ethoughts weekly- Issue 158

April 22, 2007

Again

There has been so much national conversation on the Virginia Tech massacre, that to comment, one risks adding more to the big pile of it. And in the end no one will really remember what was said anyway. But I will still contribute because it’s on my mind, and that’s what ethoughts is. Ethoughts is about what is on my mind. We both knew this going into things. Thank you for bearing with me, now and always.

First, the sadness and loss is incredible. This is obvious. So many precious lives are gone. So many have been touched by grief. So many had so much life left to live if it weren’t for such evil. So many lives were snuffed out for what seems like no reason, save madness, and that never seems like reason enough. This week I am sad and disturbed by it.

The second thought that jumped to mind after I heard this news, and almost as quickly was, ‘Here we are again.’ Are any of you thinking, “This is what happens now. People in this country go crazy, and kill others in mass, and no one stops them, and then it’s too late?”

Crazy men (usually, sorry to point this out guys,) are far more determined these days to really carry out deadly plans, with a high casualty rate. When they single-minded to hurt and kill, how can you really stop them? I don’t think one can, and lately, they really want to.

It’s amazing how tough campus policemen look now, with all their special riot and terror gear, but they still do no good. Politicians use the occasions to stump about their agendas. That is very disgusting. I get the urge to spit. I suppose it’s the unsavory taste it leaves in my mouth. Media outlets unscrupulously air the narcissistic videos of the self-aggrandizing, and ruthless murdering types, and so I just can’t be surprised by the increase of this behavior anymore. I’m very, very saddened by it, but I’m not surprised. The fingers start pointing in every direction each time, but it seems like bewilderment has set in too, numbness. The outrage hasn’t sustained, and it cannot possibly do that. Even the questions of “why”, they are dull.

There seems to be a huge disconnection. It sort of seems like, “Television is life. Life is television.” We watch; we see terror and drama, and now we see re-runs, and somehow culturally we’ve pulled away. That which connects us, one big world YOUTUBE, in a sense, may also disconnect us from the horror of true evil. It certainly helps to callous us. As evil is repeated, and we see it again, we start to hear and see the same scenarios, hear the refrains, see the same vigils, but cry less tears, as a nation, as a culture, as individuals. Unreality sets in. We walk on by, life moves on, like a speedy and treacherous stream.

I also wonder how we can escape and suffer the Eric and Dyan generation of fool miscreants? A new population of punks. The Columbine High School Shooting Massacre was not a one-time rampage of revenge and murder, but instead, a launching pad fueled by the media, and interconnectivity, human depravity, and a culture increasingly numb to the feelings and lives of others. Lonely, feeble-minded, malcontents feed on the notions of infamy, and make bomb threats, stockpile ammo, and keep enemy lists. Glory baits them, they are fools, of course; so they buy all of it, again. And now again.

I sicken to bring it up, but it's true. We saw something new as well with psycho Cho. It’s not enough to kill those who are innocent, like a little school girls, now it’s best to have a multi-media press kit with a “manifesto”, video clips, and digital glamor shots, to enhance your vicious slaughter of a large number of innocent people. And it’s put on mainstream television as entertainment, masquerading as news. “Manifesto” is a glamorous word, of course. It’s how a news network tries enhance ratings. They should really call it “A sicko’s extensive psychotic rants we have the decency not to air”.

So we can be sure, Cho is the new "killer to be". He's on the "what's hot list", the new hero of the alienated losers of this world. I’d hate to be right on this one, but this is my gut feeling. Cho copycats are coming. Brace yourself, be careful, wear loose-fitting clothing.

Our entertainment culture can create little gods. I see it in my children after an hour or two of Saturday morning cartoons. They become mentally a bit stuck with an attitude of entitlement for a while afterwards. And these created gods assume the things and people of this world are meant to satisfy and appease them. The infantile narcissism never gives way to maturity. Turn of TV Week is this week, and I can’t think of a better reason than Cho, to do it, especially if you have children in your home.

Lisa DeLay

©2007