On Virginia Tech
My thoughts go out to the families and friends of those killed at Virginia Tech. It's hard to know what to say about such devastating violence and tragedy, or if to say anything at all. I've left some meandering thoughts over at Avast! Feminist Conspiracy!, and while there will be much speculation in the days and weeks to come about Cho Seung-Hui's mental health, I've nothing to say about that here at this time.
11 comments:
I hope you don't mind if I weigh in. This is what I spend far too much time screaming about. "Someone" (a man) "snaps" and it is immediately blamed on their craziness. He had been treated by mental health professionals! He took antidepressants!
Just stopping for a moment-how many people have *ever* taken an antidepressant in their life? What percentage of them go on to massacre others?
It's quick and easy to blame this on mental illness. But guess what folks? If everyone who was mentally ill went on a rampage, there'd be no one left standing. It's easy to other people based on having a mental illness. It needs to freaking stop. "Lock up all the crazies and then we'll be safe." No, you won't.
Sorry Blue, this subject enrages me.
It's quick and easy to blame this on mental illness.
Spotted Elephant: Yep, that's exactly why I don't have any useful comments on this related to disability or mental health just now. Maybe after some facts arise, but not based on so much rumor.
have gone through a bout of depression that was treated with meds and thearpy, and came out just fine on the other end. also have a friend that has suffered from severe depression over the years and he still has to take meds and is seeking help from the professionals. he is of no threat to me and others because he acknoledges that he has a problem and has (in my opinion) aligned himself with supportive family and friends to help guide him and support him when he hits his darker moments. I do believe that it can be managed.
as for the virgina shootings at the college, i do blieve he was to a point dening that he may have had problems and that his rage got the better of him. only he will ever know and he took it to his grave with him. i do believe he could of delt with it diffrently/culturaly.
Well, I said something about the mental health aspect at my blog, but your post at Avast! cover the "domestic dispute" red herring admirably, and I forgot to mention that at all.
I'm about to lose my mind over this "mental illness" crap. Spotted Elephant, yes!
As a religion major/junkie, I've read a lot of stuff by people like Wendy Kaminer, Elayne Rapping, Philip Rieff (The Triumph of the Therapeutic) and Paul Vitz (Psychology as Religion: The Cult of Self-Worship) about the dearth of moral/ethical language in the culture, and the substitution of "disease" and "illness" for immorality. This whole phenomenon has obviously contributed to the rise of the Religious Right, who invariably step in at times like this, offering their authoritative and well-honed definitions of evil, since we appear to have lost all others. (anyone see Bill O'Reilly fulminating last night? Like a dog with red meat.) Every negative act has been reduced to "illness"--so when someone becomes ANGRY AND DESTRUCTIVE, that is ideologically transformed into "illness"...in fact, it may be actual ANGER that this person has been expressing all his life, and he isn't "crazy" at all. It's just that our profoundly fucked up, emotionally stunted and proudly unequal society/culture can't acknowledge or validate this kind of anger since it threatens the entire social order. (notice he hated the rich white kids) By contrast, gang violence/drive-bys in the inner city aren't assumed to be propagated by someone with "mental illness"--everyone knows these acts of violence are about settling scores. Only when the subjects of mass violence are privileged college kids, is "mental illness" hauled in as a reason, rather than the usual masculine score-settling.
The implication is that of course, gang members in inner-cities somehow DESERVE to be sprayed with bullets, but these innocent college kids don't. I agree, but I always take note that the amount of outrage is never equal.
As Arlo Gunthrie mighta said, if Cho just wanted to kill people, he should have enlisted. But it wasn't Iraqis he wanted to kill.
I call that a sane (but thoroughly evil) decision, but I guess I'm old fashioned that way!
Sorry for length of reply, Blue. I just babble on and on...
See why I don't have my own blog? I'd spend most of the time correcting myself.
*CORRECTION* I wrote: The implication is that of course, gang members in inner-cities somehow DESERVE to be sprayed with bullets, but these innocent college kids don't. I agree, but I always take note that the amount of outrage is never equal.
I meant, OF COURSE, that I agree that the college kids don't deserve it. I didn't mean the inner-city gang members DO deserve it. I meant that it somehow is seen as not morally equivalent, and it is.
Have you noticed, we never hear about drive-bys on national news? What are the stats? What is the "biggest" drive-by in the history of the country, and how many were killed? Where was it? More importantly, why don't we know that?
I was watching Wolf Blitzer and those CNN people all hanging out at bucolic, scenic, expensively-maintained Virginia Tech, asking students questions, and I thought, well, they probably don't wanna go where the drive-bys are. Wolf might not find a Starbucks.
If they made news from the inner-city a priority, then they might have to actually hire people who look like the people in the inner city, to cover those news stories! OMG! Too much trouble. Easier to just ignore them.
As Orwell said, some are more equal than others
I brought this up on a feminist bulletin board that I frequent (and where I've seen Blue grace us with her presence here and there!), and the flack I got was...wow. But he MUST be sick! But he MUST be mentally ill! I REFUSE to believe that a person could do this unless there is something organically wrong with him! I sorta thought that pointing out the prejudice would cause contrition among those who were indulging in it, but instead it just entrenched them more.
And if being having been on anti-depressants qualifies one for being "mentally ill" (as was the only information that had come out when people were happily declaring his mental state), shit, I qualify. Being that I was on a tricyclic for chronic pain for six months last year. Better lock me up too. Oh, but of course, no one is advocating LOCKING PEOPLE UP. Because locking up mentally ill people to give the public the illusion of their own safety has never happened, oh no, of course not. And we're in no danger whatever of it ever happening again. Of course not.
spotted elephant and mrsoul,
Thank you both for bringing to my attention a facet of the story that I hadn't thought about -- regarding "mental illness."
Also, I'd like to say that I recently moved to a relatively "safe" area of Harlem (NYC), where the majority of the population is black, Hispanic, or both. On numerous occasions I have heard what are clearly gun shots. The latest round occurring outside my building.
And no, it received no media coverage.
I think Mrsoul's point is valid. Another piece of it may be that we as a society find it so much easier to say that school shootings are the result of one aberrant individual rather than to even consider the possibility that we live in a culture that fosters racial, sexual, ability discrimination and that promotes violence as the solution to all problems.
Janet
Thanks everyone, for the input so lacking most everywhere else.
Mr. Soul: You do totally need your own blog. Or you could consider guesting here once in a blue moon and see how you like that. Email me if interested, I've lost your address.
Historian Heather Munro Prescott has a new article up at the History News Network site, titled "Mental Health is Everyone's Business: Historical Reflections on the Virginia Tech Shootings." Prescott relates aftermath of the recent events at Virginia Tech to "a century-long battle to safeguard the civil rights and enhance the public's understanding of mentally ill individuals."
http://hnn.us/articles/38250.html
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