Sound Tracks of the Times

So the shooter at the Wisconsin Sikh temple, it’s been reported, was an accomplished hate rock musician. It sounds like a new musical genre – hate rock – and it may come as a shock that it’s out there, but why should it be a surprise to anyone?

Music is about the most effective motivator we humans use. Just think about what a love song or a march can do to your mood. Message music certainly isn’t new. We’ve had Guthrie, Dylan, and Baez stirring our social justice juices. And then, for us flower children, there was Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction," a really cheerful sing-a-long. Did these lead us to vioelnce? Maybe not, but perhaps a demonstration or two.

What about rap? This genre has offered more than its share of misogyny and hatred of police -- and unlike the white supremacist music, this stuff has had much wider mainstream acceptance. We may tolerate some of this material because it’s a way that portions of our culture blow off steam. But it also gives us valuable clues into a mindset.

Persuasive as song lyrics may be, though, it’s relatively rare that they actually constitute the trigger for violence. They could certainly push an individual in that direction, but most of the time, there’s a great gulf fixed between the lyrics and action.

It may indeed have happened in the case of Wade Page. But a more significant issue in these cases, to my mind, is the perpetrators’ weapon of choice. This is America, and it’s a gun, almost every single time.

We may be shocked at hate literature, hate speech and hate music, and may ask why it can’t be regulated or banned. Shouldn’t we be equally as shocked at how easy it is for the unhinged to obtain guns and ammunition?

Total gun control will never be politically palatable in this country, and there’s no need for it. But any little thing we can do to at least slow down the wackos among us in their effort to put their hands on guns and bullets would seem to be something to consider, in light of the events of the past few weeks.