Sean: 偏執症

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Posted by Sean:
偏執症
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1176871463.shtml


   When it turned out that the perp in the Virginia Tech shootings was
   South Korean, I actually chuckled mirthlessly at CNN and said aloud,
   "Well, at least no one's going to work the race angle on this one."
   What a moron. Salon.com has a [1]selective but interesting roundup of
   commentary on whether and how Cho Seung-hui's Korean-ness relates to
   his having shot at several classrooms full of college students.
   I don't think some of the more ignorant commentary is necessarily
   motivated by sheer axe-grinding against Korean culture or [2]violent
   movies or what have you. Treatments for mental illness have come such
   a long way that no one seems to [3]want to conclude that it's possible
   for someone to be just a plain wrong'un who may not be reachable by
   drugs or counseling. The emerging evidence seems to [4]indicate that
   Cho might have been schizophrenic; at the very least, he was seriously
   screwed up in the head.
   Maybe his parents' Asian background made them chary of involving
   counselors, psychiatrists, and other outsiders in what they saw as a
   family matter. But, even in this therapy-everywhere age, there are
   plenty of native-born Middle Americans who would do the same thing.
   And even when people do try to get help for family members they can't
   handle, it's not always forthcoming. After Sylvia Seegrist killed
   three people outside a mall near Philadelphia two decades ago, it came
   out that her mother had tried unsuccessfully to keep her
   institutionalized. (It was reported, IIRC from the local news shows,
   that she'd told the officials who wanted to release her, "But she's
   psychotic!" and been told back, "Lady, half of Philadelphia is
   psychotic.")
   One of the blogs Salon singles out for opprobrium is Michael Hurt's
   Scribblings of the Metropolitician. Hurt lives in Seoul, and his post
   [5]asks several thorny questions about how Korean men are
   acculturated. It's worth reading and thinking about; if you know
   Japan, you may find quite a bit of it familiar.
   I still don't buy one of Hurt's key, if vaguely stated, points,
   though:

     So the top two spots for shooting sprees in history are now held by
     two Korean men. Hey--I just find this interesting. Is this
     information not somewhat relevant to the issue at hand?

   Well, no, not if the overwhelming majority of Koreans don't go on
   shooting sprees and the overwhelming majority of shooting sprees
   aren't committed by Koreans. That two major killing sprees have now
   been committed by Korean men is a catchy-sounding little fact to
   mention in news items, but in and of itself, I don't find it very
   suggestive. After all, millions of guys, Korean and otherwise, are
   sexually-jealous hotheads who rant and throw tantrums like little boys
   when their lovers (actual or imagined) cross them, but they still
   manage to stop short of opening fire on a few dozen people.

References

   1. http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/04/17/vtech_korea/index.html
   2. http://isteve.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech.html
   3. http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2007/04/psychology_of_t.html
   4. http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/19/vtech.shooting/index.html
   5. http://metropolitician.blogs.com/scribblings_of_the_metrop/2007/04/the_politics_of.html