Since nothing has been done to address the problem of people feeling insignificant in today’s world, it should not come as a surprise to see an increase in behaviors that merely react to it.

Can it be simply a coincidence that the actual and perceived size of pickup trucks has grown relentlessly along with their ownership?  A massive personal vehicle is more than a way of getting from point A to point B.  It’s an identity statement, and the more imposing it is, the less cause its driver has to feel insignificant.

Ownership and proficiency in the use of firearms also tends to make a person feel more substantial, even formidable.  There’s a legitimate satisfaction in knowing you can protect your home and family, but in today’s environment, this can all too quickly morph into less positive forms.

One of these is a search for reasons to use weapons (or at a minimum, publicly display them)—the end result of which may be membership in a militia or other group whose stated reason for being is nowhere near as persuasive as the simple opportunity it offers to flex lethal power.

Another contemporary problem that can be traced back to people feeling inconsequential is the sickening rise of mass shootings—which, despite certain differences, tend to follow essentially the same script:  somebody who feels like a nobody decides to make his problem the world’s problem, finally “making a name” for himself through the muzzle of a gun, and the agony it creates in others.

But even more threatening than these developments is the rise of a strain of Know-Nothingism that’s without parallel in our history.