Letters to the Editor
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the idiocy of this country
And nevermind the fact that virtually every other mass-killing event in our country's history was perpetrated by white males. And the vast majority of serial killers have been white males. Maybe we should start locking up all the white males pre-emptively just in case they might decide to start shooting.
The fact of the matter of course is that his nationality means nothing. His easy access to guns and bullets allowed him to kill all of those people.
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ditto
Less people would be injured or dead if he did not have access to the guns. The idea that we "the sane" can shoot every lunatic we meet is absurd.
According to the Chicago Tribune, the suspect had taken medication for depression at one point and had been referred to the school's psychological services because of his violent writings. He also apparently stalked women. So there were clear warning signs that this guy was psychotic, but once again with the current state of mental health care services in this country, no one could do anything about it.
If we had spent money on a national health care system that included mental health services instead of on a pointless war in Iraq, then stuff like this would be less common. But it makes sense that people who think that guns solve problems would support both a war in Iraq and liberal access to guns.
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Fine central point -- how our prejudices immediately label realities
Me too -- I immediately assumed is was a rednck with a rifle -- someone like Charlie Whitman of the Texas Tower, or Timothy.
And it turned out to be an exchange student with two handguns who lost it.
Tasteless observation here -- how many impoverished (and often Southern) would-be students are so determined to get an education they're willing to go to Iraq and risk being shot to earn money for college. Where they can go to classes and risk being shot.
(Well, I already said it was tasteless. But not as tasteless as President "Let's Go To War" trying to prop up his ratings on the backs of those shocked, traumatized students.)
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The need to extrapolate
It is baffling how so many people are willing to make sweeping statements based on a sample size of 1. The average person seems so entranced by unusual occurances that they give weight to these events entirely out of proportion with their larger meaning. Perhaps statistics needs to be taught in high schools, or at least start hiring science teachers because they know science, not because they can coach a sport.
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Excellent commentary
But 99.999 percent of those 100,000 Koreans somehow managed not to engage in mass killing sprees. My advice to the Korean blogosphere -- despite all the cultural hypothesizing that is about to swarm the mediasphere -- is to strive to stay calm. Jealous rage knows no borders.
Well put. Unfortunately, the cultural hypothesizing will take place on both sides of the Pacific---when the Korean Foreign Ministry issued its statement in the incident, for example, it made a point---none to subtly, I should add---to note that Cho had spent a lot of time in the United States, and it is something of a media meme in Korea to discuss how Koreans studying overseas (and in North America, in particular) become corrupted by foreign ways. And, even more unfortunately, the blogosphere mudslinging won't be confined to just Korea vs. US. For the real ugly stuff, wait until the Japanese and Korean netizens start to get into it.
Anyway, let's just hope cooler heads prevail.
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Horrible
As an Asian-American who lives less than 2 hours away from VA Tech, I have been sicken by some of the racist comments I have read on various blogs and websites including the UK-based Daily Mail where a number of self-proclaimed American posters not only made comments about the alleged gunman's nationality but also said that all this could have been 'easily' prevented had the students been armed. My heart goes out to each and everyone one of the victims, their families and friends which I could not help but notice included people of various races and ethnicities.
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P.S.
I forgot to add that I am also appalled that someone would use the racist term 'Paki' like that conservative commentator the blurb mentioned.
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From Robert Koehler's blog
He could have very well simply been a fucked-up kid with a gun. Can’t get any more American than that.
Amen. Need I start listing the names of fucked-up (white) Americans who have shot up high schools, fast food restaurants, colleges, and shopping malls? I sure hope not, but if we applied the logic that Debbie Schlussel and her ilk use (someone from culture A is violent, therefore culture A promotes violence, therefore everyone from cultural A is suspect and should be removed from the country), we'd be sending millions of white Americans back to Ireland, Scotland, England, and Germany.
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But Isn't Korea an Affiliate Member of Al-Qaeda?
Or maybe the shooter was a Muslim convert...
I mean, ya never know, and there's ALWAYS a way to figure out how to blame the Muslims...
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An Addendum
I just wanted to let people (and the writer of this letter) know that I have a much more well-thought and reasoned post on the issue than the placeholder post that is linked to from this site.
I realize that suddenly a lot of new readers, unfamiliar with my writings and thinking on Korean society, are coming in and sizing up my arguments based on perhaps a single post, so I have been far more careful in laying out my thinking in the extensive post I've just spent 3 hours writing, even as my initial one was being linked to.
I argue that the tragedy should invite an examination of many of the factors – social, familial, educational – that affect many Korean students in the US as "cultural." But at the same time, I also urge that Cho be seen as an individual for whom the Korean nation needs claim no more responsiblity than it could have for the success of Hines Ward in the Superbowl.
My point is that the sword of cultural pride/shame cuts both ways.
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Running amok
The phenomenon of "running amok" does seem to have been first observed by westerners in eastern countries.
Typically a male--it is always a male, never a woman--with no prior history of violence suffers some kind of affront to his dignity or deep shame that makes life unliveable (from his point of view).
Wikipedia quotes the 1911 Encylopedia Britannica as saying: ""A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapons, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed..."
This may be interpreted as a way of committing suicide in cultures where regular suicide is not acceptable.
The phenomenon apparently died out in the east under colonial rule, though the American equivalent "going postal" applies to the phenomenon of highly intelligent, but socially maladjusted individuals obtaining employment by competitive examination in the US Postal Service, but at a later date developing an overpowering sense of grievance and massacring supervisors and other coworkers before turning their weapons on themselves.
Interestingly, the competitive examination for employment in postal services was instituted after a US president was shot and killed by a dissatisfied office seeker--one who was quite unqualified for the position he sought.
The Virginia shooter seems to have spent more than half his life in the US. At this time we don't know what his predominant cultural influences were, but chances are that we (the US) will have to bite the bullet and claim his as one of our own.