Although I think I understand what Cary is saying about the nihilism of Cho's actions, what they mean to me is that there are some people who are truly malevolent, and what that means is something I think about a lot, because I happen to know one of those people. Whether this malevolence constitutes badness or madness, is something I go back and forth on. It helps me to forgive the person if I think of it as madness, but then I recognize that there's an utterly selfish volition behind their actions that looks at other people and sees them as opportunities for gathering power, and then I have to see it also as badness. I guess real forgiveness involves confronting that aspect as well. In any case, I agree with the previous commenters who point out that you are clearly not in this category. Some people may not be able to suspend their prejudices for long enough to see this, but other people will know it, and so you're not that different from the rest of us, who are all in different ways viewed through the lens of prejudice, and have to live with the fact that some people don't like us. That's only a problem if we agree with their judgement, which, I regret to say, is all too easy for me at least to do.

They have no other use. If you're attracted to them, I'm inclined to think it's because you're attracted to the power they confer. Even if you convince yourself you never intend to use that power, 'at some level' you entertain the possibility that circumstances might arise that would allow you to use it 'justifiably'. Hey, I can identify. I don't have a gun, but I'd kind of like one. I'd like to feel a bit more powerful. But I'm not going to buy one today, because I think guns are for killing people and I don't want to give myself that illusion of power. I think it is ultimately an illusion. Also I don't want to buy a gun for the same reason I don't want to buy a Hummer, or the same reason I buy organic produce, because as a consumer my small decisions support bigger things, and I want them to be the right things.

They have no other use. If you're attracted to them, I'm inclined to think it's because you're attracted to the power they confer. Even if you convince yourself you never intend to use that power, 'at some level' you entertain the possibility that circumstances might arise that would allow you to use it 'justifiably'. Hey, I can identify. I don't have a gun, but I'd kind of like one. I'd like to feel a bit more powerful. But I'm not going to buy one today, because I think guns are for killing people and I don't want to give myself that illusion of power. I think it is ultimately an illusion. Also I don't want to buy a gun for the same reason I don't want to buy a Hummer, or the same reason I buy organic produce, because as a consumer my small decisions support bigger things, and I want them to be the right things.