Sow and Reap

The other day I was having a lively discussion with a colleague about the rash of shootings in State, along with the impact of television and movies in combination with epigenetics and cellular memory, and so on. I was reminded of a quote  attributed to Howard Bloom but that seems to have gotten lost in the passage of time:

“One generation’s metaphors become another generation’s realities. A generation without violence needs violent metaphors to exercise the animals in the brain—the instinctual equipment that is languishing unused in the cerebral storehouse. So in the 1970s and 1980s, bands like AC/DC wrote songs like ‘shoot to kill.’ These songs entertain a generation to which real bloodshed is mere fantasy. But the next generation imprints on the metaphors and turns them into realities. So in the 90s we have mass shootings by kids who take the previous generation’s fantasies as blueprints for action.”