Journal LehiNephi's Journal: Virginia Tech shooting and Politicians 2
In the wake of today's tragedy on the Virginia Tech campus, my wife made a very disturbing, yet profound, observation. Every news outlet is asking the question "What could have done to prevent this from happening?" Everyone and his dog will have an opinion on what VT officials could have done better. And everyone will demand someone's head on a platter. The politicians do it because they want to be seen as acting strongly against such events, and the media do it because it makes it easy to blame someone: "so-and-so should have had more police there" or "the administration should have locked down the entire campus immediately". They have to blame somebody for not seeing beforehand what we now see clearly with hindsight. In other words, we have to blame this on somebody, and punish them. The blame game is particularly maddening, because it shows a lack of perspective, and leads to inappropriate, ineffective responses.
Think of it this way. If the gunman had not been killed, but rather taken into custody, would we still be hearing questions like "why did it take them two hours to send out an email to the students?". Perhaps eventually, but not with such immediacy or such a scathing tone. Instead, there would be much more focus on the gunman. In the last forty-five minutes we've been watching the news, not once did we hear them place the blame on the gunman. Why? Simple. We cannot satisfactorily place the blame on him and punish him. University officials and the police, on the other hand, are right there and present ripe targets. Even though there's little they could have done to prevent it.
Now that I've ranted a bit and complained about what the media are doing wrong, what do I propose as a solution? I propose that university (that's all of them, not just VT) officials take a hard look at what could drive this person to this type of action.
First, figure out what made him crack. Was there too much pressure to succeed in school? Did he have too large of a course load? Did his girlfriend just dump him? Did he just flunk a critical exam? Then, we need to find ways to prevent that cause where appropriate, or mitigate the consequences. Maybe better student relations and counseling would help prevent or reduce extra stress. Maybe we need tighter controls on how many courses students can take. Maybe we need a better "relief valve" for pent-up frustration. Say, a wall with professors' portraits and free use of paintball guns. Or an anonymous forum for rants. I'm not a behavioral psychologist, so I can't say what would work best. Nothing more needs to be done, in my opinion. We need to come to grips with what happened, and get on with our lives.
In any case, we must stop focussing so much on what could have been done had we known everything beforehand, and instead look forward optimistically to find genuine solutions. Solutions that will help us as people better ourselves so that this will never happen again. Instead of trying to shield us from the "bad guys", empower us so that none of us becomes a "bad guy" in the first place.
I'm doing a poor job of expressing my view, but I hope I get the point across.
Think of it this way. If the gunman had not been killed, but rather taken into custody, would we still be hearing questions like "why did it take them two hours to send out an email to the students?". Perhaps eventually, but not with such immediacy or such a scathing tone. Instead, there would be much more focus on the gunman. In the last forty-five minutes we've been watching the news, not once did we hear them place the blame on the gunman. Why? Simple. We cannot satisfactorily place the blame on him and punish him. University officials and the police, on the other hand, are right there and present ripe targets. Even though there's little they could have done to prevent it.
Now that I've ranted a bit and complained about what the media are doing wrong, what do I propose as a solution? I propose that university (that's all of them, not just VT) officials take a hard look at what could drive this person to this type of action.
First, figure out what made him crack. Was there too much pressure to succeed in school? Did he have too large of a course load? Did his girlfriend just dump him? Did he just flunk a critical exam? Then, we need to find ways to prevent that cause where appropriate, or mitigate the consequences. Maybe better student relations and counseling would help prevent or reduce extra stress. Maybe we need tighter controls on how many courses students can take. Maybe we need a better "relief valve" for pent-up frustration. Say, a wall with professors' portraits and free use of paintball guns. Or an anonymous forum for rants. I'm not a behavioral psychologist, so I can't say what would work best. Nothing more needs to be done, in my opinion. We need to come to grips with what happened, and get on with our lives.
In any case, we must stop focussing so much on what could have been done had we known everything beforehand, and instead look forward optimistically to find genuine solutions. Solutions that will help us as people better ourselves so that this will never happen again. Instead of trying to shield us from the "bad guys", empower us so that none of us becomes a "bad guy" in the first place.
I'm doing a poor job of expressing my view, but I hope I get the point across.
Very good points on this (Score:2)
The other factor in school shootings, I believe, is the over-the-top media response. We're going to be bomb
Re: (Score:2)
The only way to influence such choices is to bind a person into community, into the human relationships that would make that choice unthinkable.
Thank you for eloquently summing up exactly what I tried to say. That's exactly what I mean.
If there is something that we need to know, report it. Otherwise, let's just stop gawking. Leave the Virginia Tech community their dignity, and their grief to deal with as they will.
Yes! That's exactly how I feel! Just tell us what happened, and let's all get back to normal life. I find it, to put it kindly, vexing how much news outlets will rehash every tiny detail for hours on end. To be honest, I wouldn't mind if this [youtube.com] happened more often. (how in the world did they manage to keep a straight face through that?)
Perhaps news stations need a 'slownewsday' tag?