Reply #9: I don't know if there's a way to "prevent" these episodes

[gratuitous]

I don't know how preventable this tragedy was, but I think the way our society is ordered has something to do with it. We are inculcated early on with the idea that violence is an acceptable method for settling differences. For proof, just look at any thread having to do with spanking children, and regardless of where you come down on the question, it's indisputable that spanking is a form of violence.

Building on this bedrock foundation (which is laid so deep many of us aren't even aware it's there) are layers and layers of other things that get in the way. We're reluctant to make blanket government proscriptions -- laws, agencies or programs -- to deal with such matters, because we've deemed it to be meddling too much in people's personal lives.

Men are taught early in their lives, and quite often throughout their lives, that handling their own business by themselves is a significant indicator of manliness. Men who seek help surely damage their status in the community.

Women, too, are given lots of conflicting signals, and a woman who can't "manage" her husband and her family is looked down upon by significant segments of our culture.

There are lots of forces that keep us from banding too closely together, some of them moneyed interests that can sell us stuff that will "protect" us from the untrustworthy "others" in our midst. So when a man like Daniel Riley finally totters off the edge of sanity, we can all be horrified once again. Some of us will go straight home and hug our children, which is good. But a lot more people will buy another lock for the door or another gun for the cabinet, and eye their neighbors and passersby with a little more suspicion.