Why is there so much gun violence in the United States, asks Bowling for Columbine - recently screened at the DSBPI. It's not the number of guns (see Canada), it's not the history of violence (see Germany) and it's not the media industry (see world), says the docudrama. Of course, the film doesn't suggest that it is a combination of these things, but OK.

DSBPI's recent travels are influencing the following thoughts:

The US, as superpower, super-capitalism, super-charged American Dream, make-it-or break-Hollywood, If-You-Can-Make-It-Here-You-Can-Make-It-Anywhere, PowerBall $300mm lotto jackpot, home of the brave - may be a place where expectations are so high that 'failure' is that much more painful. That the perception off not advancing (whether it is the 7th grader in Columbine, the gang leader in LA or the corporate VP in Long Island) is so outrageously acute that the response is equally disproportionate. As a rocket propels itself upwards to greater altitudes, more and more exhaust and debris is ejected. Perhaps there is a reason why the US is both the world's capital of innovation and capital of violence?

In Germany there is a mandated 35-hour work week. In France, the population goes on holiday for the summer. Neither of these are conducive to building the next Yahoo!, Google, Cisco or DreamWorks, where 24-hour commitment to clocking faster processing speed is the rule. But European companies don't talk about work-life balance as a selling point for recruiting ; it is part of the cultural fabric. They may lose some of the best minds because of this as talent migrates to greater opportunity, but these societies have made a conscious tradeoff between retiring fat and simply making it to retirement.

Perhaps the dogged pursuit of Gordon Moore's Law has created fodder for the sometimes maudlin camera of Michael Moore.

While the DSBPI certainly does not deny successful capitalists their due, it stands to reason that things will only gets worse as those who succeed find better ways to wall themselves off from the unwashed; behind the tinted windows of the Cadillac Escalades, ensconced in Buffet's NetJets or locked behind the gates of custom built communities - destroying even a market driven, enlightened self-interest in the world around.

What about Asia? Isn't that a center of innovation without the violence found in the US? DSBPI posits that the lax regulations and custom surrounding sex has something to do with this anomaly.

This piece is still in the think tank.