So much for that idea
As predicted, my suggestion that the Virginia Tech shooter's identity be kept confidential has been ignored. There will now follow a media circus examining every aspect of this one troubled man's life and his decision to take it along with those of many innocent others. In a futile gesture, I'll refer to him here simply as "the shooter."
posted by Michael C. Dorf @ 12:40 PM
4 Comments:
At 12:02 AM,
Caleb said…
Just to play arm-chair-psychoanalyst for a moment, I suspect that the rush to identify the shooter is part of a need to distance ourselves from what we (rightly) feel are terrible actions. My guess is that media coverage that focuses on things that might have triggered or led to this tragedy is partly an attempt to explain how something this horrible could happen, and partly an attempt to allow us - collectively - to say, "Well, I'm not like that".
Even the words we use to describe things like this - "inhuman" springs to mind - emphasize how he's not like us.
If he's just "the shooter" as you suggested, then it's harder to get rid of the feeling of "There but for the grace of God go I".
I'm not sure where I'm going with this, except to say that it gives me the vague feeling that if we were a little more willing to see the potential to do such terrible things in ourselves, we might feel even more compelled to figure out how to prevent similar tragedies.
At 10:06 AM,
Derek said…
You're probably right, Caleb. But I can't help but feel that there is also a strong hint of voyeurism surrounding the whole thing.
At 10:49 AM,
Tam said…
Along the lines of "everything makes sense from some frame of reference," maybe part of the curiosity comes from our need to understand what could possibly motivate a person to such senselessness. This, I think, is why passive aggressive behavior, e.g., "the silent treatment," is so frustrating to the targets: it renders them unable to understand what's going on.
So I actually favor disclosure of the gunman's ID, because I think fulfilling this psychological need is essential, and I suspect that the risk of posthumous notoriety inducing copycat behavior in these situations is fairly low.
At 8:18 PM,
Benjam said…
your suggestion of a media blackout is geared entirely to avoiding the type of publicity that MIGHT lead to copycats. we need ideas to prevent these things from occuring in the first place.
how abot the increased use of civil confinement proceedings? clearly this man was a known danger. he had been diagnosed as a threat to society. a referral of his diagnosis to a district attorney could have led to a civil confinement.
how do we feel about depriving a person of liberty without an act or even a plan to act? moreover, it could be accomplished on a preponderance of the evidence standard. is there something un-american about this? who would serve as the thought police? or is it a practical step to avoid these horrific mass killings?
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