Blueprinting murder on the American psyche
April 19th, 2007
The self-pitying ramblings of the demented University shooter, Cho Seung-Hui, have been aired on almost every news network across the English-speaking world. Sent to NBC News as Cho readied himself for the second phase of his killing spree, the package contained an 1,800-word manifesto-like statement in which Cho expresses rage, resentment and a desire to get even. He talks at length of his hatred of the wealthy.
“You had 100 billion chances to have avoided today but you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option.
The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.
I didn’t have to do this. I could’ve left. I could’ve fled.
You just loved crucifying me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terrorising my heart and ripping my soul all this time.
I may be nothing but a [expletive].
You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats? Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs? Your trust fund wasn’t enough? Your vodka and cognac weren’t enough? All your debaucheries weren’t enough? Those weren’t enough to fulfil your hedonistic needs? You had everything.”
For some, perhaps many, there will be a stirring of empathy for what they see as a mirror in their own lives where they see the affluent and untroubled lifestyles of their peers contrasting starkly with lives of struggle and emotional upheaval. Like Cho, they may be bullied and ridiculed by fellow high school students.
Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and ABC news consultant, sums it up: “I promise you the disaffected will watch him the way they watched ‘Natural Born Killers.’ I know. I examine these people,” he said. “I’ve examined mass shooters who have told me they’ve watched it 20 times.”
The most chilling part of Cho’s message indicates he hoped to elicit copycats and was deliberately trying to persuade those who also felt disaffected into following in his bloody footprints;
“You thought it was one pathetic void life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people.”
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