Hollywood glamorizes violence as appealing in its’ rage and aggression. Everyone’s certainly heard the phrase, “red-blooded male”. It refers to virility, but it also has an unspoken side that is an aggressive rage, that boils underneath the surface. In American Psycho, a classic cult film, the protagonist is a high-profile white-collar man who is also a serial killer by night. Portrayals like this are what we find entertaining, until it turns into reality.

In America’s history, aggression has led us to major massacres, sans guns. Before guns there were muskets and before muskets there were knives, and spears. Before and after the Civil War, cowboys and Native Americans were killing each other over land and sovereignty. Man’s obsession with power and control is nothing new, all that has changed are the tools in his toolbox. After all, we might be debating one day on whether or not it’s moral to use contagions as warfare-play.

After the Texas church shooting, the public are shaking their fists at gun owners and the National Rifle Association (NRA), when what we really should be talking about is mental health. In every instance, where there’s a shooting, the perpetrator has had a personal vendetta that they end up taking out on someone else, or a whole multitude of innocents. The phrase,“Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” comes to mind. Especially since the man who took down the shooter, was indeed another person wielding a gun.

Yes, we can crack down on the sale of guns and the banning of assault rifles in the U.S. But will it work? No. There will always be a back alley or another channel for people to find these things, and where there’s a will, there’s certainly a way.

Even in a workplace, corporate setting, it pays off to appear cold-blooded, and aggressive. Half of the country voted for Donald Trump because they thought he would police the country better than the police itself.

This is one of the reasons that many people used in wanting to prevent women from entering the military claiming that male-only, testosterone-filled aggression is the one thing that maintains the integrity of the organization.

Can aggression be a good thing? Yes, it’s funneled into something else. Hockey is a whole sport that’s based on aggression. Music, as well, is best when it’s full of emotion, whether that be anger, sadness or joy.

Will America ever be less aggressive of a nation? Probably not. We were founded on the heels of a rebellion, told England to go f*ck itself, and the we dumped all of their tea into the harbor. People came here, angry that they were being persecuted for believing in a certain religion. The goal is to be able to take that aggression and turn it into something constructive: a business idea, a goal, a hit single, or an American dream.