Americans are a violent and crazy people. This is a fact which seems patently obvious to everyone but us. In fact, you don't even need the degree of objectivity that comes from not being one of us to see this. Newspaper columnist Richard Reeves recently returned from several months abroad. Upon his return he was stunned by the scalding images of violence which unthinkingly permeate American culture.

Every nation and people has a Mythical Self-Image, a story they tell themselves about the kind of people they are. There's usually some truth to it, and some self-deception. To the extent that a nation's self-image is seriously at odds with the reality, deep disease can result.

Let me give you an example not so close to home: for more than 70 years the Soviet Union has seen itself as a utopian paradise of comrades in which everyone was deeply concerned about the welfare of everyone else and in which all was well. That was its official Mythical Self-Image. The reality was shabby and contrary.

In America we see ourselves as: generous, friendly, open, peace-loving, fair. There is lots more of course. I won't bother to detail our many virtues, real and imagined, since we all are walking America-boosters with our own little internal Chambers of Commerce endlessly issuing inner press releases about the greatness of America. And it's not in reflection on our virtues where growth lies but in reflection on our shortcomings--the unexamined corners of our national psyche is where the pay dirt is buried.

So we easily see our grandeur as a society. But one thing we do not perceive is that we are a nation afflicted by an obsession with violence. But we clearly are. We're not nearly so schizoid as Soviet society has been, to be sure. But then, the Soviets are getting well, while we are still into denial. Lots of dark dirt swept deep under thick rugs.

If you don't understand what I mean by this, consider a simple, unrelated but instructive anecdote. This week I watched Gorbachev's former Press Secretary, Genady Gerasimov, address the National Press Club. He was asked about the shortage of food in Moscow during the scarce winter of 1990. Gerasimov replied that the problem was caused not by a shortage of food, but by a blunder by the government. In order to ensure sufficient supplies for Muscovites the government issued shopper's certificates which only permitted Moscow residents to shop in Moscow's food stores. But since all the produce consumed by Moscow is grown in the small villages and towns outside the city, and since the residents of these communities couldn't shop in Moscow, they simply stopped selling their produce to Moscow. The result: empty shelves in Moscow food shops. The government, said Gerasimov, simply didn't think through the consequences of its typically bureaucratic edict.

How refreshing, and novel, it was to hear a government spokesman admit the government made a mistake about something. Have you ever seen a U.S. Government spokesperson ever admit to a mistake of any kind, no matter how damning the evidence and no matter how obvious the facts? For example, have you ever watched the State Department's spokesperson (currently Margaret Tutweiler) conduct a press conference. She reads all her answers word for word from a preprinted briefing book. If perchance someone asks a question not covered in her briefing book, she is authorized only to reply "I don't have anything for you on that."

We are so afraid, in America, of ever seeming to be fallible--capable of simple human error. Superpowers must be super people I guess. Always right. This is why we are so poor at admitting our shortcomings, and the fact that we never admit our shortcomings, is one of the main reasons so much of the world sees us as arrogant--even people who admire us view us this way. So there are lots of unexamined areas in our national psyche. Blind spots. Areas where we tell ourselves a story which isn't true. America's obsession with violence is one such area.

So we need to begin a process of examining the unexamined corners of our national life. I'll go first by offering my own "out-there" thoughts on the matter of why America is such a violent culture.

Among our other cultural traits is a kind of fastidiousness which wants everything sanitized, clean and shiny, well-lit and air conditioned, endlessly new and improved. This causes us, among things, to be alienated from the pervasive reality of death.

As a culture, we are feeble at coming to terms with death. We prefer endless cosmetic interventions to simple reflection on the tendency of everything to decay and die. It shows itself in a million ways: in the ludicrous spectacle of paunchy middle-aged men leaving their wives to take up with young women half their age; in the tummy tucks and boob boosts and skin stretches of plastic surgery; in the marketing of an endless series of momentary celebrities; in the veneration of youth and the disappearance of the multi-generation family; in the neutral third-person rituals surrounding death and dying; and in a million other ways.

So we hide from life by hiding from the reality of decay and death. The universe, fortunately, is wiser than all of us. It has a built-in safety mechanism by which it forces humans to confront all the fundamental forces and truths of life, whether we like it or not. If we can face the truth with clear eyes and open souls, we can process whatever messages the universe is trying to bring us. If we flinch and avert our faces, the universe will push the unwelcome truth in through some unnoticed crack in the floorboards. The truth will come oozing in through the window sill, or hurtling over our walls, or burrowing up from our dreams. We cannot escape. No matter how long we try to stay numb, the universe can always shout louder. And it will. The pressure has to be let off somehow.

The universe is a perpetual motion truth generator which cannot stop and which won't even slow down. And we have to devour as much truth as we can possibly digest as fast as we possibly can. That's the process of life. So what seems to me to be happening is that the pressure is getting let off through outbreaks of chaotic, random violence.

Does not all this violence scare the living shit out of you? It does me. Do not all those frightfully horrific facts and figures I cited earlier give you the thought (at least momentarily) that YOU MIGHT BE KILLED. They should. You see, the excessive violence in American culture is, metaphysically, the universe grabbing us by the collar, forcing us to face the issue of death. Unless and until America comes to terms with the natural rhythms and reasons of life and death, we will always be alienated from the ground of our being, from the rich loam of our organic life. That's why, in my opinion, we are such an insanely violent culture.

But this might all be too way out there to be true. Just one guy's theory, and unfortunately there are not a lot of competing theories around because we are still too busy denying the evidence to expend much collective energy coming up with alternative theories.

The point of all this simply is: we desperately need to look at this persistent violence in American life and figure out what it is and what it means. We need to stop clinging to our Official Mythical Self-Image and look ourselves in the eye. We need to share with one another our insights into the significance of this feature of our national character. We need to have a rich multitimbred chorus of ideas so that we don't have to settle for the meager little notes from my horn.