A Few Random Thoughts
- saying this tragedy might have been prevented if students on Virginia Tech's campus were allowed to carry guns is ridiculous. From the descriptions I have heard, no one would have had the time to arm themselves nor the opportunity to return fire.
- could we get a law that says in order to buy a gun you need to present evidence that you have at least five friends? like they have to come with you and sign affidavits or something?
- our national obsession with these tragedies feeds the flames of copy-cats (more than our national obsession with guns). While everyone abhors the murders, it seems that all we want is more information about what happened. We're fetishizing their actions! We paste their pictures on every surface, we talk to their friends, their families, examine every aspect of their lives, and we try to figure out "what were they thinking?" Maybe they're thinking they'll get a lot of attention.
- is there a limit to the appetite of the news agencies (and by extension our society) for this stuff? other things are happening in the world. for example, this is happening every day in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sudan, Pakistan, etc... Every other day 30+ Iraqis are killed for particular no reason as they try to go about their lives. It happens once in America and the whole country shuts down. How do we expect the Iraqis to create a nation from scratch under such conditions?
9 comments:
Hmmm... that last is more like two separate comments. But they're on a similar theme.
i couldn't agree more. i definitely think there is a constantly growing desire for fame and notoriety (as evidenced by the number of people willing to humiliate themselvs on national televisioni through reality tv), and to someone who is extremely troubled or disturbed, going on a rampage like this is i guess a desirable blend of revenge and fame and hatred.
on the other hand, i can't help but pay attention to all this media on the issue. i do want to know who this guy was, what made him do what he did, and also who his victims were. is this just a vicious cycle, or me being a hypocrite?
Well, I too am intrigued by this guy. I don't know if it's hypocrisy to want to know about him. We're curious animals and we're most curious about things that don't fit right. This definitely doesn't fit right and we want to know "Why?".
Is it hypocrisy to want to know why this happened? I don't think so.
The hypocrisy is in the overwrought coverage on CNN.com (and elsewhere): pages flooded with non-sequitor, innuendo, rumor, and what-ifs. These "news" sites pretend to offer answers, each article promises you a new insight, but contains no enlightenment. The hypocrisy comes from needing to see everything as it happens, needing to know all the details.
The one thing we all want to know is the one thing we never will know: Why?
Yeah, I for sure agree that the round-the-clock TV news coverage of this is not a good thing. And probably it's now over-blown in the print media. I can understand devoting the whole front page of the NYT to it yesterday, but today too? (I'm talking about the NYT website.)
I have to admit to being guilty of watching a fair amount of the news coverage. I was in the airport when the news first broke, so by the time I got home and was able to devote serious attention to learning what had happened, a good 24 hours had passed and I wanted to know everything I could. While I am hardly addicted to the 24 hour news coverage, I will concede that while watching 48 Hours last night, I began to cry on more than one occassion.
Also, and once again, I am hardly conceding that the 24 hours news coverage is a good thing, the was that this story is developing lends itself to such coverage. Information is uncovered and revealed in trickles. Last I heard, there was another news conference this morning, at about 9 am I believe.
This post was totally incoherent and rambling. I guess this has upset me more than I realize and I am not processing it well.
Yeah, well I have been reading every article I can get my hands on (I think the Washington Post has the best coverage) and thought about the thing all day and bummed. I am also wondering like crazy--why'd he shoot the two people in the dorm? And, where'd he go between that and the other shooting, and why didn't anyone see him?
Indeed, since I wrote this post, more information has come to light. It's hard to look away. The cable news media exaggerate the importance every little snippet of information (my father at lunch was watching MSNBC and the anchor was asking an "expert" whether it would have made a difference if the shooter had needed to reload 3 times instead of 2). I hate that crap.
Nelly made a good point last night: if you're following the story and reading the news, that's one thing. But the tv "personalities" that try to inject themselves into the show are the worst. Regardless of whether you're attending to every detail of the story, definitely don't listen to Wolf Blitzer and Lou Dobbs sounding off.
Mark Furhman, of O.J. Simpson fame, has found a place for himself as an "expert" on one of the cable news channels. That was quite the surprise.
What about Kato? He's an expert at crazy cable media over-reaction! Where's the love?
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