The V-Tech massacre - A real-life Manchurian Candidate

Forum posts

• 20 April 2007, 11:31

  Should read: Yet ANOTHER Manchurian candidate.

• 21 April 2007, 08:34

  What a week - this was one for the books: Snow in Virginia in April, the VT massacre, Gonzales still retains his job after offenses at least equal to, if not more unethical than, those of John Mitchell, the Dow breaks a record, Iraq experiences unprecendented turmoil, U.S. forces erect walls around Baghdad while Gates tells the government to unite the country, a contracted employee enters the Houston NASA building with a loaded gun, Americans who have loved the brutality of "24" claim the package from Seung-hui is offensive, 37% of the public still backs Bush, Roe-v-Wade takes a hit, the Democrats choose not to jump on the gun control bandwagon, vestigial lamentation can still be heard about the Imus firing, Hip-hoppers face increasing pressure to 86 the lexicon, John Edwards - friend of the poor and defender of the bald - spends $400 per haircut, and, if that weren’t enough, Sanjaya - this culture’s whipping boy, yes, appearing at times like a nappy headed pimp (no offense intended), departs. And now this: the conspiratorial ruminations.

  Ismail - the Mayan god of beans, or is it, the Vodoo protector of lost souls - hovers over us all.
  Except for the fact that the media and police transposed Ishmael to Ismail. Oops! The sheer weight of internet speculation would’ve by itself sunk the Titanic. Forget the iceberg.

  Never has a schizophrenic’s actions been given so much idiotic analysis. One shrink on Fox insisted he wasn’t delusional. Two on MSNBC were sure he was. But no one anywhere seems to have verified that, in fact, he was a paranoid schizophrenic. Some took the easy way and simply declared him a psychopath who blamed everyone else for his misery. If the commentary made during the past week by "experts" is an indication of how well the "science" of Psychiatry is doing, then please someone with a network mic tell us we’re all in trouble.

  That’s not to say schizophrenia is easy to diagnose. It isn’t. But there are several distinct traits. One of them includes uncontrolled twitching of the mouth and facial expressions. In Seung-hui’s video you could see his lips on the right side of his face (controlled by the brain’s left hemisphere) pull down at times, in conflict with the forceful intent of his message. It’s not indisputable evidence of schizophrenia, but it’s a strong clue. It’s, alone, sufficient reason to have shown the tape on air. So conspiratorialists won’t have a field day associating him with the military industrial complex (he was an English, not an engineering, major), Ismail’s curse, or alien abductions.

  Judging by his behavior it doesn’t take much to presume he had the most severe form of the disease: paranoid schizophrenia. And, in this regard, can be seen as a type of canary in the coal mine, albeit with a tragic disability. In other words, in a fractured, incoherent manner, he was interpreting the disturbing zeitgeist - America’s rank materialism based, as Daniel Bell claimed back in 1976, on the instituionalization of envy (I got it you don’t), the culture’s rampant me-first individualism, the raw aggression, encapsulated within the wrestling matches he watched, the solitary sadness of a fantasy girlfriend, (petroleum) "Jelly" - as a personal assault on him. Above all, schizophrenia is a disease of unattainable esteem; victims can never catch up, respond in a timely fashion, process communications and behavior with a reasonable sense of perspective. It’s more often - me, and then, more me. Their minds can’t move beyond me.

  Unfortunately, we happen to be living in a culture where many, if not the majority of, people have difficulty dwelling on more than their own interests. So in this one dialectic - the me of a diseased mind facing the me-first attitude of a sick culture - one can see the ingredients for a profound tale. The exogenous sickness pushes the indogenous sickness further. The woeful lack of concern for others in general, and the sick and disabled in particular, become reflected in a warped sense of logic so that the only rational thing seems to be to strike back proportionate to the perceived offense.

  It’s an odd thing about "crazy" people; not everything they do is crazy. In a more caring environment, as opposed to the gleeful zero-sum society this has become, say, for instance, if he were among the Oakies in "The Grapes of Wrath," sharing in their palpable sense of fraternity, would he have acted similarly? Probably not.

  That doesn’t mean, however, it’s society’s fault. There is after all - The Disease.
  Science doesn’t know much
  about schizophrenia. For instance, identical twins do not both get it all the time, despite the fact, many believe it’s caused in the womb as a result of the mother being infected with a virus. But is it simply Seung-hui’s diseased mind that caused this tragedy? Isn’t it likely that diseased mind was shaped in part by the culture?

  Now that’s a question a little too complicated for your $175 an hour shrinks or your social scientists who simply declare him to be a psychopath and that’s that. And, for those looking for outlandish scapegoats, it’s always easier to point to military-based bahavioral conditioning.

• 21 April 2007, 21:21

  Virginia Tech Massacre Peculiarities

  * This was supposedly a crime of passion in which perpetrator was angry that his former girlfriend was seeing another guy. Yet, the perpetrator obviously put a lot of planning into his crime: he purchased at least one handgun the month before; he must also have purchased a lot of extra magazines and ammunition; he also apparently acquired chain and locks to secure the doors; he also filed off the serial numbers of the two handguns. This looks well planned and methodical, which, in fact, concurs with the observations some witnesses made about his behavior.

  * The perpetrator killed 33 people, all but two of them in one killing spree. As someone with a lot of experience shooting guns, I find his efficacy astonishing. How do you kill 33 people who are moving around unless you are very, very skilled? Assuming only one shot per dead victim, he would have to reload at least once. But one report claims that each dead victim was shot at least three times. If that’s so, then the perpetrator would have to have reloaded more like six times during the course of his killing spree, and that’s assuming he never missed a single target, which is a highly unlikely assumption. That means he’d have to have a lot of magazines and ammunition. Reloading an automatic handgun also takes a few seconds, during which time somebody could have jumped him. A highly trained killer, on the other hand, might possibly be as effective as this fellow was.

  * The perpetrator supposedly purchased his 9 mm handgun the month before. Yet he displayed remarkable proficiency in using it to kill. When did he have time to practice? Also, a new automatic handgun has a tendency to jam. Spent cartridges jam while exiting the breech, and it takes a minimum of several seconds to unjam the cartridge. The gun cannot be fired until the jam is cleared. Of course, there’s no way of knowing if his gun ever jammed.

  * The local police were supposedly notified by the federal government to take no action until federal law enforcement officers had arrived on the scene. Why? Wouldn’t it normally be most prudent to take immediate action? I mean, these days, if a kid at school gets a hangnail the authorities swoop in and lock down the school.

  * The perpetrator was supposedly mentally disturbed. But would a mentally disturbed person, especially one as disturbed as this one would have to have been, be able to execute such a complex plan so methodically and successfully? Look at the crazy NASA astronaut who sought to kill her romantic rival. She only went after one victim. Yet, despite her training and maturity, her craziness thwarted her success.

  * Finally, this horrific crime could not have been a more opportune distraction for the beleaguered Bush Administration.

  Just some observations...

  Ian

• 26 April 2007, 07:27

  This is an idea to ponder, and discern.