Day's Links - 2017-10-10

In the article "US Violence Abroad Begets Violence at Home" on Ron Paul Institute, in response to the shootings in Las Vegas, Jacob G. Hornberger lays out the theory that American violence abroad begets American violence at home. This comes in 2 forms, either in terms of retaliatory terrorist attacks or in terms of violence carried out by Americans who have become desentisised to the taking of human lives.

I cannot fault this assessment one bit and I have long held the same view. We have become so accustomed to the roguery of the U.S. that we forget that we have tens of millions of victims of American violence abroad in just the past 2 decades. It doesn't even register on the radar because American killing has become as customary as the odd hurricane - which at least draws attention. Actually, American violence is something akin more to rain. It is to be expected and only draws attention to it if is extremely out of the ordinary, or when it becomes ridiculous to ignore it - although for some it can never get ridiculous enough to make the news.

We need to remember that non-American lives matter every bit as much as American lives, and this ought to be the view even outside traditional Catholic circles.