In this episode I share some reflections on the immensely tragic and troubling eruption of mass shootings. I first point out the great disservice that polarization does on this topic; we can focus on both "gun control" and "mental health" at the same time, irrespective of the pull to choose one solution or the other based on our group's ideology. I explain why I think focusing on these debates actually maintains the status quo—despite good intentions to find the right answers and "fix" the problem, we neglect doing the deep soul-searching that is necessary to truly "diagnose" and "treat" the problem. I suggest we can do much more to publicly broadcast messages that could reach potential violent actors, counterintuitively founded in love and compassion. I share my thoughts on arming teachers (I think it's terrible). I explore the problem of more control. I urge us to look at this from a psychospiritual and collective lens: what is the world trying to communicate through its symptoms? Why is this happening right on the heels of a global pandemic and the war in Ukraine? Finally, I propose a completely new solution to the problem: we don't have one. Instead, we need to be willing to "not know" in order to do the difficult psychological, emotional, spiritual, sociological, and political work necessary to truly diagnose and treat this problem on a much deeper level.


Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/matthewgoodmanphd/support