Cho Seung-Hui - Not Beneficent And Not Merciful

* Update (Giovanni taught Seung-Hui poetry) *
* Update (Students feared Seung-Hui based on his plays) *
* Update (Screenwriter Robert Avrech deplores the media's attention to this mass murder) *
* Update (Seung-Hui inspires Muslims who rejoice in America's corruption, anticipate its destruction) *
* Update (Cho Seung-Hui and mental illness) *
* Final Update * (Muslim academic official forbids Muslim prayers for Seung-Hui's victims unless the prayers also are for the victims' conversion to Islam)
* Final Final Update * Pat Buchanan gets the last word (via Matt Sanchez): If there is a lesson to be taken away from this horror, it is that we, as a society, are becoming too tolerant of the aberrant.

Here are some comments on a recent AP wire article on Virginia Tech mass murderer Cho Seung-Hui. At this point I say we can eliminate the possibility that the killer was a devout Muslim at the time of the murders. That is, he did not commit his atrocity, as the saying goes, in the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.... In the name of what, then, did he commit his atrocity?

No one should overlook that Seung-Hui provided, strategically provided, ample evidence of what we can term pop jihad or copycat jihad or secular jihad or mental illness jihad [see the most recent update (below)]. The killer had a gradual and irreversible breakdown of Judeo-Christian ethics -- if he ever had them in the first place. He then adopted rhetoric, costume, gestures, and victimology that have much in common with jihadists' homegrown ones, ones that have enjoyed much currency since 9/11 in the MSM, the Arabic-language media, and (albeit with intense scrutiny) the blogosphere. In addition, his rage against inherited wealth -- but without any responsible awareness that, as a VT student, he was at the same time inter pares -- was loud and clear. We may also be seeing echoes of the emptiness of someone who, in his moral and cultural deformation, suffered from a breakdown of Korean or, more generally, East Asian social (even martial) values -- again, if he ever had them in the first place.

Call me a D'Souzian, but all this, imho, points to an indictment of contemporary American (so-called) culture (and perhaps contemporary Korean and East Asian cultures) at least as much as an indictment of Islam.

Knowing that Seung-Hui was an English major, and having spent half my undergraduate time in and around lit departments, I am intensely curious as to what constituted his course cirricula, assigned readings (esp. postmodern critical writing), chosen paper topics, and any other of his formative undergraduate influences and experiences, in and out of the classroom and in terms of professional preparation (club and team membership, counseling, grad school options, etc.).
.

* Update * The New York Times depicts Nikki Giovanni as the front line of moral decency because she allowed Seung-Hui's violent "poetry" to intimidate over 60 students into dropping her exclusive writing workshop at Virginia Tech. Then she devoted time to work with him in a one-on-one setting. In terms of the consequences, this outdoes Norman Mailer's advocacy for Jack Henry Abbott (the convicted murderer Mailer helped spring from prison on the basis of his writing promise -- the murderer who immediately murderered again). "The Professor Who Said 'Not In My Class'," harrumphs the Gray Lady. "... 'Not in my class, but in my office hour'," it should read. Thus he pursued his preoccupations, there and elsewhere, and over 30 students -- none of whom Giovanni had devoted one-on-one time to -- are dead. And what a disgusting choice of photo by the Times (above, right), given the subject. The literary Left's fascination with, facilitation of, and refusal (or inability) to discriminate against evil is truly deadly. [Virginia Tech alumn Gabe at Social Foundations sets the pace for the heavy lifting that remains to be done regarding -- how should I phrase it? -- Giovanni's classroom. Read: "Nikki Giovanni's Violent 'Poetry'" and "Bad Poetry".]

* Update * A Virginia Tech student reports: When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. Read "Richard McBeef" and "Mr. Brownstone" by Cho Seung-Hui (warning: graphic content).

* Update * From "The Killer and the Mainstream Media: A Love Story" (at Seraphic Secret): He is, of course, the ultimate, narcisisst, wallowing in too much self-esteem. Our sin? We did not recognize his greatness. NBC has done a great disservice by acting as the killer's PR machine.

* Update * Basharee Murtadd, a self-described "apostate of Islam" who testifies that "there is no deity but the Truth," provides a round-up of some internet-based Islamic reactions to Cho Seung-Hui's mass murder. The script on this image translates as: A Product of American [democracy + nationalism]. As Muslims, our real condolences to you is to help you absolutely destroy your criminal democracy. By the vulnerable people in the Earth.
That's not "closure" -- them's fightin' words.

* Update * It is widely suggested that Seung-Hui a) had some degree of severe mental illness and b) as this link indicates, had in the past received some attention from the (euphemistically termed) "mental health system." This brings into play numerous considerations as to the public and professional (mis)diagnoses and (mis)perceptions of mental illness, plus considerations as to the sufferer's (or rather, patient's) own responsibility in monitoring and managing his condition. In addition to the scrutiny I am trying to bring to bear on the cultural and political consequences and context of his mass murder, specific medical and legal issues seem to be germaine to understanding its cause. Keeping all these considerations in mind all the time is the best way to reflect -- with a surpassing beneficence and mercy -- on what came to pass on April 16. (Also, Sigmund, Carl and Alfred insists that the presence of mental illness does not obviate what should be regarded obviously as terrorism.)

.
Now you can read for yourself what I originally read, and draw your own conclusions (emphases added):

Va. Tech gunman sent material to NBC
By MATT APUZZO, AP National Writer 1 hour, 56 minutes ago

BLACKSBURG, Va. - Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich "brats" and their "hedonistic needs.

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today," 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. "But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.

He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.

"You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience," he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. "You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people."

The package arrived at NBC's headquarters in New York two days after Cho killed 32 people and committed suicide in the deadliest one-man shooting rampage in modern U.S. history. It bore a Postal Service time stamp showing that it had been mailed at a Virginia post office at 9:01 a.m. Monday, about an hour and 45 minutes after Cho first opened fire.

That would help explain one of the biggest mysteries about the massacre: where the gunman was and what he did during that two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire, at a high-rise dorm, and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.

"Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats," says Cho, a South Korean immigrant whose parents work at a dry cleaners in surburban Washington. "Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything."

Some of the pictures show him smiling; others show him frowning and snarling. Some depict him brandishing two weapons at a time, one in each hand. He wears a khaki-colored military-style vest, fingerless gloves, a black T-shirt, a backpack and a backwards, black baseball cap. Another photo shows him swinging a hammer two-fisted. Another shows an angry-looking Cho holding a gun to his temple.

He refers to "martyrs like Eric and Dylan" — a reference to the teenage killers in the Columbine High massacre.

The package was sent by overnight delivery but did not arrive at NBC until Wednesday morning. It had apparently been delayed because it had the wrong ZIP code, NBC said.

An alert postal employee brought the package to NBC's attention after noticing the Blacksburg return address and a name similar to the words reportedly found scrawled in red ink on Cho's arm after the bloodbath, "Ismail Ax," NBC said.

NBC News President Steve Capus said that the network received the package around noon and notified the FBI. He said the FBI asked NBC to hold off reporting on it so that the bureau could look at it first, and NBC complied, finally breaking the story just before a police announcement of the package at 4:30 p.m.

Capus said it was clear Cho videotaped himself, because he could be seen leaning in to shut off the camera.

State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller cautioned that, while the package was mailed between the two shootings, police have not inspected the footage and have yet to establish exactly when the images were made.

# # #

Comments

[Joey]

On his video, Cho compares himself to Jesus Christ and the crucifixion.

That's funny, because Islam doesn't believe Jesus was crucified. They believe that he lived until old age, and died peacefully.

Could it be that Cho was a Christian who believed in the "end times", and wanted to be martyred for Christ? Most of these end time nuts rail against hypocrisy, hedonism, liberalism, and consider non-psycho Christians as false.

[JMK]

Calling him a Christian would be an insult to Christians (although I think I see what you're getting at).

Criminal and journalistic investigations need to dig deep for any and all influences and affiliations he had. In terms of religion, Did he own a Bible? A Koran? If so, did he write in them? How did he acquire it? Did he attend religious services, or maintain ties with any religious organizations? Etc.

[Black Belt Mama]

I think everyone is giving him too much credit. I think he had a mental break and no sense can be made of what he said. It is such a tragedy.

FYI: http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/blogs/show/6277

;-)

[JMK]

BBM, Pls see the update: he'd been expressing himself in violent, intimidating ways for years already.

[GM Roper]

JMK, what a thought provoking post. Thank you and one can certainly see why you were nominated.

My take on Cho is that he was a very disturbed young man, and in the midst of psychotic thinking, links are made that could never be made in a sane mind. God, what a waste!

[dannynono]

Jeremayakovka, Your grasping as straws when you compare Cho to any religious fanatic. From all the accounts I've read, this guy had serious mental issues and only a few people attempted to steer him to seek help. He was simply a bomb waiting to go off.

[JMK]

dannynono,
The comparison to religious fanaticism is deliberate but careful. I'm ruling out as much as possible while continuing to search for as much as possible. Fanatic Islam is a bomb not waiting, but itching, to go off -- and going off.

[Anon]

You are so biased against Islam you will take any event and turn it into an anti-Islamic tyrade. This is unbalanced, in contrast to your other thoughtful, well-researched posts.

I suggest you educate yourself about this 1,400 year-old religion, rather than using any excuse to bash it.

[JMK]

Show me the anti-Islamic tirade, "Anon". My harshest conclusions here are reserved for American culture.

Of course any corrupt, blind, self-hating culture is ripe for being infiltrated and overtaken by a ruthless outside influence, as Islam has set out to do with Europe and the Americas.

Please refer to the previous post which mentioned the Islamic terror being waged against other Muslims in Algeria.

Which side are you on?

[Gabe]

Wonderful and insightful post. That's why I'll definitely go vote for this blog.

No blog I know of has described this idea of "pop jihad" or "copycat jihad." It makes total sense.

I know a lot about the English program at Tech :) I wouldn't even put it on my resume for the past few years since I got a second B.A. from University of Maryland Asian Division while I worked in Korea. I have more about the English program at Tech on my blog.

Seriously, the program, like most lit programs, depends on your choice of professors. I relied on the recommendations of conservative Catholic friends and tried to stick with the same good professors.

The program is fairly free with your choices of classes. It is a large department because of a lot of double majors, so you have the potential for a good education (if you choose your professors well) or a noneducation (if you choose only postmodern or creative writing type classes). I chose classes like Chaucer, Medieval literature, Renaissance literature, Shakespeare, Southern Literature and stayed away from creative writing, poetry classes--I fulfilled the writing requirement with one course in technical writing--so my education was decent there. They even let me fulfill my required classes with a couple of Humanities classes.

Since the late 90's it has gone in the wrong direction with every new hire being a feminist or postmodernist. They attempted to model the department after Duke.

In retrospect, though, I wouldn't go for a humanities liberal arts education anywhere outside of a conservative Catholic college. Most departments have been too corrupted by postmodernism.

[Gabe]

It is horrendous what happened at Virginia Tech. My :) after the English program in my above post is a knowing smile about the absurdities that go on in that department and other literature departments. However, there is nothing ":)" about how they coddled a psychopath instead of expelling him.

One more thing about Nikki Giovanni. Her poetry from the 70s was quite radical. She seems to have toned down, but maybe she was trying to reach out to him being reminded of her own radicalism in her youth. In any case, it is absurd to let that many people drop out out of her classes and then coddle the problem Cho Seung-hui giving him one-on-one tutoring with a celebrity. I took one of her Creative Writing classes. All she did was photocopy a bunch of poems by different poets. I dropped the class and took Technical Writing because I thought it would be more useful.

When I was at Virginia Tech there was only one program, just the generic English major. Now I believe there are three tracks. Cho was probably in the Creative Writing track.

Nikki Giovanni is treated as a celebrity at Tech and is an open lesbian. Her lover was Virginia Fowler, now one of the heads of the department. I remember discussing with friends about how we thought her relationship was a conflict of interest considering her celebrity status.

I can't understand why Virginia Tech would allow Cho Seung-hui to remain a student when clearly he was a threat.

[JMK]

Gabe,

Your points are *excellent* and received with gratitude as well as determination. I am tied up going into the weekend, but will reply, hopefully directly, or at least indirectly in the posts to follow.

btw, the pop jihad idea takes its cues, generally, from a) Michelle Malkin's assiduous documentation of the infiltration of jihad traits into American pop (so-called) culture; and b) David Horowitz's recurrent point that the moral essence of postmodernism is nihilism.

[MB]

Evidently, Cho's sister is a Princeton grad working in DC allocating billions to the war in Iraq. Their family isn't lacking in intelligence or direction but this young man apparently had some speech problems and an inability to socially integrate. It appears from what neighbors said that he was estranged from his family for several years as well. I suspect his medication (especially if he took it improperly or inconsistently) coupled with a lousy psychologist facilitated the break.

He was not a classics lit major like you Jeremiah but rather an english major with an emphasis on self-expression in poetry and theatre. I'm sure he read as part of his major but Virginia Tech doesn't strike me as providing quite the same calibre (pardon the parallel) of education as your alma mater did in the English dept.

Anyway, these tragedies are often a reflection of holes in our society that need tending. And perhaps the Columbine and the Amish school incidents were not capable of fully illustrating the point which is that we need to cultivate a new means of reaching the minds and hearts of our people before they go off the deep end.

It must be a method of coping with the stress while maintaining a sense of belonging that once achieved will encourage those who are sick to take their medications and want to be well enough to rejoin society in whatever healthy and productive manner is possible.

I cannot think of any other positive response which truly might protect us when people like Cho spin off balance and choose to destroy when all hope is lost. I mean, Cho got attention and he refused to help himself because he'd already reached the point of no return = self hatred.

So, I guess I am suggesting that society needs to re-examine itself on the whole here too. We live in a domination model of existence where violence begets violence and that means our negative, judgemental thinking is equally as damaging to the mind and heart as concrete forms of abuse, neglect or punishment.

I know, it sounds idealistic but it's realistic if you've worked with at-risk kids or if you've have your own troubled youth.

Thanks for the thought provoking post!

mb

[Jeremayakovka]

And thank you for your thought-provoking comment, Mary Beth. A few quick thoughts:

* "self-expression" in the arts, esp. for an undergraduate, can veer into exhibitionism, narcissism, and appeals for therapeutic attention. I suspect that whatever arts programs he pursued lacked an intellectual rigor that would have forced him to work harder at owning, dissecting, and learning from the issues he - to give him the benefit of the doubt - "honestly" brought to the table. (I took several arts courses myself as a Berkeley undergrad. That, coupled with the political misdirection of the campus environment, didn't prove of lasting value for me, and in retrospect caused me harm.)

I agree w/ you about holes in our society. As for how to protect against similar incidents, well, NRA membership is only $25/year! :)

[MB]

No, I don't need to join the NRA. I'm still shooting blanks with NVC with hopes of one day arming myself with the kind of pure non-violent communication that turns demons into deities.

I'm not convinced that intellectual rigor is the key ingredient for being a decent well-adjusted human being. I tend to believe that a person must have a solid self-connection first before the seeds of knowledge can take root and bear fruit. And that such a self-connection comes from love.

I also would submit that each person's emotional stability resides in the heart rather than in the mind. However, in your unique case perhaps because of past associations, pure intellectual rigor is what satisfies your heart more than people, places or things. I don't know.

I do know that we all have unique needs that require a balance of relational, conversational and meditational experiences in order to fully integrate and give user value, if you will, to whatever the intellectual content is that we imbibe.

(And by the way, narcissists are in practice those persons who cannot stand being around people who do not share their same views. It isn't just about ovely self-indulgent forms of self-expression ;)