Saturday, April 21, 2007
My $0.02
Peeping Tom
Weird actor dude with a weird German accent pretending to be an English cameraman who has an obsession with filming snuff films, due to his father's abuse of him as a child.
You know, I really do trust Roger's taste. He's picked out great films for film soc so far, but I'm afraid this week's film was far off the mark.
How much blame can we lay at the feet of our parents for our own dysfunction? To be honest, I wish it could be a 100%. Then all the problems in the world can be traced back to our first ancestors, whatever life-forms rose out of the ocean, threw off their fins, grew some hairy pits and began eating bananas while hunting for rats. Doggone it, if Grug had been more open with Uggna, maybe their children would have been more balanced, and tracing that through eons of human development, I wouldn't now be a crazy psudeo-Englishman with an obsession with my camera and it's freaky third-leg bayonet!
Speaking of crazy people and killing, I'm sure everyone has heard of the VaTech massacre by now. I think it's shocking, I think it's horrible, I think it's awful. I am in no way condoning his actions. Cho deserves utmost blame for his disgusting attack on the lives of innocent university students.
Certain things people have been saying, however disturb me. One of these is the notion that Cho is some he-devil from the abyss, some crazy psychotic nutcase, or he's Satan godchild (excuse the paradox there). Was he mentally ill? Yes. Was he psychotic? Yes. Was he unstable, dangerous, should have been confined to a mental institute, should not have been allowed to purchase guns? Yes, yes, yes, yes. But he is, after all, a human being, I don't believe in a world of Edmund Hoopers, where great evil is implanted by some cheeky imp from limbo. There's a reason for his isolation, alienation, violent impulses. I'm not going to blame it solely on society, because Cho must take the greatest brunt of his disgusting actions. But at the same time, I'm not going to blame it all on biology. I don't believe biology is destiny. Not anymore that I believe evil individuals grow up in some vacuum bell jar, ready to be released when they're 23 to unleash hell on unsuspecting people. It's a combination of nature and nurture, I think. Soc Party sent me an email encouraging me to blame the massacres on the 'system'. On the other hand, some American political blogs I'm reading have been blaming it solely on teh-evil-devil-pulsating-hatred-cannot-understand-him-lock-up-the-crazies-ban-video-games-by-golly-we-need-our-gunz-to-shootz-down-the-yellow-peril!!!
Can I, can I just take the middle ground here? It seems to me most reasonable to say that Cho was a seriously disturbed individual. Perhaps chemical inbalances in his brain had caused or exacerbated his psychotic tendencies. At the same time, society has to take on some blame. A culture that makes it difficult for people with mental health issues to seek help, either through stigmatising it or through inadequate funding, staff and resources. A society that breeds on competiton, stress, and pressure. A system that thrives on inequalities, that marginalises and alienates those not up to scratch. A country that glamorises guns and violence, makes guns easily accessible, then blames homicides and massacres on video games. I think an explosive combination of these factors was responsible. If we pretend that this was some biologically determined thing we had no control of, or that we should now start locking up quiet and weird people (99.9% who will never go on to committ mass killings), then God save us all.
Weird actor dude with a weird German accent pretending to be an English cameraman who has an obsession with filming snuff films, due to his father's abuse of him as a child.
You know, I really do trust Roger's taste. He's picked out great films for film soc so far, but I'm afraid this week's film was far off the mark.
How much blame can we lay at the feet of our parents for our own dysfunction? To be honest, I wish it could be a 100%. Then all the problems in the world can be traced back to our first ancestors, whatever life-forms rose out of the ocean, threw off their fins, grew some hairy pits and began eating bananas while hunting for rats. Doggone it, if Grug had been more open with Uggna, maybe their children would have been more balanced, and tracing that through eons of human development, I wouldn't now be a crazy psudeo-Englishman with an obsession with my camera and it's freaky third-leg bayonet!
Speaking of crazy people and killing, I'm sure everyone has heard of the VaTech massacre by now. I think it's shocking, I think it's horrible, I think it's awful. I am in no way condoning his actions. Cho deserves utmost blame for his disgusting attack on the lives of innocent university students.
Certain things people have been saying, however disturb me. One of these is the notion that Cho is some he-devil from the abyss, some crazy psychotic nutcase, or he's Satan godchild (excuse the paradox there). Was he mentally ill? Yes. Was he psychotic? Yes. Was he unstable, dangerous, should have been confined to a mental institute, should not have been allowed to purchase guns? Yes, yes, yes, yes. But he is, after all, a human being, I don't believe in a world of Edmund Hoopers, where great evil is implanted by some cheeky imp from limbo. There's a reason for his isolation, alienation, violent impulses. I'm not going to blame it solely on society, because Cho must take the greatest brunt of his disgusting actions. But at the same time, I'm not going to blame it all on biology. I don't believe biology is destiny. Not anymore that I believe evil individuals grow up in some vacuum bell jar, ready to be released when they're 23 to unleash hell on unsuspecting people. It's a combination of nature and nurture, I think. Soc Party sent me an email encouraging me to blame the massacres on the 'system'. On the other hand, some American political blogs I'm reading have been blaming it solely on teh-evil-devil-pulsating-hatred-cannot-understand-him-lock-up-the-crazies-ban-video-games-by-golly-we-need-our-gunz-to-shootz-down-the-yellow-peril!!!
Can I, can I just take the middle ground here? It seems to me most reasonable to say that Cho was a seriously disturbed individual. Perhaps chemical inbalances in his brain had caused or exacerbated his psychotic tendencies. At the same time, society has to take on some blame. A culture that makes it difficult for people with mental health issues to seek help, either through stigmatising it or through inadequate funding, staff and resources. A society that breeds on competiton, stress, and pressure. A system that thrives on inequalities, that marginalises and alienates those not up to scratch. A country that glamorises guns and violence, makes guns easily accessible, then blames homicides and massacres on video games. I think an explosive combination of these factors was responsible. If we pretend that this was some biologically determined thing we had no control of, or that we should now start locking up quiet and weird people (99.9% who will never go on to committ mass killings), then God save us all.
Labels: Virginia Tech Massacre
# posted by me lah @ 11:34 am 
