Killing in the name of................?
Earlier version 1st published on Indymedia
Boredom?
Jealousy?
Mental Illness?
Religious fervour?
Academic Rejection?
Racism?
Violent Video Game & Movie Copycat-ism?
Just why did a young man of Korean origin go on a shooting rampage in Virginia on Monday morning, April 16th, 2007, on the university campus of Blacksburg Virginia, killing 33 people and injuring dozens of others?
Columbine - Lessons not learned
Lets recall for a moment the April 20th 1999 Columbine massacre near Denver in Colorado, where teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others before taking their own lives. One of the people blamed for this was musician Marliyn Manson. Manson refuted this blame-game by the right-wingers during a VH1 interview reminding people that "he cancelled three concerts in memoriam of the tragedy". When asked what he would have said to the victims, he stated,
State violence and Citizen Guidance
There is one important parallel I wish to emphasise here. During Michael Moore's film 'Bowling for Columbine' Manson made the audience aware that NATO, mainly through the U.S., were engaged in unleashing severe airstrike atrocities in Serbia on the very same day, killing completely innocent civilians. As Democracy Now reported
The query posed by the infamous musician was, who has more influence over U.S. society's attitude to violence - Bill Clinton, his gvt., army and war-supporting media or Marliyn Manson?
On the same day as this most recent tragic atrocity occured, the Afghan Human Rights Commission reported that 40 civilians were killed indiscriminately by U.S. Forces on March 4th in an area called Mhmand Dara, Afghanistan. U.S. commander, Maj. Gen. Frank H. Kearney, who ordered the investigation on the civilian killings by Marines, accepted the findings. According to the report by the commission, US Marine Special Forces, who had just escaped an early-morning ambush by Taliban Insurgents in the area,
No Justice, No Peace
My prediction is that we'll go fairly blue in the face if we hold our breath and await military personnel or their leaders to be brought to justice for this instance of retalitory murder. As retired U.S. military Sgt. Martin Smith wrote in Counterpunch last August,
In the U.S., as with many other societies, politicians and church leaders cheerlead the heroism of dehumanised drones in their military, regardless of the atrocities they commit.
Why, why, why?
That all said, this is obviously a shocking tragedy for the students of Virginia Tech and the families of the victims, and the one who pulled the trigger, though dead, is directly responsible for the deaths and injuries. Yet I still find it hard to accept that people are surprised such things happen in a country where there is little gun control, militarism and violence is glorified from street parades to FOX media reports and in video games, movies, etc. The factors of gun violence in the U.S. and elsewhere are many-fold. Yet why does the U.S. so often crop up on the radar of such shootings? The fact that Virginia has some of the loosest gun laws should not be lost to our analysis here.Nor should the societal conditions which create such brokenness in some young males who then go on to do such terrible deeds. Yet how can U.S. society try to curtail and stop what is fast becoming a national habit - I say society cause you wouldn't want to rely on mass-murderers in the gvt. from fixing the problem now would ya?
Worth exploring is the excellent essay by 'Why White Boys Keep Shooting?' by Nashville based activist and writer Tim Wise. Though the Virginia shooter wasn't white, Tim's insights serve us well in helping us gain a deeper perspective at why events like these occur.
Boredom?
Jealousy?
Mental Illness?
Religious fervour?
Academic Rejection?
Racism?
Violent Video Game & Movie Copycat-ism?
Just why did a young man of Korean origin go on a shooting rampage in Virginia on Monday morning, April 16th, 2007, on the university campus of Blacksburg Virginia, killing 33 people and injuring dozens of others?
Columbine - Lessons not learned
Lets recall for a moment the April 20th 1999 Columbine massacre near Denver in Colorado, where teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others before taking their own lives. One of the people blamed for this was musician Marliyn Manson. Manson refuted this blame-game by the right-wingers during a VH1 interview reminding people that "he cancelled three concerts in memoriam of the tragedy". When asked what he would have said to the victims, he stated,
"I wouldn't have said anything...I would have listened to them, which no one else did".
State violence and Citizen Guidance
There is one important parallel I wish to emphasise here. During Michael Moore's film 'Bowling for Columbine' Manson made the audience aware that NATO, mainly through the U.S., were engaged in unleashing severe airstrike atrocities in Serbia on the very same day, killing completely innocent civilians. As Democracy Now reported
"NATO attacks overnight have killed or injured at least 12 people in Serbia's third-largest city. This comes just one day after NATO reluctantly admitted having hit a civilian convoy in Kosovo last week that killed over 70 Kosovar Albanians - NATO had previously said that its planes had accidentally hit a tractor with civilians that was part of a military convoy."
The query posed by the infamous musician was, who has more influence over U.S. society's attitude to violence - Bill Clinton, his gvt., army and war-supporting media or Marliyn Manson?
On the same day as this most recent tragic atrocity occured, the Afghan Human Rights Commission reported that 40 civilians were killed indiscriminately by U.S. Forces on March 4th in an area called Mhmand Dara, Afghanistan. U.S. commander, Maj. Gen. Frank H. Kearney, who ordered the investigation on the civilian killings by Marines, accepted the findings. According to the report by the commission, US Marine Special Forces, who had just escaped an early-morning ambush by Taliban Insurgents in the area,
retaliated by opening fire on nearby civilians, including pedestrians and as many as 15 passing cars, including those that had pulled to the side of the road to comply with orders.
No Justice, No Peace
My prediction is that we'll go fairly blue in the face if we hold our breath and await military personnel or their leaders to be brought to justice for this instance of retalitory murder. As retired U.S. military Sgt. Martin Smith wrote in Counterpunch last August,
"The process of dehumanization is central to military training."
In the U.S., as with many other societies, politicians and church leaders cheerlead the heroism of dehumanised drones in their military, regardless of the atrocities they commit.
Why, why, why?
That all said, this is obviously a shocking tragedy for the students of Virginia Tech and the families of the victims, and the one who pulled the trigger, though dead, is directly responsible for the deaths and injuries. Yet I still find it hard to accept that people are surprised such things happen in a country where there is little gun control, militarism and violence is glorified from street parades to FOX media reports and in video games, movies, etc. The factors of gun violence in the U.S. and elsewhere are many-fold. Yet why does the U.S. so often crop up on the radar of such shootings? The fact that Virginia has some of the loosest gun laws should not be lost to our analysis here.Nor should the societal conditions which create such brokenness in some young males who then go on to do such terrible deeds. Yet how can U.S. society try to curtail and stop what is fast becoming a national habit - I say society cause you wouldn't want to rely on mass-murderers in the gvt. from fixing the problem now would ya?
Worth exploring is the excellent essay by 'Why White Boys Keep Shooting?' by Nashville based activist and writer Tim Wise. Though the Virginia shooter wasn't white, Tim's insights serve us well in helping us gain a deeper perspective at why events like these occur.
Comments
Well, indeed.
I don’t know if you noticed though, that much of the ‘left’ and ‘liberals’ were cheering on Clinton and Blair when they were bombing make up ladies in the Serbian TV station. They thought it was the New Spanish Civil War, or something – Serbs bad, Bosnians good. If only it were so simple.
As for the latest shooting in schools incident. The brutal truth is that this was a completely meaningless incident. It was just a nutter with a gun. They go mad in places where guns are harder to get hold of than the US – like in Britain (Dunblane) or Japan (where they go craZy in schools with knives).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1379537.stm
But of course, they are trying to gove some meaning to this – immigration, gun control, computer games…whatever….when the truth is a little more dull.