A Country Governed by Fear
How America became a violent society
Updated at 2:07 p.m. ET on May 4, 2023
The subway is a commons, and every kind of public behavior is visible there. On the train are, inter alia, teenagers listening to music on their phone, babies wailing, hungry people wolfing down sandwiches from fast-food containers, lovers kissing, lovers quarreling, children whirling around poles, adults trying to corral them, panhandlers asking for money, and occasionallyhave periodic episodes in full view of others, we still have no real etiquette or protocol for meeting a fellow person who is struggling. For evidence of this, look not just to the killing of the Black man strangled by a fellow passenger on a New York City train on Monday, but to the valorization of his killer by cheerleaders online.
