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I’ve Got My Violence In High-Def Ultra-Realism
Posted by Trevor Danger on April 16, 2007
Sometimes you just don’t understand human nature. How can a person justify killing 32 fellow humans? Honestly.
The latest tragedy to hit our country is the mass murder at Virginia Tech. As you’ve all probably been inundated with updates and shit, I’ll leave the so-called news departments to do their jobs (which honestly seem to be who can speculate the grandest).
I read about the story this morning, when details were just starting to trickle in. At that time, there was one person dead and eight injured. This must have been the first attack, as the only explanation for how that number skyrocketed into the 30’s is that the second attack accomplished the killer’s goals.
Lest this post comes off as trite or attention-grabbing, I will be honest and say that the murders themselves have little to no effect on me personally. I don’t have any friends or family at the college, nor anywhere near the college. I’m not even feeling that knee-jerk, yet still plastic, empathy that comes with a tragedy of this scale. I’m honestly indifferent to this, and I can’t understand why.
Perhaps it’s the common belief that we as a society are so desensitized to violence anymore that nothing can really shock us. More than likely, the distance between my house and the Virginia Tech campus probably removes me mentally and emotionally from the murders. Honestly, though, I think it’s the sheer unbelievability of the act that has really made me numb.
News channels were scrambling for footage of the shootings, anything that they could shove in our faces to extract every last ounce of sympathy and emotion we have. Hearing that the murderer may have used an automatic weapon only adds to the dumbfounded awe I have that someone would commit this act. I know we’ll hear about this for weeks, months, even years to come. The shootings have already been labeled the “biggest tragedy” and “most violent shooting” in US history.
The cynical side of me wonders where our sympathy and awe from 9/11 went. How quick we are to award the next violent act in our country as something bigger or more tragic than the next. I’m most curious about what the fuck would drive someone to do this. I’ve had violent thoughts, probably as much as the next angry dude, but to take it to this level is completely unbelievable. I really can’t wrap my head around it. What did 30-odd people, more than likely complete strangers, do to deserve their end today? What vindication or end result was the killer looking for?
This isn’t so much an organized post as it is a chance for me to put my thoughts down before my jaded ass moves onto the next topic. As with any great tragedy, the focus will be on this for some time to come. Eventually, though, it’ll become a footnote that’s only mentioned when the next act of violence occurs (which it will). We will learn or take nothing from this, because there’s nothing TO take. Sometimes horrible shit happens, and there’s no preventing it.
Fuck it. I’ve got nothing. Let the criticism commence.
Linzeh said
That’s exactly how I felt after 9/11, actually. I stumbled downstairs around 10am that morning (west coast time, so it had already been like 5 hours) and turned on the tv to see the footage of the plane hitting the building. At first I didn’t understand what had happened. I thought perhaps that I was watching some archival footage of a past tragedy, or perhaps even a movie. As it began to register that two planes had been flown straight into the towers, I was shocked, but I felt completely numb to the entire incident. I never even felt anything at all really until I actually visited ground zero. Even then, it still didn’t quite hit home for me. To this day, I’ve never fully connected with the event, and I’m not quite sure why. I guess it is the desensitizing, the fact that I’ve seen worse things carried out in the movies with the kind of special effects that make real events look fake. And with so much simulation in the world and in the media, it’s truly difficult to tell the difference. I would suggest reading at least part of Baudrillard’s “Simulacra and Simulations” for some head-fucking insight into this phenomenon. This dudes been writing about this shit since before we were born. It’s pretty dense reading, but worth the effort.
Trent Steel said
I think the media coverage was unfair. I bet 30 people get shot and killed in Detroit everyday but you never hear about that.
The press confrence with the school administrators and head of the police force was a travisty as well. The freakin reporters were beating them bloody with the same dumb ass questions over and over. I would have lost it.
dre222 said
The media is one big fear-mongering whore. I feel sorry for the victims and their families. They are probably being harrassed mercilessly by these sensationlists to break down and cry on camera. “Biggest massacre in US History… blah, blah, blah… how do you feel about your son/daughter being gunned down by a psycho?” That’s what they really need right now. No wait, they need that and a speech by the head yokel G Dub. Like he’s ever helped any situation. Shame, shame on the people who make people’s horror and suffering a national media circus.
We discovered water on another planet not in our solar system last week and was there a big outcry of joy for that? No way! It only means that life on other planets is now almost a sure thing. It only means that when all these dumb idiots are done blowing each other up and shooting random people they don’t even know we have an escape route for our species. Maybe a 2 second mention here or there (usually as a lead in to a commercial). The internet is the only outlet that gave it anywhere near the type and amount of attention this kind of major discovery deserves.
Does any of this matter? No. Why? Becasue we’d rather give killers and idiots exactly what they want in the first place – ATTENTION. Now this kid is going to be famous because he lacked basic self-control and people around him were too oblivious to notice that he might be teetering on the edge.
This is why the Spartans threw unsuitable babies into a pit. It’s called culling the herd. These kind of people need cut out early (locked up somewhere until they get brainwashed into sanity) or they are the ones that end up doing the culling, and they cull the kinds of genes we still want in the pool – good decent folks who were minding their own damn business.
Call me jaded, cynical, heartless, or whatever. I’m just sick of these kinds of people stealing the limelight from important and uplifting news stories. The damn world’s depressing enough without the media rubbing our damn noses in it every other second.