April 15, 2013
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The Boston Marathon Bombing
I am reading as some people are updating about the Boston Marathon Bombing.
One thing I have read a few times is something like “I have lost my faith in humanity.”Some people feel that we as a society are getting worse. We are becoming more violent.Are we going downhill as a society?
Comments (93)
I don’t think society is going downhill, you just have to look at all the people helping out in these scenario’s to see that the good guys outnumber the few bad who decided to plant a bomb. It’s just that the bad guys can make such a big impact with one event.
The Sandy Hook shooting was the first violent act that just didn’t surprise me. I don’t know that I would say we’re getting worse as a SOCIETY – I think there has always been lots and lots of violence, just channeled differently.
No, I still believe the good outnumber the bad. The camaraderie and willingness of others helping each other out in the midst of chaos puts my faith back in humanity.
No. Look at human history. We have always been a violent species. Still, that doesn’t make me any less heartbroken over this awful attack.
We’ve been on a downward spiral for a long while already.
People are such pussies. Only two people died.
If people actually gave a fuck, they’d care about gun violence and the 33 gun-related homicides that occur every day. Every. Fucking Day.
NO. Taking bets for insanity on the part of whoever did this.
We live on a planet with imperfect people and history seems to suggest that all nations have problems with violence. Not sure, but my impression.
I think we are changing from what our founding Fathers formed. The verdict is not in, but I think some fundamental rights being approved for the public will not work for our long term benefit. Time will tell.
frank
There was one, maybe a few bad people involved in the bombing there but tens of thousands of good people there, many of whom ran into danger to help the injured. That speaks volumes. To add a stark historical perspective all we need do is compare today with The Dark Ages and we don’t even have to go there. We can compare today with the 19th century in this country to see how far we’ve come. There are always people who try to hold back progress. In the end they cannot.
@Celestial_Teapot - what the teapot said
There’s always been evil in the world. Tragedies like today happen on occasion. It still sucks, though.
@Thatslifekid - One has to be insane to bomb a marathon.
No. I think we’re just overall focused on the BAD news and not the good. Bombings get good TV ratings, get bloggers talking. The fact that it was a peaceful day and nothing happened yesterday? Boring.
Oh that was not a Muslim bombing it? Well then I guess we can’t call him a terrorist lol. Probably it’s just some white person having mental illness or a black person living in a thug.
Boston has long been at the bottom of the hill. It’s the filthiest, dirtiest, most wretched city I’ve ever been and I’ve yet to come across a worse example of humanity than the average Bostonian. I abhor violence and it’s a tragedy something like this happened today but my sympathy and sorrow would have been far greater if it happened somewhere else.
Humanity hasn’t changed; there has always been and will always be good and evil. What’s changed is the technology that makes mass casualties so much easier.
No, I don’t think so.
Still… so sad.
Society isn’t going downhill, but the individuals among us who suck are constantly looking for newer and louder ways to suck.
Have you seen the Facebook page created as a RIP site, but was created last Friday? Not sure my stance on that…
Boston being close to my hometown, I take this attack rather personally. I don’t believe we’re headed downhill as a species. Cockroaches and scorpions always come out when they sense darkness. That doesn’t mean they are any more dominant than when the lights are on. We can only counteract chaos and disturbance by hanging together, as the majority of people in Copley Square did today.
@fabolousclown - Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist. The KKK was a terrorist organization. The Aryan Brotherhood still is. More people than you think, can differentiate between terrorists and ordinary people like yourself.
the time the bombs went off is around the time the charity runners come in, they came to the BAA to do good only to have evil done onto them. This is the saddest part.
If people cared, then we would have no need for alcohol, illegal drugs, psychoanalysis and psychtherapy, pornography, abortion, religion, self-defense, police or military, money, housing, Liberals, Neocons, Marxists, Hollywood, Lady Gaga, et cetera et cetera ad nauseum.
If people cared, there would only be love.
Yes, we are continuing downhill slide. But fear not, the next generation of handbaskets to hell are being beta tested. They will get you there much more quickly than the last production model.
I’ve always had great faith in humanity’s ability to do really evil things.
@RighteousBruin - You forgot to mention the DNC and RNC in your list of terrorists.
@fabolousclown - Are you serious?
Faith in humanity? I haven’t lost my faith in humanity, I never had any faith in humanity. People are a mass of a idiotic, assholes. Why would anyone have any faith in such a group as that?
The American society definitely is. FAST.
@wildchildofthebluemoon - what?!? link?
As long as sin has been a part of humanity, there has been evil. Some people choose to show their evil with atrocities like what happened today. This is why I choose to place my faith in Jesus Christ instead of the human race.
@Celestial_Teapot - Pretty sure this was a bomb not a gun. Also many more people die everyday of more evil then a gun. This isn’t about your politics – this is about how fucked up people are in the head. Only two deaths? There was supposed to be plenty more than that. And are those “only” two dead just “only two dead people” to their family and friends? No. And there was plenty more people injured, some severely.
Honestly, I have a very positive outlook on life. I believe in the good of humanity. Yes, there are people you won’t get along with or jerks in this world but there are plenty of good, honest, respectable people still left in this world. Evil people want us to give up hope and be part of the darkness and I won’t do that. I will strive to try to be a good citizen and I think others should think that way. Nobody is perfect but if we try to be loving and stuff we can make this world a better place.
Sorry but these world events are just showing me how time is limited on this earth and the apoocoplyspse that was prophesied in the Bible could very well come…
honestly our world is getting worser and darker but there are still lights in this world
and i don’t wanna give up on the good people 
and humanity and people who dont know god and stuff
our world still has hope
sadly evil exists in it though
@Celestial_Teapot – solid point.
Statistically, no, we’re actually not. It just seems like it, because with modern technology, everything that happens gets a lot more exposure than it would have, in the past. Of course, as long as the notions of “good” and “evil” are the extent of our understanding of human behavior, we have no hope of properly addressing incidents like this, let alone fixing what causes them.
I think too many of today’s generations have a loose grasp of the realities of human nature and the history of mankind generally. It is simply that the average person is now exposed to more of the bad occurrences due to new technology compared to what they once were. It isn’t getting worse just because they falsely perceive it that way.
People are getting more malicious and extravagant in their evilness
No, it is not fair to say that in general humanity is going down hill. What we need to do is realize that though something as horrific as this happened, we as a country are willing to come together and help one another during a time of crisis. Like with the sandy hook shooting that took place. These disasters can have a positive effect in the long run if we let them.
@wildchildofthebluemoon - It used to be for animals but the person changed the title. Apparently you can do that on facebook.
I’ve heard that saying a lot. And I really think that’s all it might amount too now adays is a saying. I think it’s overused and often at times also is misunderstood. It comes off more as a phrase to say when your frustrated at the world/a group of persons. At least that’s my opinion on the phrase.
I think it’s even more of a tragedy that hundreds of people died today, and since the media doesn’t cover it, people just don’t care. That gravely dents my faith in humanity, maybe even more than this event that happened in the US today.
@fabolousclown - Today seems to be a day for showing some compassion for the victims and their families. Maybe finger pointing and cynical comments can wait at least a day?
All I know is that this is a huge tragedy.
I don’t think so.
@SKANLYN - That’s fucked up. I have never met a Bostonian that I didn’t like, and regardless of who it happened to, they didn’t deserve it. Nobody deserves that shit.
What we’re dealing with here is people making money on stock exchange .. Speculation news does not report on the 1 million plus suicides as this does nothing for stock prices. However broadcasting bombings instead of suicides does make people money in stock exchanges.
Society has not slipped, merely the microphone is in the wrong hands… Some sociopathic madmen are in charge of the broadcasting.
@SlickRick297 - my level of seriousness is depending on your own understanding of my words.
When I was a kid, JFK, his brother RFK and Martin Luther King were all gunned down. I also remember the first Muslim terrorists making a habit out of hijacking passenger jets and tourist sea cruses.
All of that started over 50 years ago.
@EmilyandAtticus - Of course my prayer goes to the victims and their families. I was not finger pointing because I didn’t refer it to anyone and I was just saying like what had happened in Norway. They (the media) mentioned him, who first was believed as a muslim, as a terrorist. Later, he’s known as a blonde and a gamer.
This is so tragic and hopefully the people of Boston will leave in peace soon.
@RighteousBruin - oh well good to know there are more people who can still differentiate it (: (: (:
@isitreal_no - You are one hundred percent correct, the trend that would certify societal evolution has to be viewed in the context of many generations, for the conclusions to have any validity, Your example of the people helping the wounded is immediate, graphically powerful and well chosen to document the virtue of the overwhelming majority of people. I cannot see documented data that tells me we live in a less loving and caring world than before when. Pick a date or historical period. In spite of all it;s problems, there is far more compassion and equality in the society of America today, than when Charlemagne ruled over what was known strangely, as the Holy Roman Empire.
Thank You for your courage to remain optimistic and aware.It is heartfelt, I know, and greatly appreciated by many.
Sincerely,
Michael P. Whelan
Yes, you are.
It is the bomber(s) who suck; it is humanity who rushed to those who needed help, got them to the hospital, found more potential threats and diffused them.
I just think that some people are bad. This was a bad thing to do but I also think that there is more good people so my faith in humanity is not lost. I am concerned though because this is terrorist attack number 2 on the states in 12 years. My hearts go out to everybody who was some how affected by this.
I still have faith in people and always will – it’s the terrorists that are trying to break us and society (and government) which is all the more reason for us to be strong and still believe in ourselves and each other.
People always say that society is in decline and that we are becoming more violent, but people used to attend public executions as fellow humans were beheaded in the town square. I think technology allows sick people to inflict more damage than they could have in the past, but I don’t think that we are becoming more violent.
@CarelessConfessions - ”Only two deaths?”
Not to mention all of the people who were gravely injured, or whose lives will never be the same because of permanent physical and psychological damage inflicted by this tragedy.
Nah people have always done and will continue to do terrible things. Bombings like this happen all over the world quite frequently, the fact that such an incident happened in America is no indication “society is going downhill.” A tragedy non the less though.
@wildchildofthebluemoon - Nothing more than a hoax. Some guy pieced it together on Photoshop and circulated it knowing that the paranoid conspiracy theorists would inevitably jump on it.
@SKANLYN - I visited Boston for the AAAS convention not long ago and it seemed like a pretty nice place actually. Do you not think your hatred is somewhat irrational (and beside the point for that matter).
@Kraatakans - No. I lived there during my college years and several afterwards. I am so glad to be gone from that hell hole. The angriest, nastiest, most racist people you could ever imagine live in Boston.
@temporarilyinnocent - Don’t put words in my mouth, I didn’t say they deserved it and I certainly don’t think an eight year old kid deserved to die. I simply said I would be sadder and have more sympathy if it happened in another city. It’s still a tragedy that I don’t think should happen to anyone or anywhere but it’s much harder to muster sympathy given where it happened. Obviously you’ve never spent anytime in Boston or you would know exactly what I mean.
@TheyCallHerEcho88 - exactly? Who the fuck says people are pussies about such a thing? Wow.
These things, though horrific happen everyday in places like the Middle East and other countries. I don’t think it’s society it’s the world. Someone is trying to express themselves in a very disturbing way. But that’s protected under freedom of expression, right? If anything society needs to face the reality that the world is a different place than it once was, & needs to find ways to be able to handle it.
@wordwarrior39 - lol!
I feel like I live in Israel
@TheyCallHerEcho88 -
“Not to mention all of the people who were gravely injured, or whose lives will never be the same because of permanent physical and psychological damage inflicted by this tragedy.”
Oh good, now you know what Iraq was like– except we were there every fucking day for nearly ten years. Unlike the Boston Marathon, the second Iraq war was a war of choice, and one we entered after the fucking lies and deceptions of the Bush administration . (After Desert Storm, there were never any WMD’s.)
@fabolousclown - I completely agree with you on that. The media makes that even worse.
As a runner, who was watching the marathon live… dreaming about the day I qualify to run it… it just rose up more passion for me. More drive. I was preparing and looking into the Chicago Marathon before the indecent earlier in the morning and I can guarantee that it only made me want to run more.
I won’t give anyone my fear. Runners are some of the most fearless people I know.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims.
There are always going to be one bad apple in the barrel. Yet it doesn’t mean we stop eating apples all together. Society as a whole has been engaging in acts of violence since the beginning of time. I just hope one day acts like this will be stories as opposed to real life events.
A lot more people helped than bombed. Most folks are good. It’s that simple. Tragedies get big press coverage because it is NOT normal behavior.
There are too many cowards in this world that feel hurting others is the only way to make their point. However, good still outweighs the bad, for that I’m grateful.
MSNBC blames Bush. Fox News blames Obama. CNN blames Fox News.
It’s when something like this happenes and people DON’T care that we should be really worried about the direction of our society. Not that we’re doing the best we could be now. All things considered, we’re doing kind of okay.
I live in Colorado. These tragedies seem to be commonplace now. I never thought it would be possible to become desensitized to bloody footprints, to children being shot, to first-responder’s stories about the horror and the gore. I never thought it would be possible, but it is. It’s possible.
Are we as a society going downhill?Maybe. But we, the rest of society, adapt. We learn to run toward the gunshots. We have learned to help each other. We have learned to survive through horrible tragedy. We look into each others faces when we walk down the street, we smile and laugh with complete strangers.
When I was 16 I was stuck in gridlock traffic for 45 minutes on a five-lane highway. We all got out of our cars, turned on music, learned each others names, talked about our lives. Then when it started to move, we got back in our cars, and wished each other well.
Life is made up of moments.The good moments in the midst of the horrible ones. The beauty in the midst of ashes. You just have to hold on to those moments.
@Celestial_Teapot - That’s insensitive. What if someone said that about some trauma you’ve been in? What if you were there? I’d try not to be so callous. It doesn’t matter if it was two, two hundred or none. It’s the event that matters. An attack like this isn’t only just a violent move it’s a psychological move on the masses. They do this in order to try and alter society in a way that they see as beneficial.
Only a few may have died and we should be thankful for that instead of brushing the event off because of the lack of dead. Many, many, many people are injured. They’ve lost limbs, have permanent scaring and more. Even the people who aren’t injured physically are injured mentally and emotionally. Is the kill count what matters to you?
People should care more about gun violence? Would this matter more to you if there was a shooter there instead of bombs? Why can’t we care about both? It’s not like people who care about gun control are going to forget about it and focus only on what happened in Boston. *Assuming this is domestic* it could throw our problems with violence into a stark light and maybe we can start to change things.
@CarelessConfessions - Agreed.
@nixxyknox - I agree with you. I was moved by all the people wanting to help. I think that says more about people than those that choose to commit acts of violence.
@isitreal_no - Totally agree. When I saw all the people running towards the blast I felt…not happy or glad…but relieved to see the people, normal people, that just wanted to help because it was the right thing to do. There could have been other bombs waiting to go off near by and they went anyway.
No. Maybe compared to the 50′s (the Mayberry version) but America has had a lot of bloodshed since its inception.
I think people get really shaken up in times like this and lose heart rather quickly. War, violence, and rage has been around since Cain and Abel. Occurrences like this is nothing new. Sad and heart-breaking; but we, as a human race, tend to underestimate how strong and resilient we are. I don’t think society is getting worse, I think people in our society (American society) tend to forget we have a future, and we will overcome. With the overwhelming amount of media at our fingertips, news; especially bad news, is more readily available and widespread. Plus, like some have already mentioned, the bad news doesn’t outweigh the good. The bad news just gets more coverage…
@Kraatakans - If you actually go to the Facebook page, you can see that it was indeed created last Friday. I speculate they just changed the name of the group after, but I’m skeptical regardless.
These past few years, I particularly feel less and less surprised the more I see violence happening in the United States. I think there will always be sick, angry people who don’t know how to control the evil inside of them. But I believe that goodness prevails when we see people coming together to help each other out in the face of a tragedy like this.
However, if no one stopped to help each other that day, I would have said that I’ve lost my faith in humanity for sure.
These mass killings are only occasional events, but hopefully it does not become a trend. Don’t lost faith in humanity, there are good people who will do the right thing when the time comes.
Humanity in terms of human-kind and the human species is maybe too much of a generalization.
Maybe they can just lose hope in stupid-crazy people.
…And maybe a double standard for radical Muslims because they do it way too often.
But why would I generalize that to Muslims? Because they’re the scum of the earth who migrate to other countries and attempt to enforce Sharia law and expect special treatment without attempting to assimilate to the native culture.
I’ll bet the cameras or persons on that scissor lift (Skyjack) under (blue canopy) had an excellent view prior to and during the attack. In reference to the society aspect, this incident will only makes us stronger and more determined to end this sort of attention.”
On the contrary. From what I observed, We are progressing as a society. it was encouraging watching distraught medical personnel, knowing these victims needed them most right now, get it together and treat them.
To visibly see their internal struggle to not lose it for the sake of dying people in front of them in a literal life/death situation and assist the victims was nothing short of inspiring.
Ironically, I saw the best in the human condition yesterday. It was beautiful. And I thank the good Lord I had eyes to witness it and the third bomb not going off to recount this amazing moment of the human spirit, to help their fellow man while knowingly endangering themselves, to the rest of the world.
@Celestial_Teapot - I’m not really sure what point you’re trying to make here (since I said nothing about the military), or why you’re trying to minimize this tragedy. Obviously it could have been a lot worse, and thankfully it wasn’t. That doesn’t make the situation any less traumatic or the violence any less senseless. I was responding to that other person because I agreed with the sentiment that it’s very upsetting and tragic.
I’m not in the military, but I am doing an internship in a medical setting, and I’ve seen people from the military with neurological, psychological and physical injuries from explosions. I would never minimize what they’ve been through, or say that this is worse. But people in the military who are in active combat or who are in war zones are at least prepared for the possibility of injury/death. Someone could be completely paranoid and believe that danger and death are lurking around every corner (sometimes when I’m standing at the top of the stairs, I look down and think how easily I could slip, fall, snap my neck and die in a crumpled heap at the bottom), but I think it’s reasonable to assume that the runners in the Boston Marathon had no reason to believe that they were going to get blown up. It’s one thing to have bombs going off around you when you’re fighting in a war, but it’s another thing entirely to have bombs going off around you when you’re just running in a race.
The parasites among us are given free reign, and we are becoming a society of moral cowards who can’t tell right from wrong. And by “we” I mean “they.”
@TheyCallHerEcho88 - im going to hopefully be right in my guess that you realize I was referring to celestialteapots comment as you replied to my comment to him in the first place?
I believe so.
@lfespock – it is heartening to see the majority respond positively to the minority that causes these such tragedies. It doesn’t mean we like tragedy, but it is encouraging to know that generally people are not douchebags.
As a society? No. My current theory is that this is domestic terrorism and done by one of our own. EOD wise, that was a small blast, not very professionally done. I’m not trying to downgrade the atrocity of what happened, however the facts are, that real terrorists are good at what they do. And this seemed to be done by an amateur. But only time will tell.
@CarelessConfessions - Yeah, I realized that after. Sorry! I thought I deleted the comment.
@TheyCallHerEcho88 - You did, but I still got it in my newsfeed and email. lol. Just wanted to make sure you figured that out. lol. (:
I have sometimes wondered if in fact we are subjected to the same degree of terrorism, crime, murder, and insanity we were subjected to 50-years ago, it’s just with the digital age it is presented much more graphically and intensely and as we are no longer children we are very much aware of it these days.
Any crime that occurs anywhere – if recorded, often becomes news. News is there to inform, investigate, exploit, & entertain and has seldom been anything except this.
It is the people who are the heroes – they are the ones worthy of the news report. [Image]
Good and nice post….
Thanks & regards
http://www.al-kasser.com
I fail to see how Boston is any different than some of the violent acts that have occurred before in history. We’ve had americans bomb buildings before in our own country, cult leaders have killed hundreds…etc.
So…no, society probably not so much. Perhaps Boston showed a decline in the quality of our government/news but certainly not the quality of our culture and society.
History, of course, is the most honest judge…so we’ll see, huh?