The media seems to enjoy belittling these shooters' intelligence, which I worry will make people who have these predispositions more mad. The last we need is another Cho going on another shooting because the first Cho was made out to be a monster. I think that would only pin them further into the corner of vengefulness.
Some people say Cho did it "just to be famous," but they're also wrong. He did it as a red alert to bullies everywhere. If you don't want a shooting to happen, just don't bully other students, especially to the point of making them suicidal. It's that simple.
If you read Eric and Dylan's diary, you see hateful comments from the standpoint of natural selection and Social Darwinism. Eric and Dylan were Hitler-wannabes. I didn't see this in Cho. He genuinely attempted to defend the less fortunate members of society from victimization in a murderous rampage. It's too bad he chose to shoot down his whole classroom (relatively speaking, anyway, in case you thought I was advocating murder.)
I wrote about Cho's motives in more detail on the footnote of my essay on sexual selection, http://www.geocities.com/zinites_page/schiz.html, which you can read here: http://www.geocities.com/zinites_page/schiz_footnote.html.
01 Mar 2008, 10:13 pm
