Originally posted by: InfoDroid
I wrote this originally for a thread at FE.com, but I figure I'll post it here too to add to the discussion:
I hate seeing things like this happen. I'm really sickened this past week by the media, who in their traditional style, are once again focusing everyone's attention on all the wrong issues in this case. The portrait they've painted of Seung-Hui Cho is that of a deranged, apathetic monster.
They focus on the fact that he's an immigrant.
They focus on the fact that he was "weird", he didn't act the same way that all the other "normal" (White) kids.
They focus on the gun-control issue.
They focus on violent video games.
They hypothesize that he was on drugs at the time of the shooting.
They call him a crazed psycho.
I'm still waiting for them to blame Marilyn Manson music.
But none of them have tuned in to the real reason behind this seemingly senseless act of violence.
They don't want to talk about the fact that all the "normal" kids had made his life a Living Hell day in and day out all throughout his childhood and young adult life.
They only mention in passing how in elementary school his teacher made him read in front of the class and as he began struggling through the words of a language that was foreign to him at the time, the other kids busted out laughing and mercilessly mocked him, saying "Go back to China!" Nevermind the fact that he was Korean.
They mention his "crazed, incoherent monologue" heard in his videos and written in his letters, but they gain no insight into his reasons for the attacks. They don't want to listen to his stories about how the "rich kids", with their cars and and new clothes and gold chains, still felt the need to boost their own ego by beating up, tormenting, spitting on a defenseless Asian kid who just wanted to be left alone.
They don't want to talk about the teachers who gave him F's on his violent writings and poetry because creative writing was "not an appropriate outlet" for feelings that dark, instead of encouraging an atmosphere where negative feelings could be vented, or recognizing a call for help when they saw one.
Not allowed to express the rage boiling inside him and with no one around to validate it, what was he to do but swallow it?
So, yeah, I can see why he never talked to anyone, why his roommates described him as a silent, unfriendly loner, having no interest in anyone. If everyone laughed every time you tried to speak, you'd be silent too. And you'd harbor a rage...and over time, gone unexpressed, it would build within you...with every sleight and snub and joke at your expense, not to mention the physical harms inflicted on you...it would quickly harden your heart...and I guess I can sympathize with that in some way.
That's not the way anyone would want their life to turn out. No one wants to be treated that way. Unable to accept or escape from the reality the "normal" kids had created for him, he created his own reality...he ignored them. He refused to acknowledge they existed. For years.
And finally, when that didn't work...and they continued to snicker at him when he didn't answer their questions or look at them in the eye, he adopted a persona which would inspire fear in others and show them once and for all that he was powerful after all and that he could and would enact that power over his enemies. He planned it, and then he carried out his bitter revenge.
Now, let me be clear, the fact that I pity this person does not mean I condone what he did. What he did was surely not the answer to his problems. But I'm saddened by the fact that no one cares to look at this person as a Human Being. They just want to write him off as some mindless monster. What he did was horrible, yes. But Cho was still a person like you and me, a person who at one time had hopes and dreams.
There is a poem by W.H. Auden entitled “September 1st, 1939”. In it, he says “I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn. Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”
The media focuses on Cho’s pathology, but won't even acknowledge the same pathology or sadistic acts of the so-called "normal" (Good) kids and how their actions contributed to this.
And I'm not talking about the 32 innocent people who were shot on the campus that day. I'm talking about the murderers of the first casualty of this incident...Cho's own innocence. Who weeps for the boy who died on some nameless recess field long ago? Who weeps for the man he might’ve become or the life he could’ve lived?
On the larger scale, I'm talking about American society as a whole, the responsibility we all share as members of that society. I'm talking about the kids who cruelly torture countless numbers of the defenseless in schools across the country every day. Modern Frankensteins fashioning demons out of children, who will some day, with enough ill-will slung in their direction, grow into devils.
The problem is, people want to see everything as Good vs Evil. And that's fine for the movies but the real world doesn't work like that. We all have within us the equal potential to create good or evil in our lives and in the lives of others. There's way more gray area there than we like to recognize.
We owe it to our society to honor the victims by analyzing the REAL cause of this tragedy, not some political hot-button topic conjured up to win elections. Only then can we work to make absolutely certain that this kind of shameful and wasteful deed is never repeated.
--ID
I wrote this originally for a thread at FE.com, but I figure I'll post it here too to add to the discussion:
I hate seeing things like this happen. I'm really sickened this past week by the media, who in their traditional style, are once again focusing everyone's attention on all the wrong issues in this case. The portrait they've painted of Seung-Hui Cho is that of a deranged, apathetic monster.
They focus on the fact that he's an immigrant.
They focus on the fact that he was "weird", he didn't act the same way that all the other "normal" (White) kids.
They focus on the gun-control issue.
They focus on violent video games.
They hypothesize that he was on drugs at the time of the shooting.
They call him a crazed psycho.
I'm still waiting for them to blame Marilyn Manson music.
But none of them have tuned in to the real reason behind this seemingly senseless act of violence.
They don't want to talk about the fact that all the "normal" kids had made his life a Living Hell day in and day out all throughout his childhood and young adult life.
They only mention in passing how in elementary school his teacher made him read in front of the class and as he began struggling through the words of a language that was foreign to him at the time, the other kids busted out laughing and mercilessly mocked him, saying "Go back to China!" Nevermind the fact that he was Korean.
They mention his "crazed, incoherent monologue" heard in his videos and written in his letters, but they gain no insight into his reasons for the attacks. They don't want to listen to his stories about how the "rich kids", with their cars and and new clothes and gold chains, still felt the need to boost their own ego by beating up, tormenting, spitting on a defenseless Asian kid who just wanted to be left alone.
They don't want to talk about the teachers who gave him F's on his violent writings and poetry because creative writing was "not an appropriate outlet" for feelings that dark, instead of encouraging an atmosphere where negative feelings could be vented, or recognizing a call for help when they saw one.
Not allowed to express the rage boiling inside him and with no one around to validate it, what was he to do but swallow it?
So, yeah, I can see why he never talked to anyone, why his roommates described him as a silent, unfriendly loner, having no interest in anyone. If everyone laughed every time you tried to speak, you'd be silent too. And you'd harbor a rage...and over time, gone unexpressed, it would build within you...with every sleight and snub and joke at your expense, not to mention the physical harms inflicted on you...it would quickly harden your heart...and I guess I can sympathize with that in some way.
That's not the way anyone would want their life to turn out. No one wants to be treated that way. Unable to accept or escape from the reality the "normal" kids had created for him, he created his own reality...he ignored them. He refused to acknowledge they existed. For years.
And finally, when that didn't work...and they continued to snicker at him when he didn't answer their questions or look at them in the eye, he adopted a persona which would inspire fear in others and show them once and for all that he was powerful after all and that he could and would enact that power over his enemies. He planned it, and then he carried out his bitter revenge.
Now, let me be clear, the fact that I pity this person does not mean I condone what he did. What he did was surely not the answer to his problems. But I'm saddened by the fact that no one cares to look at this person as a Human Being. They just want to write him off as some mindless monster. What he did was horrible, yes. But Cho was still a person like you and me, a person who at one time had hopes and dreams.
There is a poem by W.H. Auden entitled “September 1st, 1939”. In it, he says “I and the public know what all schoolchildren learn. Those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”
The media focuses on Cho’s pathology, but won't even acknowledge the same pathology or sadistic acts of the so-called "normal" (Good) kids and how their actions contributed to this.
And I'm not talking about the 32 innocent people who were shot on the campus that day. I'm talking about the murderers of the first casualty of this incident...Cho's own innocence. Who weeps for the boy who died on some nameless recess field long ago? Who weeps for the man he might’ve become or the life he could’ve lived?
On the larger scale, I'm talking about American society as a whole, the responsibility we all share as members of that society. I'm talking about the kids who cruelly torture countless numbers of the defenseless in schools across the country every day. Modern Frankensteins fashioning demons out of children, who will some day, with enough ill-will slung in their direction, grow into devils.
The problem is, people want to see everything as Good vs Evil. And that's fine for the movies but the real world doesn't work like that. We all have within us the equal potential to create good or evil in our lives and in the lives of others. There's way more gray area there than we like to recognize.
We owe it to our society to honor the victims by analyzing the REAL cause of this tragedy, not some political hot-button topic conjured up to win elections. Only then can we work to make absolutely certain that this kind of shameful and wasteful deed is never repeated.
--ID
In addition to what Darth Chaltab said (I agree with it), this is not an "American" thing. Or are we saying that school children are only made fun of in America? I don't by that. Maybe there's stricter discipline across the pond, but I find it hard to believe that bullying doesn't still happen.
The only thing Cho didn't do, that millions of "nerds", "dorks", and "geeks" do, is that he didn't find a group that he fit in with. Maybe he didn't fit in with anyone. Maybe the kids in elemantary school and to a lesser extent high school were cruel by making fun of him. Most of us grow up and go beyond that once we reach college and start focusing on the future. I find it hard to believe that anyone at Virginia Tech did anything to bully him. I can believe it happened in the past, but so what? I personally feel no pity for him. Perhaps if he had really reached out and tried to get help instead of continually closing himself off, maybe it wouldn't have happened. We'll never know now.
I have no pity for anyone that does something like this because they were "bullied" 10 years ago. There are professional counselors to help people deal with this kind of thing and it's usually covered by insurance. If you really want to get better, the help is there. If, however, you decide to take out some lives before taking your own, then don't expect anything but questions to be left when you're done. It certainly won't help the situation for future children that have to go through the same thing.
You're right about one thing InfoDroid, we should be looking at the problem of bullying. But instead of giving it lip service, which is what every politician and school administration official is doing right now, we need to take a serious look at it. Zero tolerance doesn't work. Things need to be handled on a case by case basis and records of history need to be kept on bully's. We (school admins) shouldn't ostracize children when they report bullying (like they did when I was in school). It should be taken seriously and investigated. The bully's should be punished. Isolate them into separate classes that have strict rules. Suspending them won't do any good, since their parents are likely not giving them any discipline at home. If a kid fights back against the bully, don't just suspend the kid (if even at all), suspend the bully as well, but with isolation at school. Supervised lunch at a different time from everyone else. No talking or the suspension is extended. I guarantee you that if the students who are bullied are allowed to fight back without having to fear suspension or expulsion, things will change. As it stands right now though, any type of reaction is met with even more severe punishment and black marks on the kids record.