Going Postal

I picked up another newspaper today. Yet another school shooting. One of the report mentioned that this was the fourth one in less than a year. Tragic.

However, I think that this is a clear sign of a bigger problem. Everybody knows that schools are in trouble. Budget cuts are everywhere. Unfortunately, counseling budgets are being cuts also. There have been cases where counseling have been shared among several schools. Even that is lacking money. We know that classes teach science, but not life skills. The curriculum doesn't cover that. So where do people get it?

It used to be that parents teach their children. With economy feeling hardship, both parents are working, and precious little time is spent is educating the children. Even then most children would see bleak future, which is that of overworked, stressed out parents.

Stressed and overworked? Do you think that going around and shooting people is limited to just deliquent kids? The term "Going Postal" was coined when somebody goes berserk and shot a few postal workers. That was adult. Then there is Ohio bombing. Looking around business practices, the only constant I see is managers abusing their workers.

Think about it: despite the rule of 40 hours work week, those who do only that gets punished. It used to be that those who do more get rewarded. The worst case I've seen to date is when the boss refused to hire more workers, forbid people to work overtime (due to overtime pay), and forces the workers to somehow double their output without any incentives whatsoever. Stressed out. Of course. What do you expect?

There are 2 way out of this. The first is going to union, and ask union control and wages. This is what you do just before you quit. You have no future when this happens.

The second way to do it is by killing everybody. This is what you do after you get unjustly fired, and the company somehow manages to cover all legal defense. If the company maliciously falsified your records, painting you to be a bad worker even though you're not, just so a bad manager can keep his job, then you may not have another job. With bills mounting and lawsuit settlement months away, you won't survive. So, what do you have to lose when you have nothing? Nothing. You have nothing to lose. So you go on rampage and at worst, died. Or get life in prison, free food and board for life. That's a great temptation.

Unfortunately, bad managers don't realize this. They think just because it's illegal, people won't do it. The law doesn't really protect you from crime, just ensure proper retribution when and if a crime does occur. Small consolence when viewed from heavens above. Especially if you don't screw up, but one bad manager from another department. You're just collateral damage.

In truth, there is no winner. Just losers. You have to treat people with respect. You have to help people gaining a sense of worth. Otherwise, you have nothing and nothing to lose. Everytime I see somebody going postal, I see failure as a school system, business system, society sytem. Failure to help a person to be a whole human being.

I avoid working in such companies. Avoid learning in such schools. Life isn't worth what these kind of institutions offer you, because they're not offering life. Really, what they're offering is a slow poisonous death, disguised as the American Dream.