyes' on them. Whatever it takes to become a part of history.

To make the connection here, and boil it down to an essence.... it seems to me that we are not secure enough in our selves - whether we need to hear constant praise from our bosses and our fathers, or we need the whole world to know our name.

We have gotten wise enough to stop speaking the names of mass-harm perpetrators to the news media, in an effort to reduce the recognition they so crave.

Preserving their anonymity helps to de-incentivize like-minded murderous types to seek fame by creating chaos.

But there once again, we address the results and the aftermath, as opposed to fixing the problem at it's source.

How bad has society become, for any given individual, when a person’s need to be heard, or to garner attention, justifies mass murder?

Unhappy people have become completely comfortable wiping out large swaths of innocent human beings, just to be 'seen' and 'heard'.

How bad has it become, when people are comfortable killing others, in order that someone will finally 'know' of their pain?

We have no skill set when it comes to dealing with our own feelings and needs, successfully. We don't know how to communicate with ourselves... let alone how to deal with one another.

As you might guess, my point is, that these personality and functional fundamentals that we lack - we CAN be taught these things.

All it takes is a plan for improvement... a willingness to cooperate… a recognition that these problems are solvable.

All it would take is a complete rebuilding of our education system, nationwide.

When will we learn, that humans require and deserve, the love and attention that we can give to each other, along with the tools we need, to lead disciplined and civically responsible lives... to become loving, respectful, law-abiding citizens?

We need to emphasize teaching our children about issues we barely speak about or deal with within the American educational framework. Or anywhere else.

It is easy to see, everywhere you look, that we suffer from this omission.

We need to educate people fully - intellectually, spiritually, civically, and emotionally.

And we are doing none of those things...

(Some of these words are not my own..)