HUGE FACELESS WHATEVER


helen thomas asks a question a number of us have been asking for years. oliver roy gives a thoughtful answer, and makes me wonder about the use of his answer for trying to understand the spate of school shootings in the last 20 years. a number of kids, many of them boys but some girls, feel isolated and secluded even while they're hyper plugged in, maybe because they are, and want to feel like they're affecting someone or something. I felt much the same when I was younger; I think most of us have to some extent. then, in the words of jackson browne, "the people who finally can't take anymore...pick up a gun or a brick or a stone." the narrative roy is referring to, applied to american youth, runs more to the personal suffering individual--rather than the global suffering ummah--desperately trying to evoke a response from the huge, faceless whatever.