Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Fallacies about Cho

I'm watching Cho Seung-Hui's mouthparts moving like those of a housefly vomiting up some food to re-ingest, while some talking head voices over the footage provided by NBC, when I am struck by several observations:

1. Most students who write "dark" poetry in college English class are looking for attention, unlike Cho, who seemed to be quite avoidant. These people are called "goths" and are actually working through their inner demons, and dress the part, and eventually seem like they adjust. They're the ones with the black nail polish.

2. Much speculation will be directed towards the writings and videos this psycho left behind, and many a futile analysis will be proffered. This is a natural human attempt to impose order on the chaotic: there is no deeper meaning to Cho's rantings. He was just fucking nuts. This is the unfortunate legacy of Sigmund Freud, who felt that most mental illness is the result of mere past misunderstandings.

3. The same liberal idiots who usually whine about the immorality of "pre-emptive warfare" and racial- or religious-profiling are going to be arguing for gun control and other pre-emptive or profiling measures.

4. Euroweenies and others have already characterized this incident as a uniquely American phenomenon, despite the fact that the term we use for this type of behavior, "running amok", is actually a Malayan word.

5. Cho's diction on the videos is quite similar to Napoleon Dynamite's.