James’ Blog

When Cho Seung-Hui went on a killing spree at Virginia Tech and caused so much suffering to so many people, I was sad, shocked, and outraged. And I was curious.
How can anyone, let alone a kid, a college student, go on a rampage killing so many helpless and inocent people? Why did he do it?

Like everybody else, that was the first question that popped in my mind. More than this, why do such horrific crimes happen in the first place? And is this mostly an American phenomenon?

I don't know if I have the answers, but I do have a theory, and it's a simple one.

Being from Brazil, I've had the benefit of living a significan portion of my life in the USA, and acquiring an experience that allows me to be objective in terms of cultures and points of view. Brazilians here were saying that such mass murders are mostly an American thing, and at first I dismissed it as simple prejudice towards Americans, but it gave me something to think about.

It seems there is a consensus about mass murderers on their general behavior and attitudes. We've all heard it from the experts: Mass murderers are often solitary and angry, to an extreme degree.

I know a couple of anti-social kids. Kids who keep to themselves, have always done so, and who develop anti-social activities to fill their lives. They aren't angry kids though. And when offered friendship or companionship, they often accepted it gladly. Cho's college mates reported that they also extended a hand of friendship to him, but he refused it.
Contrary to the obvious, this refusal is not the act of a lonely person. It is the act of someone who is angry. It is a veiled symptom of deep ingrained anger and rage. We often miss the anger symptons because they are so veiled. This is one of them.

But is that all it takes? There are probably so many lonely and angry people out there. Are all of them at risk of snapping and going on rampages? I don't think so. It seems there is something else, a third ingredient in this explosive mixture.

The United States is a great country, with an amazing people that share good values. Values such as freedom of speech, freedom to have different cultural beliefs and religions, and freedom to allow each person to be whoever he wants to be.
These values have helped shape a country that despite its glaring problems, is a leader among nations (even though some nations resent that, but that's for another day).

What makes a mass murderer? There can't be an exact formula. Only generalities. We've seen 2 of those. Anger and solitude. Two factors we've heard the pundits talk about on the days following the shootings. Why do they only talk about those two?

It is often hardest for one to know himself. Americans live inside their own culture, their own system, and thus are often blind to it. They are blind to the third ingredient.

These values of freedom and liberty have a side-effect: A lack of dogma. To most people, that is positive and enjoyable, but to a few, it may be a source of much frustration.
This lack of dogma allows each person the wide berth to choose his or her own path, but it can also leave a person lost, confused, and helpless, without this dogmatic crutch to lean upon. I think this side-effect of freedom is the third ingredient.

Most people are out there building bridges with others, choosing how and with what to fill their lives with, be it with religion or science, with surfing or TV, partnering with men or with women. They're out there, being all they can be, while a few feel very different. They have this wide berth of freedom, and the berth is too wide. They see it as a gaping hole of emptiness. They can't find a way to go in one or another direction. Every direction seems fake and contrived. They need dogma, and they don't have it. And while everybody else around them is filling their lives with meaning, these unfortunate few remain unfulfilled, empty… and resentful. They can't understand why others are happy while they are not. They feel unwanted, alone. Angry. Usually, such people will find the help they need among friends, therapists, or ministers. Some may even find meaning in fantasy and literature. And some won't find anything, anywhere.

And if such a person, is one who is already solitary and prone to anger, we have…. We have the Cho Seung-Huis of the world.

And why is it that these mass murders seem to happen in the US, for the most part?
Most other countries are either religious in nature like most South American and Arab countries, or paternalistic like in Europe, or just totalitarian, with few liberties like a lot of Asia.

In Brazil, for instance, we have deep ingrained ways of thinking and behaving, that can be dogmas in their own way. And the many who don't follow whese ways are so different, that this non-conformism becomes a purpose in itself. A dogma of another kind. That is part of the Brazilian way. We also have the institutionalised religion, which although not enforced, it is very present and far reaching. Many crutches to lean upon.

So that's my theory. Solitary and angry people who need the crutches of dogma but don't have it, will feel resentfully inferior when others around him are enriching their lives. These are the ones in risk of snapping and going on rampages.

Notice I used the word "enrich". We all heard Cho Seung-Hui's words of rage towards the rich and snob. But how many in college are actually rich? Most deeply need their scholarships. College students are mostly frugal everywhere. But to a lonely, empty, direction-less and lost person, everybody else will seem rich, happilly drinking, enjoying themselves and having fun. It's easy to see how his mind would distort reality like that.

Finally, what's the solution? What is to be done? We all want a solution, like we want something or somebody to blame. Maybe Americans need to come together in a new way. We (for I share American values, even though I was born elsewhere) are way too polarized in our beliefs. Democrats versus Republicans. They both have their pros and cons. And they both are a product of two centuries of political wrangling. Where is it written that these are the choices? I want my pick from the best among those two categories. And I say "categories" cause these aren't even real ideologies. I want the best from both.

Maybe when we have the freedom that we need, while we also have the guiding hand we need, when we have both of them together in harmony… maybe what happened in Virginia Tech will become a thing of the past.

Until then, our thoughts remain with the families that grieve.

I'd like to take the time to honor the victims of this tragegy, by simply listing their names here. May we reflect as we read each name, that each one represents a life, full of dreams, hopes, wishes… a person, connected to the world by loved ones, friends and relatives. Each loss is enormous of itself. Each one more valuable than our imagination can allow for.

Ross Abdallah Alameddine

Christopher James Bishop

Brian Roy Bluhm

Ryan Christopher Clark

Austin Michelle Cloyd

Jocelyne Couture-Nowak

Kevin P. Granata

Matthew Gregory Gwaltney

Caitlin Millar Hammaren

Jeremy Michael Herbstritt

Rachael Elizabeth Hill

Emily Jane Hilscher

Jarrett Lee Lane

Matthew Joseph La Porte

Henry J. Lee

Liviu Librescu

G.V. Loganathan

Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan

Lauren Ashley McCain

Daniel Patrick O'Neil

Juan Ramon Ortiz-Ortiz

Minal Hiralal Panchal

Daniel Alejandro Perez

Erin Nicole Peterson

Michael Steven Pohle, Jr.

Julia Kathleen Pryde

Mary Karen Read

Reema Joseph Samaha

Waleed Mohamed Shaalan

Leslie Geraldine Sherman

Maxine Shelly Turner

Nicole White