VT gunman video

Well, for those that haven’t seen it, here it is. I’ll be honest, though; I’m a little surprised by the general response to this. It pisses me off, actually. It’s not like this kind of thing never happens, and it is sort of an indirect result of the surrounding culture. Not like we created and cultured a murderer, but someone who was already off-balance in some form or another was pushed far over the edge because of the actions of those around him. Speaking as someone who in most of his life has moved through social circles decidedly on the fringe, this kind of attitude is common, but it can be easily mitigated by having someone to commiserate with: to share despondency and create a social connection. To my mind, this is far removed from the Colombine shootings, because those kids were very casual and laid back about the whole thing; this guy was much more emotionally isolated and this guided his response.

I have no doubt this will spur all sorts of debate and anger in many arenas, but I think debate is good. Too much we wring our hands, say boo-hoo, and call it “god’s will” or chalk it up to plain old “crazy”. If we resort to just calling him in-human or crazy then we essentially wash our hands of it and reassure each other that we’re perfectly good people and it couldn’t have been our fault. It’s never that cut-and-dry, and people should realize that.

It’s horrible that those kids were killed, and the blood is on Cho’s hands. Just don’t pretend like people couldn’t have helped him along the way to prevent this. The world is never something that rests solely on one person’s hands…