The Las Vegas Bomber & Why America Does Not Respond to "Wake-Up Calls"

Authorities reportedly recovered a letter from Las Vegas bomber Matthew Livelsberger explaining his motivations for blowing up a truck in front of Trump International Hotel on New Year's Day:

This was not a terrorist attack, it was a wake up call. Americans only pay attention to spectacles and violence. What better way to get my point across than a stunt with fireworks and explosives.

I am reasonably sure the seven people who sustained injuries as a result of Livelsberger's actions would disagree with his assessment.

What sticks out to me though is Livelsberger's use of the term "wake up call". 

Yes, Americans do pay attention to spectacles and violence. But our attention span is short. 

That the attack took place on a Trump property will give this incident more attention. But I somehow doubt it will result in the sort of "wake-up call" that Livelsberger would have wanted whatever his wishes might have been.

After all, the past quarter century of this country's history has been full of spectacles and violence - the September 11th attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing, an attack on the U.S. Capitol along with too many school shootings and mass shootings to mention. 

Well, I'll mention one mass shooting in particular.

The largest mass shooting in U.S. history took place all of three miles away from where Livelsberger took his own life. In October 2017, 60 people were killed at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival by a gunman staying at the nearby Mandalay Bay Hotel. Yet I suspect most people outside the immediate area would not be aware of this fact much less remembered that such a thing even happened. Perhaps Livelsberger was one of those people.

Despite the best efforts of incoming Trump Administration officials to link Las Vegas to the ISIS inspired terrorist attack in New Orleans, one wonders if Livelsberger was aware of the spectacles and violence which occurred hours earlier. 

Of course, I must also bear in mind there are reports that Livelsberger had sustained some kind of traumatic brain injury in the course of his military service in Afghanistan. If this was the case, then his state of mind would have been in a diminished capacity adversely affecting his decision-making ability. Planning and carrying out an act which took his own life, and which could have taken the lives of others much less hoping that such a plan would be wake-up call is not a sign of prudence and sound judgment.

In the final analysis, I think this country is far too desensitized to spectacles and violence not to mention a pandemic which killed more than 1 million Americans to even comprehend the idea of a wake-up call.