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Virginia Tech campus shootings; random thoughts
Topic Started: Apr 17 2007, 07:55 PM (232 Views)
Dominic Guglieme
the human MICROscope!!



I promised myself I would not bother with this. But, hey, I have been pondering it.

With all of the coverage (mostly over-coverage) this story has gotten, one thing jumps out at me.

The only part of the stereo-type for campus shootings we see here is that the gunman was from a comfortable area. Usually, student killers are from comfortable backgrounds, and that holds true here. But, on pretty much everything else, the stereotype falls apart.

Usually, spectacular gunplay like this is committed by high-schoolers. The recent shootings happened on a college campus, and was committed by a college student.

When college students become homicidal, it is usually a student in one of the hard-sciences (engineering, bio, or the like), and they usually kill a roommate or two before killing themself. But, yesterday, it was a humanities major who methodically killed 30+ other people.

The above stereotype was rather snidely referenced in "The Boston Globe" , (itself owned by the NYTimes), back in '01, when a letter-writer noted that none of the '01 hijackers had degrees in a humanity, as if the humanities confer some kind of moral superiority.

My own speculation on why this guy flipped out run counter to this. The way I see this, it may well have been the fact this was a humanities major at a tech school that led this guy to mass-murder.

Tech programs and schools tend to be pretty empirical. The subject matter does not lent itself to interpretation. Even the most speculative aspects of science eventually yield to fact. Something either is fact, or it is not. Granted, some parts of science are counter-intuitive, (bumble-bee flight, or the fact that two of the most combustible explody gases in existence can be combined and liquified into a natural fire-suppresant), but in the end, facts are facts.

In academic terms, this means pressure. (Especially if one factors in the academic pressure to innovate.)

Now, combine that environment with the moral and intellectual relativism of the humanities. I finished my undergrad in English. And, let me tell you, the major was as much about obfuscating the truth as it was about anything else. (And, there are some English-types who would argue that I am assuming too much meaning with that statement.) Humanities majors tend to view life through an aesthete spectrum. Think of Lord Henry from "Picture of Dorian Grey" here (for you humanities majors), or for a real-life exambple (for those of us who are rational), those commentators who discussed the destruction of the WTC in aesthetic terms.

What does this have to do with what happened in VA yesterday?

Look at it this way. You have a humanities major in the midst of a high-pressure academic setting. He wants an out, but not just any out. He wants a suitably poetic out that would fit in with the narrative structure diagrams you saw in under-grad literature classes. What are the lives of others when weighed against poetry?


As I said at the begining, the above theory (narrative?) is wholly speculative. But, hey, if being an English major taught me one thing, it is that truth and objective fact matter less than narrative.



















Keep it local.


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Superiorraw
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Odd.. I was going to post on this myself.. Good post though.
I was reading how a 22 year old ryan clark who was a promising student in 3 majors was one of the first gunned down.. I see so much potential gone to waste from a bullet .. and it makes me really sad.. sorry if that isn't a full review of everyones situation at the campus.. its just I see it a waste when lives are killed innocently.. not only students but staff and contributing professors were gunned down as well.. it's a really sad time when the future generation cannot even be safe in a school/college or University campus without being in danger.

I followed the News from here in the UK online and of course on Television.. but if theres one thing college taught me its that don't believe everything you read in the media.. as facts etc can be twisted or the truth can be distorted.

At the moment I just wanted to post.. and I feel sad.. but also slightly :unsure: ..not just about the whole situation but with "whatevers next"
I guess that's my thoughts so far. :(
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Dominic Guglieme
the human MICROscope!!



And, to add insult to injury, consider this.

The gunman's name escapes me as I type this. But, I could google "VA shootings" and come up with it.

The gunman's name will be a household word.

"Ryan Clark" is unlikely to get that kind of recognition outside of his hometown.

Along similar lines, we can likely expect more media discussion of what could have driven somebody to kill, (possibly even painting them sympathetically), than of who they have killed.

Everybody knows who Jack Ruby is. Most people, including (I am ashamed to say) myself, could not tell you the name of the cop Ruby shot when he took out Oswald.


On the subject of the UK, I am amazed at how much coverage the "BEEB" has given this. I would think that events in Moscow, or Palestine would be of more interest, and legitimate concern.




Keep it local.


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Viper Commander
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I already hear pompous fools on the news blaming video games, or movies, or porn, or music for this. When are people gonna learn, psycho is psycho, theres no other way around it. Someone should have put this guy in the looney bin when he started acting up. I doubt this guy was playing GTA, listening to rap music, or looking at internet porn when he decided to buy a gun and go on a rampage.

And here's a thought for those that say gun control would have been the solution, maybe if everyone were allowed to carry guns on them someone could have taken out this guy's fool behind before he did too much damage?

Ok, ranting over... :daze:
 
Codename: Mac
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:) I'm almost sick of talking about this... almost.

Blame Game: I'm not one to let my 7 year old play all the shoot 'em up, bloody video games, and I'm careful about what he watches....he still hasn't seen Star Wars, for pete's sake... But it has less to do with violence than with how I want his worldview influenced. Someone made the point on JBL, I think, that violence has been around as long as humanity, so how can we blame video games and movies and such. I think those things might help certain individuals along, but by no means are they to blame. Has anyone thought of this...........They always point out how the profiles for these guys include violent game, porn, gorey movies and such and imply that it started there....Maybe these people have that stuff in common because they turn to it for an outlet hoping to find an escape (much like we who live in our GI Joe or Transformer worlds sometimes) from tendencies that exist for whatever reason, but those things aren't enough? I dunno...I'm no psychologist.

At any rate...if society wants something to blame, here it is.....

SIN. Plain and simple. People decided they knew better than God. We live in a fallen world who's only hope is in Jesus Christ. I don't wanna start a religious debate, so please don't jump all over this, but that's what I believe is the truth. As long as there are people, there will be sin, until Jesus returns. So anyone who wants to blame someone, something just look at the state of human sin. And by the way...which came first? Sin or the violent video game? The gore, the killing, the porn...it's all a product of our fallenness, not the other way around...which supports my non psychologist evaluation above nicely... ;)

Guns: I've heard both sides of this debate in many of the forums...Here's my take: I don't care how many regulations you have in place AND enforce to control guns...if someone wants to wreak havoc and kill someone else, they're gonna find a way...gun or not. Give them all guns? So solution there either. Giving everyone a gun is to say that we have live in a world of paranoia. You'd have to necessarily always be on the lookout for some potential killer, so you can be ready to mow him down before you're dead, otherwise the gun is useless. Can you imagine a society where everyone lives like a soldier in the field? Soldiers are trained to handle that kind of mental stress...the average Joe citizen (no pun intended) couldn't handle it and would go crazy with paranoia inside a minute. I couldn't live in a world like that.

Just my two pennies...
 
Dominic Guglieme
the human MICROscope!!



Looks like I was wrong about one thing.

VA tech's official memorial today, (releasing balloons), did not count the gunman.

Thank god.
Keep it local.


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Zanya
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What bothers me about this is that he mailed out the tapes in between his rampages....

:wtf:
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Viper Commander
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So true, the police should have searched the whole campus to look for this guy after the first shootings. Even if it seems like he left the campus already, someone should have thought, "Well let's search just in case."

Maybe a big city police force with better training and more experience dealing with violent offenders would have handled things more effectively. Like LAPD, who had to deal with the two heavily armed and armored bank robbers years ago. :unsure:
 
Dominic Guglieme
the human MICROscope!!



Those bank robber were making themselves obvious though. (There knew they were surrounded, and were trying to bluff their way out. Thankfully, the LAPD managed to kill them both. The trial would have been a farce.)


VC is completely right about the campus police blowing it. Frankly, I would say they share blame for 30 of the deaths. The 2 in the dorm would be unavoidable, but closing the campus down, as it was a crime scene, should have been obvious, even if one assumed the gunman had left.


Mailing the tapes et al between shootings makes sense for the shooter. He does not want to tip anyone off early. So, he reveals his plan while he is carrying it out. But, I will blame NBC for running the tapes and pictures.
Keep it local.


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Superiorraw
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Dominic Guglieme
Apr 23 2007, 01:39 PM
Those bank robber were making themselves obvious though. (There knew they were surrounded, and were trying to bluff their way out. Thankfully, the LAPD managed to kill them both. The trial would have been a farce.)

Bluff their way out? Wow if its the same LA Bank Job we're thinking of over 300 officers were held back by just two bank robbers. However they were armed with modified AK47 Assault Rifles and armoured with level 4 Kevlar vests. They injured 14 police officers in the shooting and were eventually killed by SWAT Themselves.

Sounds like a serious bluff to me? :w00t:

See here:
North Hollywood Shootout
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Dominic Guglieme
the human MICROscope!!



That is the one I was thinking of.

Those guys likely figured they were well-armed enough to handle the police, probably banking on what they (incorrectly) calculated would be police reluctance to use lethal force in a populated area, and in public view.

The problem was that they made themselves so dangerous that the police had a practical reason to do so, and public perception was not an issue.
Keep it local.


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