There are a few compelling notes that are audible over the chaos of coverage. One involves the postmortem diagnosis of the killer's mental illness. Cho's great-aunt, who lives in South Korea, was quoted on Thursday as saying that Cho did not speak much as a child, and that some thought he might be autistic. He had almost no ability to connect with others, and his strange way of speaking and acting made him the target of mockery. This should also have been a warning sign, according to some reports: A 2002 federal study on common characteristics of school shooters found that 71 percent of them "felt bullied, persecuted or injured by others prior to the attack."
But this seems contradictory. Cho, from most of what we're reading, was not frequently persecuted. He had developed good strategies for keeping himself apart. He never spoke to his roommates, never spoke in class. He was always downloading music and working on his own writing. Louis Kraus, the chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, is one of the experts who does not believe that Cho's rampage was triggered by persecution. "This is very different," he said. "This type of mental illness that this poor man had was not something that was likely precipitated by teasing or bullying." Again, we'll probably never exactly know. But Kraus's description of Cho as a "poor man" is uncomfortable, though obviously true. How should we feel about the suggestion that something else -- a genetic illness, the thoughtless behavior of others -- might have pulled the trigger? On the one hand, everyone wants Cho to take responsibility, even in death. It's unfair to suggest that high school classmates who laughed at him when he read aloud somehow share responsibility for the massacre. On the other hand, isn't a sense of victimization and an unrealistic sense of the world present in more crimes? Isn't there always either the perception on the part of the criminal that he or she has been wronged? And as for the mental illness, how can you separate the inability to see the world clearly from the man who was incapable of seeing it clearly? Ultimately, does it matter whether you think Cho's behavior was an occurrence of pure evil or whether it was a predictable conclusion to a sad, disconnected life?
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 1)
1. We may want to stick our heads in the sand because the images and what they represent offend our sensibilities. I understand that many are in excruciating pain from the loss of loved ones and cannot bear the thought of looking at the person who inflicted this heartache. On the surface this appears to be a clear case of a mentally disturbed individual venting his rage on innocent lives and therefore, our habit is to dismiss it in our minds as an abnormality, a deviation from the norm, but in actuality this is indicative of a very complex phenomenon exemplifying the direction we are going in as a country and ultimately, a species. Our modern culture has seen an over abundance of violent TV shows & movies, violent lyrics in music, cruel and angry reality shows, portrayal of mean-ness as the ultimate form of entertainment. There is a preoccupation with body image, physical appearance, money and so on... look at us, we worship the likes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan whose lives are a series of partying, drugs and sex.... Our children are excessively exposed to these themes, images and messages at a very young age. Psychology 101: Children live what they learn. When the predominance of the information children receive from society is of this nature, it then becomes their sense of reality. They believe that these are the things that constitute our experience and existence as human beings…. where is the over abundance of images depicting love, compassion, kindness? We are creating a generation of superficial, plastic, selfish people where the great search in life is about excess and trying to appease an inexhaustible craving for physical pleasure. Our greatest error is thinking that each thing is separate unto itself. For every action there is a reaction and everything is connected, so we are sadly misguided in thinking that what we portray in the name of entertainment does not have a tremendous impact on our children's psyche and present the foundation of their beliefs..... There is no one thing that causes an individual to reach breaking point, instead it is the culmination of everything he has ever experienced in his life and the impressions left upon his psyche, lest we forget all those children who endure physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse. These experiences are assimilated and ultimately create a toxic fusion of energies and emotions. Children today are feeling more alienated and dis-jointed than ever, as parents are caught up in the "fight for survival" spending more time and energy at work ultimately leaving less and less time for raising their children in a balanced and harmonious manner. Whilst in the mind of the parent what they are doing is in the best interest of the child as they can provide more material things.... the truth is, a child would much rather a sincere hug and the attention of a parent than the latest barby doll or video game.... Do you not think that the 4-6 hours they spend playing bloody video games or watching television shows that depict screaming, cruel and out of control people are laying the foundation of their belief system? Needless to say, the horse is already out the gate and it will take awareness from the majority to recognize it is heading in the wrong direction. I pray that we wake up before many more are unnecessarily slaughtered by these mostly affected minds who in the midst of their darkness, are screaming for us to heed the call....
Nerakami at 12:20PM on Apr 20th 2007
2. I feel that NBC did what they are here to do and that is report the news. Although nothing may ahve come out of Cho's rants and raves, it was still newsworthy. There may be others out there that feel the same way that may have gotten what he said and see the outcome and chnge their views or try ot get help. Don't bash NBC because he could have sent this to any other news station and they would have done the exact same thing.
T at 3:47PM on Apr 20th 2007
3. Yes, it matters how you perseive Cho's problems, and not embrace "evil." You cannot treat evil. You can treat autisim, brain damage, brain irregularities, fears, anger, speech impediments, more and more so. It would be interesting to know what kind of music he spent so much time down-loading. He obviously had problems communicating with spoken language, but connected with the universal language: music. Clearly he had a need to communicate and ironically majored in English.
vivian at 8:17AM on Apr 21st 2007
4. His habits with his male roomates, according to them, were very subtle. He defined his territory by leaving the lights on, seeking an assurance from them that he was in his space without the necessity of a reply on his part. His lifestyle seems extremely solipsist-from the roomates' interview, he does the same series of things everyday. He seems to have been estranged to his family. From the limited information available about his past, they take this as his nature since early childhood and well.. normal for him.
He chose to major in language. He wrote song lyrics on the wall, then uses references to the songs heavily in his plays. I see the actions of a future teacher or playwrite in early mimic, however advanced these actions were. He was a living human. From all accounts, prior to the murders, he seemed to be trying to delineate the concept of indebtedness in social terms, using 'moral currency' as his wellspring.
By accounts he stalked and frightened women, refered to himself as 'question mark' and attended to, or was attended by exactly no social group, other than failed attempts by his roomates and teachers. He appears to have tried to create a role for himself above social reproach and presented as retributive art and inscrutable socialization.
The bias is that we are looking at fragments of a 23 year existence. 23 years, and he choose to seek a degree in a static, orderable, medium - communication -what he appeared to have been struggling with the majority of his life. I'm not going to reference his writing in allegory or amatuer psychology, but there appears to be an entire series of diconnects that under other internal/external subtleties could have been the personal formation of S.I. Hayakawa or Sarah Kane.
S at 12:25PM on Apr 21st 2007
5. I don't know about this mental illness story. It is more comforting to some to believe that there was a sickness and it wasn't really him who mass murdered, but what if he had perfectly sound mental faculties, and through experience he learned to see the world in a way that provoked this type of reaction? I think we should be very diligent about helping people in need, like cho - and even more careful about defining what we call 'help' - all the people: administrators, students, law enforcement tried to put him in a freakin mental hospital! If they were having difficulties in many aspects of social life, how would they like being told they were crazy and needed to be locked up? Maybe after that he began to believe he really was crazy, and for some cultures, mental illness is one of the most humiliating things you can be diagnosed with. I hope that from this horrific reality, we can learn how to prevent it from happening again.
strawberripink4 at 1:25PM on Apr 22nd 2007
6. I was shocked to learn the horrible things Cho did. I felt sorry for the guy who shared a room with a killer. I wrote this poem thinking of all who reached out to him unsuccessfully.
In side anothers mind
I often wonder what is in anothers mind?
What are they thinking at the time?
Life's experiences that shape who they are,
When they were born their astrological star,
Their essence of life that comes from within,
Are they receptive to others as friends?
Are they driven to be happy or sad?
The things that have shaped them to be good or bad,
I can only imagine inner thoughts others feel,
But it's only my perception,it may not be real,
Are they compassionate or could they kill?
My faith gives me hope to assume all are good,
And in their minds they intend to do as they should,
But only God knows what is in anothers mind,
And it's my life's quest the answers to find.
Written with sorrow for all those who lost their lives trusting others will do the right things.
Debbie W. Jones
Debbie Jones at 7:36AM on Apr 25th 2007