I have been thinking about the Virginia Tech shootings.

[mr_raven_blade]

As nice as it would be for it to not be true, the fact is I am not normal. I come from a background that is - to be kinder on myself then most have been in my life - dark and filled with the taunts of the many who believed themselves to be better than I. While I - like any other mere mortal humans - am not perfect, I'm not all bad, and indeed I

Comments

[jonah777]

I know what it is to understand the psychotic impulse.

Nor do I see the actions of this individual to be separated from the enviroment in which he functioned.

And I suspect that the way our culture is headed, this will not be the last such event. In fact, it will likely pale compared to what may follow.

But understanding absolves nothing, and no one.

I respect the choice to end your life if you are ready. I respect the choice to end the life of another who threatens your self or your community. I do not respect tantrums, and deplore violent or homicidal tantrums.

Yes, we all have feelings. And they can be wonderful and terrible. But the day that they define our character, we stop being human.

What happend here was a much more graphic version of what happens any time a person uses their emotions to justify their behavior.

$.02 worth, Jon

Indeed..

[mr_raven_blade]

What a fitting avatar to use for your reply.

I understand your point and I have to agree that 'tantrums' as you put it, are unjustified. Violence being what it is, I think the think the world would be better without it. That being said, I still have to wonder if any more of my guesses on him had any merit.. As we now know a lot of my guesses had truth to them.. I find it kind of scary that I would inherently know such things.

I know I'm not the only one who has any added understanding of what darkness can be made possible; I'm just trying to put things in perspective given that I now attempting to consider that dark part of me my 'old' self/life.

It is events like this that make me wonder if we as humans are ever really free of the dark parts of us that we - as only mere imperfect humans - must continually guard against in order to find hope for the future.

Thank you for your thoughts.

[twystedpixie]

You can feel sorry for the gunman and wonder what kind of life he lived, but the fact of the matter is, no one has even confirmed who the shooter was (at least last time I checked the news). That means NO ONE knows the kind of life he led and you can't say he had no friends or was picked on. Maybe he was a completely normal kid who had a schizophrenic break. Maybe he *was* taunted all his life. And maybe he was a seemingly balanced individual who was truly evil inside--rare, but it happens. You can feel sorry for the gunman, depending upon the outcome of the situation, but don't you dare paint all of the victims in a bad light. Sure, maybe some of them were thoughtless "jocks". But they didn't go around killing over thirty people. Thirty people, man. And maybe some of them were amazing people. The point is, NONE OF US except for those who were directly involved know. So before you start glorifying the gunman and villifying the victims and survivors, you might want to stop and realize you have no idea what he was like. You just *want*

Actualy I was right.

[mr_raven_blade]

New information released to the public shows that he was the loner/outcast type, just as I stated. He wrote poetry as a means of expressing himself, and generally felt picked on and unloved

Re: Actualy I was right.

[twystedpixie]

From all reports, he was a loner/outcast type because he chose to be that way. He was deeply mentally disturbed, and while I can feel deeply, deeply sorry that an individual with such a deeply-rooted psychosis didn't get the help he needed, I can not view him as a lonely, sad guy. Numerous people interviewed said he would ignore them when they would make an effort to talk, nor did he make any return effort to be communicative

Re: Actualy I was right.

[mr_raven_blade]

I never said that I was glad people died. You misunderstand me; I find it sad. A few people who I think where innocent also died; That is a loss I am deeply against.

Yes he may have been disturbed, but I really think that the people around him helped it alone. If you view the videos he made, he talks a lot about being picked on and shamed publicly by people who had everything but seemed to want no more then to look better then him by making him look bad by bullying him.

I think that really is what did it, and as somebody who was considered a 'geek' in school myself I can understand the rage. I'm not saying the rage is right. I am simply think that if you bully somebody you think is helpless to fight back and they instead defend themselves by shooting you, then you are getting your karma back. Anybody who picks on somebody as weak as he seemed to be was a coward in the first place.