what are cultural myths essay

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Cultural myths and deeper meanings of everyday heroes

During spring semester, Professor George Gasyna assigned the students in his Comparative and World Literature course, “Literature and Ideas,” to submit an essay about a current cultural myth.

It’s not the first time Gasyna has asked his students in this course (CWL 202) to address cultural myth, a term originating from French philosopher Roland Barthes’ theory on myths arising after World War 2. Such myths can pertain to advertising, an everyday commodity or a well-known social practice, he explained.

He asked students to comment on how such myths focus on political and social uses, and concern themselves with exposing hidden networks or covert agendas (of politics or  ideology, for example) where possible, as well as the students’ own reactions to the “myth” and how it can be said to function.

“Student responses to this assignment, both this year and on other occasions when I have taught CWL 202, tell me that such projects help them view cultural production around them with new eyes,” he said, adding, “the eyes of critics of culture, not merely its passive consumers.”

Gasyna pointed out that he is not asking his students to “try to abolish any particular cultural myths, or to radicalize them politically. Rather, on a more universal level, I strive to encourage students to think through some of the ways in which the very society within which they are embedded as citizens, learners, and consumers affects their everyday decisions, and to become more self-aware of their beliefs, assumptions, biases, and choices.”

One essay that caught his attention in particular this term was a piece by Sophia Ebel, a junior majoring in comparative and world literature. Gasyna explained, “Sophia's essay on the deeper meanings of ‘everyday heroes’—workers deemed essential during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US and elsewhere in the West—is a perfect embodiment of the spirit of the exercise: to look more deeply and unblinkingly at the language of the representations, and the images that are produced, and try to determine what these conceal to us as well as what they obviously reveal.”

Here is Ms. Ebel’s essay:

During this unique historical moment characterized by the spread of COVID-19, society has seen widespread recognition of workers essential to fighting the pandemic and keeping our central institutions operating. Medical workers have been applauded from front steps and balconies in major cities; thank you messages and images are circulating on social media platforms; TV commercial breaks now feature ads that blur product promotions with messages that hail essential workers as heroes and remind others to stay home. Even Google has produced multiple animated “Google Doodles” to thank these heroic essential workers. These people are doing crucial, life-saving work, and whether in hospitals, grocery stores, public transit, or elsewhere, are asked to put their safety at risk every day. They deserve every bit of recognition possible and increasing numbers are now contracting COVID-19 and dying from its complications. However, the designations of “essential worker” and in particular the use of the word “hero” to describe them have created a rhetoric and Barthesian mythology around these positions that often masks or attempts to justify the risks that people who have these jobs are asked to contend with. This mythology then often takes the place of concrete actions to protect them.

Dissecting this myth begins at the linguistic and semiotic levels. Superficially, the designations mentioned above-- “essential worker” and “hero” --are fairly simple. An essential worker is an employee whose labor has been deemed necessary; today it often refers to those who work in hospitals, grocery stores, public transportation, etc. A hero is someone who is admired for their courage or other noble qualities, and is often responsible for saving others. Reading these terms as Barthesian myths, however, requires recognizing their usage today as part of a second order semiological system with political, social, and cultural implications.

The idea of an essential worker implies that certain forms of labor, industry, or businesses are required for our continued existence, and supports a capitalist bourgeois mindset in which not even a global pandemic that jeopardizes the health of those still working in public settings can disrupt business as usual. Myth transforms history into nature, and posits both motives as reasons and the values of those in power as fact. This is directly reflected in the rhetoric of it being not only natural but necessary for people to continue working in dangerous conditions without proper protective gear, for us to reopen businesses as soon as possible, and for the economy to be protected at all costs. We must ask to what end, and who truly benefits from this system. Most of the people put in danger by this mythology are not members of the bourgeois class which, Barthes argues, benefits most from this phenomenon and the existing power relations. This is masked by the attempted erasure of class differences in rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 and the praise of essential workers by those in positions of power. But real inequalities remain and have created a situation in which those who already tend to be exploited within the labor system are now even more so and are dying as a result.

Additionally, the fact that this bourgeois class had largely considered people now deemed essential to be “unskilled workers” until the intensification of the COVID-19 pandemic--with medical professionals as a notable exception--is largely being ignored in a further replacement of history with nature. The failure to recognize this shift in rhetoric has corresponded with a failure to improve working conditions, pay, recognition, and status for those who are working in now dangerous situations.

Instead of providing them with compensation, sufficient protective gear, or a system of benefits we call essential workers heroes. This is perhaps the weightier and more sociopolitically dangerous of these linked mythologies. While the myth of the essential worker does rest on the fact that even and perhaps especially during a global pandemic people still need to eat, receive medical care, and occasionally move from one location to another, the designation of these workers as heroes--despite good intentions--has been weaponized to justify the risks that they have to contend with along with a lack of protection or compensation. This mythological “heroism” creates a Barthesian form of Einverständnis where the myth harmonizes with the world not as it is but as it wants to create it. The word “hero” is heavily weighted, especially in the American cultural context. It draws on the mythology of the superhero, an individual who possess capabilities far beyond human, infallibly saves the world by the end of the book/film/comic strip, rarely to significant harm themselves, and in any case is selfless and brave enough that if saving the world demanded the sacrifice of their life—as in the case of Iron Man in the final Avengers movie—they would do it no matter the personal cost. Through this adjacent mythology the dangerous aspects of the myth of the essential worker as hero come to light. The Einverständnis, or false world it creates, is one where we can think of essential workers as holding the same qualities, abilities, and positionality as a superhero when in reality they are human and often have no choice but to continue working. They should not be held responsible for saving the world even if the things they do keep society running. They should not be expected to die for the “greater cause” that is in many cases capitalism more than it is humanity. We should not erase the fact that these workers are put at risk of sickness and death by the broken systems that force them to work in dangerous conditions without proper protective measures. The myth of the essential worker as hero, however, instead of addressing these inequalities and ethical issues simplifies and eliminates all the uncomfortable complications and contradictions in favor of easy displays of unity and support, that while not unmeaningful or unmoving bring no change to the status quo or true recognition of the situation. Barthes would classify this as a myth of the right given this insistence on staticity and deployment of inoculation, privation of history, and identification as tools of creation. And this is indeed the side from which much of the pressure for economic reopening and continued business operations as well as pushback to protective measures have come from. This rhetoric and mythology however, are present and influential at the broader societal level.

Again, the work that people are doing to fight the coronavirus pandemic and keep society running during this time is incredible and should absolutely not be minimized. However, where there is the potential to rethink the expectations of capitalist society and make sure that people in these jobs are protected and compensated, we are instead seeing the creation and propagation of a mythology that even as it reaffirms the essential nature of this work attempts to mask or eliminate the need to make concrete changes that protect those doing it but change the status quo.

10 Myths That Shape How Americans Think and Act

Myths guide how americans perceive the world and influence our everyday lives..

Posted December 30, 2019 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

As traditional stories that help define the norms of a particular society, myths serve an important cultural role. This is especially true in the United States, a society whose national identity is heavily steeped in mythologies that have over time been constructed to serve a certain purpose. Besides revealing key insights into our values and character, myths directly shape how Americans think and act, making them essential components of our individual and collective psychology.

The myths that have bound us as a people have been remarkably consistent as far back as the nation’s beginnings. Some are rooted in the revolutionary vision of the Founding Fathers, in fact, while others were readily apparent to Tocqueville when he made his cross-country road trip in the 1830s. I argue that there have been 10 such myths that have guided and continue to guide how Americans perceive the world and influence our everyday lives. These are listed below, in no particular order.

1. The Pursuit of Happiness

It’s right there in our Declaration of Independence. The pursuit of happiness—a phrase penned by the Founding Fathers in the Declaration of Independence—has served as a primary ambition for many Americans in the nation’s history, especially during the past century. Ask any American what he or she wants most in life and the majority will say to be happy, in fact, a clear sign that the “subjective state of emotional wellbeing” is central to who we are as a people.

Americans’ ambitious, perhaps even desperate search for happiness has been a remarkably democratic one. No segment of the population has been excluded, with studies showing time and time again that social and economic divisions such as income, education , intelligence , and religion matter little in determining one’s level of happiness or the desire to increase it.

2. The Land of the Free

Americans’ libertarian streak and resistance against an overly powerful government can, of course, be traced back to the nation’s very beginnings. “Americans love to hate government,” John B. Judis stated in the New Republic in 2009 after assessing the long history of anti-statism in the country.

This wariness of being ruled formed the foundation for the nation being known all over the world as the “land of the free.” Citizens of the United States rely on government but are famously distrustful about allowing it to overstep its bounds, a national trait that Judis felt was a “pattern of belief [that] is deeply rooted in the American psyche.”

3. The Promise of Tomorrow

“You’re always a day away,” Annie sang in “Tomorrow” from the titular Broadway show, a reminder that Americans have consistently had a deep faith in the possibilities of the future. The firm belief that the sun will soon come out, even if it is the cloudiest of days, has guided the American people through some of their darkest periods of history. Optimism and hopefulness have served as a key marker of our national identity, with foreigners often amazed at how we are somehow able to look on the bright side of things even in the toughest of circumstances.

4. The American Dream

Rather than just a powerful philosophy or ideology, the American Dream—“a vision of a better, deeper, richer life for every individual, regardless of the position in society which he or she may occupy by the accident of birth,” as James Truslow Adams defined the phrase in his 1931 book, The Epic of America —is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life. It plays a vital, active role in who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

No other idea or mythology—even religion, I believe—has as much influence on our individual and collective lives, with the American Dream one of the precious few things in this country that we all share. You name it—economics, politics , law, work, business, education—and the American Dream is there, the nation at some level a marketplace of competing interpretations and visions of what it means and should mean.

5. The American Way of Life

Since the term was popularized in the 1930s, the American Way of Life—a belief or set of beliefs that assign certain attitudes and/or behaviors related to our national character—has served as another guiding mythology or ethos of the United States. Because it is simply an idea open to interpretation and is constantly mutating, it is impossible to say with certainty what the American Way is and what it is not. The American Way has over the years thus represented many things to many people, making it a useful device for anyone wishing to promote a particular agenda that serves his or her interests.

The American Way is essentially whatever each of us wants it to be, a wonderful thing that does justice to the libertarian streak embedded in our national charter. While the term has been attached to everything from farming to baseball to barbecue, a consumerist lifestyle supported by a system based on free enterprise has served as its ideological backbone.

6. The Myth of Equality

Despite the obvious realities of class and race, Americans have long hesitated to assign social and economic position, something that stems from the Founding Fathers’ radical notion that “all men are created equal.” Because the United States was founded on the principles of democracy and equality, it makes perfect sense that “average” Americans are viewed as most symbolic of what makes this country great and different from others.

Our mythology of the “Everyman” is an idea that is central to our national identity, and one that is unique in the world. While most other countries, past and present, are or were structured around the existence of an upper (or ruling) and a lower (or working) class, in other words, the United States has been viewed as a place dedicated to the concept of an equal society.

7. The Fountain of Youth

We now take our youth-oriented culture as a given, but this was not always the case. From the 17th through the early 19th centuries in America, people who lived a long life were venerated, their advanced age seen as divinely ordained. This began to change soon after the American Revolution, however, as the first Americans to be born in the new country distinguished themselves from those who had immigrated to the colonies.

Early 19th-century Americans did not exalt old people as their parents and grandparents had, a major shift in the social dynamics of age. Through the 19th century, older Americans continued to lose social status as the “cult of youth” gained traction, and their “demotion” became institutionalized in the 20th century by a number of social, economic, and political powerful forces.

8. The Triumph of the Self

Almost half a century after the “Me Generation” made headlines with its focus on the self, individualism is well on the way to becoming one of the central themes of the 21st century. Baby boomers did indeed look out for #1 in the hedonistic, therapeutic 1970s, but now individualism—acting in one’s own interests versus those of an organized group or government—is a key theme across all demographic divisions.

It’s important to remember that from a historical view, the idea and practice of individualism is a radical concept. The Enlightenment ideals of the 18th century were in opposition to the all-encompassing power of church and state that had endured for a millennium and laid the seeds for the continual ascent of individualism over the past few hundred years.

9. The Cult of Celebrity

“In the future,” Andy Warhol prophesized in 1968, “everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Warhol was really talking about Americans’ obsession with fame, something he knew more than a little about. The artist took the nation’s fascination with celebrity to an entirely new level; today, we are entirely used to the idea that one can be famous just because one is famous.

10. The Self-Made Man

John Swansburg of Slate called it “America’s most pliable, pernicious, and irrepressible myth” in 2014, and I’m not going to disagree. The self-made man—a phrase coined in 1832 by Senator Henry Clay when describing businesspeople whose success came from their own abilities rather than from external circumstances—does indeed retain iconic status in the nation’s history.

A 2009 survey by the Pew Economic Mobility Project found that 39 percent of respondents said they believed it was “common” for people born into poverty to become rich, and 71 percent said that personal traits such as hard work and drive, versus the hand we are dealt at birth, are the major reasons for an individual’s success.

Lawrence R. Samuel, Ph.D. , is an American cultural historian who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies and was a Smithsonian Institution Fellow.

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The Concept of Myths in Cultures Essay

Introduction, cultures and myths.

A myth can be described as a story which explains something, an event or a certain situation in the world people live in, with people believing in it. A myth is sometimes referred to as a folk tale. Mostly myths include supernatural or spiritual beings, heroes, historical information and forces of nature. Traditionally, myths were unquestioned and people believed that myths held true explanations of what they experienced in life. However, with the current advancements in science and technology, people usually question things happening in their lives in terms of proven scientific accuracy. Therefore some myths can be proved true while those without any proven are referred to as fictions (Myths and truths, n.d).

Majority of the typical ancient cultures, and particularly African cultures, explained the relationship between them and almost everything happening in their lives in terms of myths. In particular, the presence of an unusual event, rare object or an animal was an indication of something new, good, or bad on the way or about to happen. For example the ancient Africans cultures associated almost every aspect of life with myths. They taught their children through the use of folk tales. African American culture adopted myths associated with the African cultures as they were passed through in the form of folk tales and songs, by the descendants of African origin who were enslaved in America myths like ogres who would come to homesteads and eat up a crying child, were supposed to explain to children that crying at night was a bad habit. These folk tales of something bad happening to someone with unaccepted habit were to intend to caution them or instill discipline among people in a certain culture. There is this common myth

in almost every culture, about bad omen associated with the hooting of an owl. Many cultures still hold to the believe that whenever the bird hoots near people’s residents, it’s a sign of something bad about to happen, though there is no any scientific justification.

Myths and mythology greatly influences ones personal and professional life, since what one believes and focuses on in mind, usually happens. A person’s perception on something in life, actions and relationship with other people, can be greatly be influenced by the believe held on particular myth, whether justified scientifically or not.

Myths can be true or false and those which hold some truths or which can be proven scientifically should be inculcated in people’s modern day and civilized lives. They should be used to shape ones personal and professional behaviors, to be morally and socially acceptable in the society. Even those which don’t stand scientific tests but are intended to explain a positive behavior and good relationships between individuals should be encouraged, and not disregarded.

Myths and Truths. (n.d). 2009, Web.

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An Omen Of Doom And Other Myths Surrounding Solar Eclipses

Debunking solar eclipse myths: get the truth behind the scientific phenomenon that has brought fear and fascination throughout history..

Humans have observed and tracked solar eclipses for millennia. In many cases, a solar eclipse brought on fear and foretold the end of the world or was a sign of great misfortune. To explain the causes of a solar eclipse, ancient humans would seek spiritual justifications and tell folkloric tales for why they occur. From these explanations, many myths and superstitions exist. Most of these are only myths and have since been disproven.

Myth 1. Eclipses Are an Omen of Misfortune

Many of the beliefs that an eclipse is a negative event stem from ancient folklore. Some examples include the ancient Greeks, who thought that an eclipse was a sign t hat the gods were displeased and would bring misfortune upon humans.

One mythological concept the Aztecs had about an eclipse was that the sun disappeared because a jaguar was going to eat it. To release the sun, the ancient people would make as much noise as possible to scare the jaguar into letting it go. Like the Aztecs, the ancient Chinese thought that solar eclipses happened when a dragon attacked and ate the sun. The dragon also must be scared away by noise.

Solar eclipses are likely seen as harbingers of disaster because they were noted at several historically significant events. In 763 B.C.E., ancient Assyrian records tell of an eclipse that happened at the same time as a revolt in the city of Ashur. Another example is the death of King Henry I of England in 1133 A.D., which happened during a solar eclipse.

Read More: These 5 Ancient Cultures Thought Solar Eclipses Were Omens and Prophecies

Myth 2. Eclipses Are Harmful to Pregnancies

Some ancient cultures believed that an eclipse could cause issues during pregnancy or cause the child to be born with a disability like a cleft lip, blindness, or birthmarks . The Aztecs thought that because a monster or jaguar was going to take a bite of the sun, if a pregnant woman looked at the eclipse, it would harm the baby.

Other myths surrounding pregnancies include harmful radiation emitted during the eclipse that might harm a developing fetus. According to NASA , this is not true, and the radiation emitted from the sun towards Earth, called neutrinos, are harmless. Our bodies are hit with trillions of neutrinos by the second. Still, these are not harmful and will not affect those who are pregnant.

Today there are still superstitions that pregnant people follow during a solar eclipse. These include not looking at the solar eclipse, staying indoors, or wearing a safety pin on the belly in Mexican American cultures .

Read More: How Many Ways Can the Sun Kill Us?

Myth 3. A Total Eclipse Can Cause Blindness

It is safe to view a solar eclipse after the disk of the moon completely covers the sun. The light seen around the dark disk, or the sun’s corona, is very faint. It does not cause blindness.

Still, you should not directly look at an eclipse before totality. Special eyeglasses are needed to view the sun before its full totality, even if the sun is partially covered. Watching the Sun before totality may cause permanent damage to your retinas. But NASA states that your eyes will look away before any real damage happens.

Read More: Eclipses Are Beautiful To Watch, But Only If You Have The Right Protective Eyewear

Myth 4. Food Made During the Eclipse is Inedible

This myth stems from the idea that the sun’s rays produce dangerous radiation during an eclipse. Another myth says food consumed during an eclipse will lead to bad health. But this is not true.

If it were, then all types of food, including crops, would be contaminated during the event, too. Per NASA, a total solar eclipse can spark up fear, especially with the hues around the sun during totality.

Read More: Disoriented Animals Behave Strangely During Total Solar Eclipses

The April 8, 2024, Total Solar Eclipse

The next solar eclipse to pass through the U.S. will be in 2045. So be sure to go out within the line of totality, wear your eclipse glasses, and catch a glimpse of the eclipse. If you are planning to travel for the eclipse, do so early!

Read More: 5 Ways to Enjoy the Solar Eclipse Without Totality

Article Sources:

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review them for accuracy and trustworthiness. Review the sources used below for this article:

Exploratorium.edu. Eclipse Stories from Around the World

Encyclopedia Britannica. The Sun Was Eaten: 6 Ways Cultures Have Explained Eclipses

Almanac.com. Solar Eclipse Folklore, Myths, and Superstitions

NASA. Eclipse Misconceptions

Library Congress of Blogs. Solar Eclipse: A Moment of Awe, Wonder, and Belief

NASA. 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

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Guest Essay

Ethan Crumbley’s Parents Were Just Part of a Much Bigger Problem

By Elizabeth Spiers

Ms. Spiers, a contributing Opinion writer, is a journalist and digital media strategist.

James and Jennifer Crumbley never anticipated that their then-15-year-old son, Ethan, would use the 9-millimeter Sig Sauer handgun Mr. Crumbley had bought — ostensibly as an early Christmas present — to kill four students at a Michigan high school. At least that’s the argument their lawyers made in court before Ms. Crumbley, last month, and Mr. Crumbley, almost two weeks ago, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in separate trials. Prosecutors argued that the Crumbleys did not do enough to secure the gun and ignored warning signs that Ethan was planning to use it.

After every mass shooting by a teenager at a school, there is an instinct to look to the shooter’s parents to understand what went wrong. In the case of the Crumbleys, this seems obvious: Ethan left disturbing journal entries fantasizing about shooting up the school, and stating that he had asked his parents for help with his mental health issues but didn’t get it. His father said the family had a gun safe but the safe’s combination was the default factory setting, 0-0-0.

One factor that’s gotten less attention, however, is how the Crumbleys’ attitudes and actions reflect an increasingly insidious gun culture that treats guns as instruments of defiance and rebellion rather than as a means of last resort.

I’ve been thinking about this case a lot because I grew up in the 1980s and ’90s in a rural part of the Deep South where almost everyone I knew had guns in the house, unsecured, and mental illness was stigmatized and often went untreated. Church was considered a superior venue for counseling, and only “crazy” people sought professional help. If the evidence for criminal negligence is a failure to lock up a gun and ignoring signs of mental illness, many of the adults I grew up around would have been (and still would be) vulnerable to the same charges as the Crumbleys.

It’s convenient and comforting for many people to believe that if it had been their child, they’d have prevented this tragedy. But prison visiting rooms are full of good, diligent parents who never thought their kid would be capable of landing there.

My parents didn’t own a gun safe, but kept guns hidden away from us, which, like many gun owners at the time, they thought of as “secured.” The men in my family were all hunters and the guns they kept were hunting rifles, not AR-15s. (You can’t feed a family with deer meat that’s been blown to bits.) I knew my parents kept a handgun, too, but it was never shown to us, or treated as a shiny new toy.

Gun culture was different then. It would have never occurred to my parents to acquire an entire arsenal of guns and display them prominently around the house, as some people now do, or ludicrously suggest that Jesus Christ would have carried one . They did not, as more than a few Republican politicians have done, send out Christmas photos of their children posing with weapons designed explicitly to kill people at an age when those children likely still believed Santa existed. Open carry was legal, but if you were to walk into the local barbecue joint with a semiautomatic rifle on your back emblazoned with fake military insignia, people would think you were creepy and potentially dangerous, not an exemplar of masculinity and patriotism.

All of these things happen now with regularity, and they’re considered normal by gun owners who believe that any kind of control infringes on their Second Amendment rights. Children are introduced at a young age to guns like the Sig Sauer that Ethan Crumbley used. They’re taught to view guns as emblematic of freedom and the right to self-defense — two concepts that have been expanded to include whatever might justify unlimited accumulation of weapons.

“Freedom” is short for not being told what to do, even though the law very much dictates how and when guns should be used. “Self-defense” is often talked about as a justifiable precaution in the event of home invasion, though home invasions are as rare as four-leaf clovers and do not require an arsenal unless the invader is a small army. (It’s also worth noting that basic home security systems are far less expensive than many popular guns, which suggests that at the very least, some gun owners may be intentionally opting for the most violent potential scenario.) Most important, too many children are taught that guns confer power and can and should be used to intimidate other people. (Relatedly, any time I write about gun control, at least one gun owner emails to say he’d love to shoot me, which is not exactly evidence of responsible gun ownership.)

Mass shooters often begin with a grievance — toward certain populations, individuals they feel wronged by, society at large — and escalate their behavior from fantasizing about violence to planning actual attacks. A study from 2019 suggests that feeling inadequate may make gun owners more inclined toward violence. In the study, gun owners were given a task to perform and then told that they failed it. Later they were asked a number of questions, including whether they would be willing to kill someone who broke into their home, even if the intruder was leaving. “We found that the experience of failure increased participants’ view of guns as a means of empowerment,” wrote one researcher , “and enhanced their readiness to shoot and kill a home intruder.”

The study hypothesized that these gun owners “may be seeking a compensatory means to interact more effectively with their environment.”

Good parents model healthy interactions all the time. If their kids are struggling with a sense of inferiority or are having trouble dealing with failure, we teach them self-confidence and resilience. Parents who treat guns as a mechanism for feeling more significant and powerful are modeling an extremely dangerous way to interact with their environment.

What’s particularly hypocritical here is that the most strident defenders of this culture skew conservative and talk a lot about what isn’t appropriate for children and teenagers. What they think is inappropriate often includes educating kids about sex, about the fact that some people are gay or transsexual and about racism. It’s a perverse state of affairs: Exposing children to simple facts is dangerous, but exposing them to machines designed to kill is not. You can’t get your driver’s license until you’re a teenager, or buy cigarettes and alcohol until you’re 21, but much earlier than that, kids can, with adult supervision, legally learn how to end someone’s life.

Parents can’t ensure that their child won’t ever feel inferior or disempowered, or even in some cases become delusional or filled with rage. Teenagers do things that their parents would never anticipate every day, even if they’re close and communicative. Some develop serious drug habits or become radicalized into extremism or take their own lives.

One thing parents can ensure is that their children cannot get access to a gun in their house. The only foolproof way to do that is to ensure that there’s no gun in the house to begin with. Barring that, parents can make sure they are not reinforcing a toxic gun culture that says that displaying and threatening to use lethal machines is a reasonable way to deal with anger or adversity. That message makes the idea of killing someone seem almost ordinary.

That doesn’t prevent school shooters; it primes them.

Elizabeth Spiers, a contributing Opinion writer, is a journalist and digital media strategist.

Source photographs by CSA-Printstock and John Storey, via Getty Images.

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