Shriver on Virginia Tech

The ever-thoughtful author of We Need to Talk About Kevin weighs in:

I would far prefer that this new killer remained anonymous. Were all such culprits to remain utterly and eternally unknown, the chips on their shoulders interred with their bones, their grudges for ever private, surely the frequency of these grotesquely gratuitous sprees would plummet. One of the driving forces for most of these killers is not just to be noticed, but, however perversely, to be understood.

(via Sarah)

5 Comments

  1. Yes, because continually ignoring them will surely placate a bitter and alienated individual. What an idiot. People like Shriver are exactly why young men do such things. They are voiceless and powerless.

  2. The sort of young men who do such things do them because they are *insane*. This is not the act of a ‘bitter and alienated individual’, this is the act of a psychopath. You cannot placate a psychopath. I mean if only we’d all have been nicer and given Ted Bundy a voice … this is barking up the entirely wrong tree.

    I tend to agree that those of what’s-his-name’s ilk ought to be forgotten (although I should add that I have not read the linked article). What an asshole.

  3. He was no more insane than a member of the military. Insane people cannot function at the level he did. Cho was no different than a Palestinian who blows himself up. The society brings things upon themselves.

  4. You are full of shit, and your romanticising of mass violence is vile, and beneath contempt.

    Mr. Cho DID NOT FUNCTION very well at all. Pathological egocentricity. Lack of remorse. Poor judgment. Failure to learn from experience. Persistent sociopathic behavior even when it caused him harm. Lack of regard for the consequences of his actions for himself and for others. Absence of conventional emotions, other than rage. Predispostiton to violence. Etc. You would expect a psychopath to function at PRECISELY the level he did.

    Troll.

  5. Understanding =/= romanticising.

    Of course he was maladjusted, he was mentally ill (and mental illness is always relative to the majority). The system failed, as usual, and now he gets to be held up as someone evil. While America slaughters women, child, and the overall innocent throughout the world. He is a perfect reflection of America, and as usual, America hates it when they have to face their own cultural inadequacies.

    America is a degenerate culture.

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