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In
his manifesto video, Cho Seung-Hui, that pathetic, selfish jackass responsible
for the Virginia Tech massacre, re-enacts scenes from Oldboy, one of my
favorite movies. The movie is a violent revenge thriller, but, in defense of the movie, it's
also about how the protagonist is in some way responsible for his own sad state
AND how that revenge darkens everyone and takes its toll.
There are no winners in the film. There is no singular point
of blame.
Apparently, for someone who liked the film in a "Gosh,
that violence sure is cool!" way, the Virginia Tech killer missed its
essential point almost entirely. Maybe he was too caught up in the bloody
climax to realize what the whole thing was all about. Or maybe he missed the
film's ending, where the hero is essentially doomed.
If it were possible to ignore this whiny, petty, idiotic
brat and his diatribe about being misunderstood and "driven" to do
this, we would collectively be better off. Most people come to accept that the
universe owes them nothing and isn't really required to pay attention to them
at all. The best ones even realize that they're ultimately responsible for
improving their lives and then go about making their life better.
Liviu Librescu, one of the professors killed in the attack,
had survived the Holocaust. He was shot through a classroom door that he was
holding closed so that others could escape the gunfire.
Ryan Clark, the student from Georgia who was among the first
killed, was an RA in the dorm that was attacked. He could've graduated in
December but took extra classes because he wanted to walk at graduation. He
volunteered summers at a music camp for disabled children. He was trying to
protect other students when he was killed.
The victims' voices are the ones I wish we could hear, but
they're not getting the chance to offer up their manifesto to the news.
It's annoying to me that their killer is the only one who
had the opportunity to say goodbye to the world, assuming that the world would
care about his deranged multimedia picture book and bad, bad writing. It
doesn't shock me. It doesn't horrify me. It doesn't alarm me that maybe I
should change my behavior. The whole diatribe strikes me as pathetic. (I've written my own share of lengthy, pathetic diatribes in
my life, railing at an unfair world that doesn't care. But it's the same world
that everyone's in, and everyone has as much of a reason, or can find as much
of a reason, to complain as I can.)
I know the manifesto is news. I know that's why the analysis
of this document is going to go on for weeks. But, really, the focus of this
story should be on the killed, not on a killer with the unoriginal complaints.
Anyway, watch the movie if you haven't seen it. See how it
doesn't glorify the very things this guy thought it did. Catch how this
gun-toting loser completely missed the point.
People who write manifestos generally aren't prophets.
They're usually disconnected, selfish lunatics who assume the world gives a
damn.
The world doesn't.
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