Warning, nuts point of view

I miss the Penn Jillette radio program, because I could always count on him to take the “nuts point of view” on difficult topics.  I liked that.  So today, I HAVE to take that mantle upon myself.  As everyone is aware at this point, 32+ people were killed in a gunman attack at Virginia Tech yesterday.  I have several thoughts on this, disagree at your leisure.

I’ve said this to people about Columbine before, and I’ll re-iterate it here.  Your defense and safety are your responsibility.  Your safety does NOT ultimately fall under the realm of your university, your building manager, or your host.  The first question that came to my mind is HOW did this guy manage to kill 32?  I wondered aloud why the kids in Columbine did not rise up against their attacker and I really wonder it here.  VT is a COLLEGE people… These “kids” are in their early 20’s.  Sure the guy has a pistol… and he can spray quite a few bullets at once… but he is STILL one shooter.  An untrained shooter cannot handle multiple targets charging him.  Or even better… throwing chairs or other objects.  This dude had the time to chain a door shut and shoot people at his leisure.  Why were his victims not fighting back?  It’s at moments like this that I truly applaud my friend(s) who have put their young children into martial arts to allow them the mental faculties to process this information AS it happens and not become human sheep.

Second point.  To the press… hold up a mirror for a second and listen to yourselves.  There has been nothing but 24 hour wall to wall coverage of this.  I watched for 5 minutes this morning while drying my hair.  They had a VERY ironic thing to say.  “This guy was looking for a voice, for his moment in the sun” Ummm… YOU’RE GIVING IT TO HIM.  Yes it’s a fucking tragedy, yes it’s sad.  But lets be completely honest.  There are approximately 32 people dead… 32.  That’s all.  How many died in Iraq today, they were young people too? How about of heart attacks?  On the freeway?  WHY is this different.  Death is death.  Why do these 32 warrant wall to wall coverage and the ones who die in other manners don’t?  By giving this shooter the voice he wanted, you’re definitely giving the next guy who thinks about a mass killing absolutely NO reason to think twice.  He would find himself encouraged that if he can break this VT shooters “record” ,  he will also get wall to wall coverage and that elusive voice.  Sheeze.

Last, the “shock and horror” at the violence of this.  We are more like the Roman empire as a society than we care to admit. We use violence as entertainment.  We use our military as a country to solve our problems.  Our most popular sports involve collisions and violence.  Why then are we shocked that out “innocent children” watch, learn, and listen.  That said, I’m not blaming the media at all, as I said above, we’re responsible for our own safety… but that goes for our own actions as well. But our society has absolutely ZERO right to feign shock over this when we are a violent culture.  If you deny we are a violent culture, you’re living in a vacuum.  Just look at the majority of our top television shows and movies.  (And YES, American Idol makes ME want to be violent, but we can disregard that one as we’ve established my lack of normalcy)  I’m not advocating getting rid of these forms of entertainment… hell, I LOVE them myself.  I still get shivers thinking of Gavin Prout taking a full bore run and leveling some poor guy at a LAX game.  I’m just saying stop being surprised.  That’s like being against condom use then being surprised that teenage pregnancy goes up. 2+2 = 4… it’s pretty simple.

These killings are going to continue.  Nothing can stop it, it’s the price we are going to pay as a society for being who we are.  It’s silly of us to pretend otherwise.  We need to get over it.

V