I wish I had the intelligence, the wisdom and the understanding to comprehend why one person would feel the need to kill 32 people. I watched the coverage of the Virginia Tech slayings with a morbid fascination and abject disgust. I'm sure we all asked ourselves the obvious question: "Who could do such a thing?" Well, we found out. And I can't help but feel that we played right into his hands. The deaths and lives ruined were not Cho Seung-Hui's ultimate goal. It was the recognition and relevance that media outlets and horrified viewers like you and I granted him. And I can't help but feel there are others like him who now realize that if they want this kind of attention, they'd better commit this kind of act.
I've seen the videos, recorded against the utilitarian white walls that are commonplace in university dorms, and I've heard Seung-Hui's rhetoric. He blamed everything but himself for his actions. According to him, the victims brought this upon themselves. Their own blood stains, their own hands. He seemed to insist that he was more of a victim than those he would soon kill.
Seung-Hui does not sound like much of a victim. He attended a reputable university, and no doubt had access to the same sort of social networks and academic opportunities of that of the average Hokie. Yet he refused to take advantage. At 23, he couldn't have been very far from graduation. He must have had a lot to look forward to. So why? Why kill 32 people? Well, thanks to the unrelenting media coverage of Seung-Hui's life, and the rhetoric-laced package he so painstakingly prepared for NBC news, we now have a better idea.
His sister, a graduate from Princeton, managed to handle her undergraduate experience well and has since been handling the media buzz surrounding her family. Surely his sister would have experienced the same sort of belittling bigotry that Seung-Hui claims to have experienced at Virginia Tech. It's asking a lot of siblings to produce the same results, but I think it's fair to say that, judging from the apparent success of Seung-Hui's sister, it's not asking too much of him to handle his undergraduate experience with a bit more grace and a bit less murderous intent. Unfortunately, there are some people who want an audience so badly that they are willing to kill for it.
Every time I heard Seung-Hui ask if his intended victims knew what it felt like to have trash shoved down their throats or be hung upside down from a cross, I couldn't help but ask, "Have you?"
It was people like me, horrified and appalled, who provided Seung-Hui with what it was he desired most and could not have while he lived: an audience. And what an attentive audience we were. Enraptured by the videos, the pictures, the rants. The non-stop coverage of his character and past. The biggest thing since Anna Nicole Smith's death, Cho Seung-Hui, slaughterer of innocents. Now we were listening.
It occurred to me, during the sixth or seventh showing of the same excerpt of video, that this was exactly what he wanted. The package, the videos and the 1800-word manifest showed he wanted our attention. He wanted his likeness featured, semi-automatic pistol gripped in each hand, on the likes of CNN and NBC. Well, he got his final wish. We couldn't stop listening, and we couldn't stop watching.
I can't shake the feeling that I've met people like him, that there are others out there like him. Not every quiet recluse has the wretchedness to slaughter innocents, but those who do must have noticed the media circus that featured Seung-Hui and not the victims. Lunatics like Seung-Hui — who care little about their own life, much less others — and cannot seem to find anyone to listen to them on their own terms, must be taking notice of Seung-Hui's audience and the effectiveness of his methods.
The focus has, thankfully, finally shifted to the victims. Any Google news search will turn up more recent articles on the victims than the murderer, and that seems the best way to combat this kind of massacre on the media's end. I am not sure how effective gun control can be in the case of a determined maniac like Seung-Hui, but denying him and others like him the kind of media attention that he so desperately wanted and so obviously achieved as a result of his actions may deter others from following his lead.
It's only natural. You murder dozens of innocents, and the world will listen to your words, and the media will do its best to cover them. But it has to stop, or moments like these won't.
Gerald Cox ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in economics and Middle Eastern studies.
