Do We as a Society Handled Inner Demons Well

Philip Mella wonders, and writes:

But as we begin to perform the cultural forensics, something else is becoming apparent, and that is how we've become inured to the disproportionate response by people who harbor internal demons. Low on the seismic scale are the outbursts prompted by excessive alcohol in response to seething gender or ethnic hatreds. On the other end of the scale are the grotesque expressions of a person wholly consumed by anger, which, of course, is what our nation witnessed at Virginia Tech.

As we peel the layers of meaning back in a desperate search for a cause, we might consider the way in which our historical cultural consensus has been transformed into anarchy. As quaint as it would appear to many--which is only evidence of how far we've deviated--there was a time when children were inculcated with the expectation that it was incumbent upon them to assimilate into society. That their internal demons weren't, in fact, unique, and that part of growing into an adult obliges us to reconcile values and beliefs that are manifestly at odds with the rest of the world.

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Our only hope to extricate ourselves from this self-wrought cultural maze is to reaffirm that there are, in fact, rules and guidelines to our public lives, and that we lose nothing by restraining our baser instincts--that, in truth, much is to be gained by doing so, in terms of beginning to understand the virtues of self-discipline and the value of delayed gratification.

It seems to be coming to light that Cho was picked on in high school. But weren't we all at some point (at least I was)? Has the elevation of self-esteem above all else led to these problems? A fair question.