Sure, lax gun laws did facilitate the murderous rampage of Cho Seung-Hai. There needs to be change in that respect. But all this is very superficial.
Where there is no cancer growing malignantly inside the head of the murderer, no extreme tragedy experienced to cause a meltdown, the cause for the mass-murder is clear. It is a frustrated, unrestricted narcissism that drives people towards such crimes. Cho saw himself as a Christ-like figure, with an important message to tell. When you realise that the States has a particularly narcissistic culture, it becomes clear why there are proportionately more school and university mass killings there than in other countries with even less tight gun laws.
In years past, I have caught myself in narcissistic moments. It's true that there WAS a tiny core of extreme confidence in oneself. But, mostly, it is the fight that this core engages in against an extremely damaged, fragile ego, a quiet depression, a bitterness, an all-pervading dissatisfaction with life. Narcissistic people respond far more explosively to stress, to humiliation, to exclusion, to the indifference of others. They want attention, glory, praise. There is a distortion of thinking which can be treated most effectively over time. Sometimes, genuine individual effort alone is enough, but where that fails or where the subject is not aware enough to self-diagnose,the provocation and then support of outsiders is crucial. I've mentioned before that a reasonably large ego is OK in some respects. It motivates, for example. But one has to keep it in check, privately and publicly!
ook at Cho's videos, his writings, his self-centredness, his planning, his warnings, his identity. He suddenly became as grandiose in real-life as in his fantasies. If only temporarily, he finally felt powerful. An easy, most cowardly way out, yes. So, to prevention: Tease out narcissistic thoughts, which become evident in the individual's creative expression, in their opinions and behaviour. Gently dismantle the narcissistic structures people build in their minds. No more killer. And do something about those gun laws!
Oh, and consider how narcissistic Jesus Christ himself must have been. Wow. I'm not saying he didn't have some fantastic traits. He was probably extremely intelligent. But what came with that, amongst other things, was "I have god's message, listen to me, give me attention, control, power". One can imagine his increasingly grandiose thought patterns as he attracted more and more sheep to his flock.
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The Onion reports that thousands more are dead in the ongoing victory in Iraq
2 comments:
Some of what you say makes sense, Lance. But I've read about a different side of Cho, namely a young man who had to be forced to stand in front of his high school class and make a speech, by threats of an "F" grade by some teacher with yogurt for brains.
After which the morons in the class all told the, ahem, Korean, to go back to China. (Same kind of American ignorance that presumes every brown-skinned Spanish speaker is from Mexico -- or that all Spanish speakers have brown skin.)
Would a narcissist suffer being at the center of attention? Seems to me such a person would revel in it.
I do think a narcissist would suffer from the situation that you described. Most narcissists need positive attention, not just attention (although many dictator narcissists have been happy to have attention in whatever form).
Not only would the threat of the F be especially humiliating for a narcissist, but the ignorance about his background would've been a reminder of his insignificance, something which is not tolerable for a narcissist.
As an aside point about my post. Others have suggested various other explanations, including him being a loner, bad life circumstances etc.
But I don't think recalling all the bad things that happened to Cho during his life is useful. Many kids are bullied/abused etc. And yes, there is competitiveness for uni and jobs and the crushing ostracism for those that don't fit in. But these things are common to campuses all around the world, and not all kids crack. So the task is determine what was DIFFERENT about Cho to all these other potentially murderous kids, that made him snap.
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