Brown Nuggets

Idiot?

Online Etymology Dictionary - IDIOT

c.1300, "person so mentally deficient as to be incapable of ordinary reasoning," from O.Fr. idiote "uneducated or ignorant person," from L. idiota "ordinary person, layman," in L.L. "uneducated or ignorant person," from Gk. idiotes "layman, person lacking professional skill," lit. "private person," used patronizingly for "ignorant person," from idios "one's own"

Kinda surprised to hear this word being used on CNN today. The news channel was referring to Cho Seung Hui, the cold-blooded nutcase who went on a shooting spree on Monday and killed 33 students of Virginia Tech University including himself.

Firstly, I didn't think such language would be allowed on a news channel but I guess drastic situations call for drastic language. And secondly, if you read excerpts from his assignments and videos, he does not really come across as a mental retard. Senseless perhaps, but probably not intellectually challenged. True, he could not enunciate his words well but his writings seem rather polished even though they were definitely sick.

Heard over Larry King from one of the psychologists interviewed that mass murderers tend to have brain damage of some sort but I guess we will never know for Cho's case - he shot himself in the head and his facial features were so badly disfigured that the investigators took quite awhile to figure out his identity.

Was NBC wrong to have shown the footage of his videos? I think not. People want to know and have the right to know the truth no matter how disturbing.

Was media coverage and free publicity what Cho wanted? Probably. But I felt that watching the footage provided crucial visual and behavioural information that could help the rest of us identify future Cho's and step in to counsel or help before things get out of hand.

From BBC News Online:

Excerpts from video recordings sent to NBC News by Cho Seung-hui - the student who shot at least 30 people at Virginia Tech university on Monday.

You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.

You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn't enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren't enough, you snobs. Your trust funds wasn't enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn't enough. All your debaucheries weren't enough. Those weren't enough to fulfil your hedonistic needs. You had everything.

You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy's life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenceless people.

Do you know what it feels to be spit on your face and to have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled on a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement?

You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. Did you want to inject as much misery in our lives as you can just because you can?

I didn't have to do this. I could have left. I could have fled. But no, I will no longer run. It's not for me. For my children, for my brothers and sisters that you (expletive). I did it for them.
When the time came I did it. I had to.

An AP article released today mentioned that Cho was teased and picked on, apparently because of shyness and his strange, mumbly way of speaking.

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers:

Once, in English class at Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., when the teacher had the students read aloud, Cho looked down when it was his turn, said Chris Davids, a Virginia Tech senior and high school classmate. After the teacher threatened him with an F for participation, Cho began reading in a strange, deep voice that sounded "like he had something in his mouth," Davids said. "The whole class started laughing and pointing and saying, `Go back to China,'" Davids said.

Doesn't this make it society's fault that Cho turned out the way he did? Why do people have to make fun of others who are different and perhaps not so smart? Why can't we be kinder and less critical/mean? Does putting down another human being make us feel better about ourselves?

posted by Pocahontas @ 5:40 PM