I don't think Cho went on a spree murder/suicide in the hopes that he'd get posthumously rewarded with a week of air time. I disagree, from what I have read and seen of the "package" he absolutely wished to be a celebrity. If not, then to whom was he speaking to? He did this not only for revenge against those who offended him, but as an example to others of what sort of fate awaited you.
I don't think not airing tapes like this is in the public interest or that it encourages others. Airing or not airing the tapes is not the question. With the internet any "package" will circuit the globe before we have a chance to even try to suppress it. The question is context. If aired with sympathy to the murderer then I do feel that it will have the effect of creating more of them. I also believe the reverse is true, that if we call the murderer a pervert, speak about how this individual was given opportunities for treatment, and how much effort was wasted on them, then maybe, just maybe, we will prevent something like this.
Spree murders predate mass media, they happen independently of people making tapes or getting caught on camera, and they'll happen either way until we have better ways of identifying and treating various types of mental illness and/or have a society less apt at producing it. What we call spree murder has been around since (wait for it) Cain and Able. Stories of one person or a small group of people murdering a large number of "others" exist it every culture I know of. I would propose that in the good old days we just called them different names. Perhaps act of war. Previously the word alienation refer to alien nations people so different that you could be sure they were not one of us, but today it seems that there are alienated people among us than outside of us. Would you let your 11 year old daughter have a paper rout? Do you talk to the old man feeding pigeons in the park? Whom do you count as one of us?
Many people for good or ill, wish to see themselves as part of a group. Others see those groups as a privileged class and form opposition groups. The cool kids eat lunch together go to all the parties and make fun of everyone else. No good, front running, Yankees fans are ruining the sport of baseball. The XYZ make all the rules and then refuse to punish their own members who break the rules. We have heard the names of these groups turned into curses by those whom are outside or opposed to them. This also extends to the equating of insult and injury.
No one injured this murderer, he was not assaulted or battered in any of the accounts that I have read. He was different and was excluded. His exclusion became his badge of honor. It was what made him feel special. But it was not enough, he needed to go even farther outside the groups he opposed, he needed the build himself up by tearing them down. He used the media to enshrine him with the other great outsiders in infamy and it took the airing of his media "package" to do so.
Finally how come we hear so much about the murderer and so little about Liviu Librescu?
Now, I rarely if ever disagree with softside however I find myself agreeing with you. I think Cho's poor twisted vision of the aftermath of all this probably did include a week of air time. Surely the video is evidence of this? The poor warped pathetic idiot has made lots of decent people grieve. How many reruns of 'If' (the Lindsay Anderson movie) do we need in order to understand that some folk are inadequate. And that the inadequate but privileged are quite likely, for entertainment purposes, to push the inadequate non-privileged into madness. And then the media will have something vital, immediate, and dead to hang their advertising on. Advertising revenue, Thanatos, and late capitalist social breakdown. Let us now worship our culture's highpoint. That's why no-one's writing about some old ugly dead HERO who laid down his life for his pupils. It won't sell McBurgers or i-pods, and besides, yeuch, he's like... old. We have the Media leaders and editors we deserve. Why complain? It is after all, an integral part of late-capitalist culture. In order to change it, you'd have to change all sorts of other things as well, and that's not going to happen.
Use of the term pervert was suggested by Dr. Michael Welner.
The Hugh Hewitt interview of noted forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, on NBC's approach this week in the Virginia Tech shooting, and the correct approach in understanding schizophrenia.
HH: Can you talk about the effect of NBC’s decision on other borderline cases of people who have not yet gone over to violence, but are, well, where Cho was two years ago? MW: Well, why don’t we take a look at the number of copycat incidents that have just happened this week, but they happened after this was released. They didn’t happen after this crime hit the news. They happened after he turned into a badass action hero. It’s so disappointing. And I would distinguish some of these incidents as possibly motivated by individuals just trying to get attention for themselves, because of the amount of attention, and the nature of the attention afforded this pervert. And I think pervert is the appropriate word that has to be distinguished for this kind of behavior. It’s a perversion. But what I’m particularly concerned about are those people who just with repeated exposure, their sense of perhaps compassion and understanding for him, because he’s humanized, degenerates into something that is more of an identification with him. And then, when you combine that with a person who is failing and gets to a place where he feels that he’s had enough, and has all of these other ingredients that I’ve noted, then look out next April 20th, because it is a sort of, it is a perverted anniversary that not only attaches itself to the Columbine case, but Hitler’s birthday as well.
I disagree, from what I have read and seen of the "package" he absolutely wished to be a celebrity. If not, then to whom was he speaking to? He did this not only for revenge against those who offended him, but as an example to others of what sort of fate awaited you.
I don't think not airing tapes like this is in the public interest or that it encourages others.
Airing or not airing the tapes is not the question. With the internet any "package" will circuit the globe before we have a chance to even try to suppress it. The question is context. If aired with sympathy to the murderer then I do feel that it will have the effect of creating more of them. I also believe the reverse is true, that if we call the murderer a pervert, speak about how this individual was given opportunities for treatment, and how much effort was wasted on them, then maybe, just maybe, we will prevent something like this.
Spree murders predate mass media, they happen independently of people making tapes or getting caught on camera, and they'll happen either way until we have better ways of identifying and treating various types of mental illness and/or have a society less apt at producing it.
What we call spree murder has been around since (wait for it) Cain and Able. Stories of one person or a small group of people murdering a large number of "others" exist it every culture I know of. I would propose that in the good old days we just called them different names. Perhaps act of war. Previously the word alienation refer to alien nations people so different that you could be sure they were not one of us, but today it seems that there are alienated people among us than outside of us. Would you let your 11 year old daughter have a paper rout? Do you talk to the old man feeding pigeons in the park? Whom do you count as one of us?
Many people for good or ill, wish to see themselves as part of a group. Others see those groups as a privileged class and form opposition groups. The cool kids eat lunch together go to all the parties and make fun of everyone else. No good, front running, Yankees fans are ruining the sport of baseball. The XYZ make all the rules and then refuse to punish their own members who break the rules. We have heard the names of these groups turned into curses by those whom are outside or opposed to them. This also extends to the equating of insult and injury.
No one injured this murderer, he was not assaulted or battered in any of the accounts that I have read. He was different and was excluded. His exclusion became his badge of honor. It was what made him feel special. But it was not enough, he needed to go even farther outside the groups he opposed, he needed the build himself up by tearing them down. He used the media to enshrine him with the other great outsiders in infamy and it took the airing of his media "package" to do so.
Finally how come we hear so much about the murderer and so little about Liviu Librescu?
Reply
The poor warped pathetic idiot has made lots of decent people grieve. How many reruns of 'If' (the Lindsay Anderson movie) do we need in order to understand that some folk are inadequate. And that the inadequate but privileged are quite likely, for entertainment purposes, to push the inadequate non-privileged into madness. And then the media will have something vital, immediate, and dead to hang their advertising on.
Advertising revenue, Thanatos, and late capitalist social breakdown. Let us now worship our culture's highpoint.
That's why no-one's writing about some old ugly dead HERO who laid down his life for his pupils. It won't sell McBurgers or i-pods, and besides, yeuch, he's like... old.
We have the Media leaders and editors we deserve. Why complain? It is after all, an integral part of late-capitalist culture. In order to change it, you'd have to change all sorts of other things as well, and that's not going to happen.
Reply
(The comment has been removed)
The Hugh Hewitt interview of noted forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Michael Welner, on NBC's approach this week in the Virginia Tech shooting, and the correct approach in understanding schizophrenia.
HH: Can you talk about the effect of NBC’s decision on other borderline cases of people who have not yet gone over to violence, but are, well, where Cho was two years ago?
MW: Well, why don’t we take a look at the number of copycat incidents that have just happened this week, but they happened after this was released. They didn’t happen after this crime hit the news. They happened after he turned into a badass action hero. It’s so disappointing. And I would distinguish some of these incidents as possibly motivated by individuals just trying to get attention for themselves, because of the amount of attention, and the nature of the attention afforded this pervert. And I think pervert is the appropriate word that has to be distinguished for this kind of behavior. It’s a perversion. But what I’m particularly concerned about are those people who just with repeated exposure, their sense of perhaps compassion and understanding for him, because he’s humanized, degenerates into something that is more of an identification with him. And then, when you combine that with a person who is failing and gets to a place where he feels that he’s had enough, and has all of these other ingredients that I’ve noted, then look out next April 20th, because it is a sort of, it is a perverted anniversary that not only attaches itself to the Columbine case, but Hitler’s birthday as well.
Reply
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