We Are Virginia Tech

Chris Berry

Brent Jesiek

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Stop the Violence

Thursday, April 19th, 2007

While we spent the last two weeks railing at each other about racial insults, sexist jokes, hip hop music, apologies that won't fly, and weighty matters related to the First Amendment, a deranged college student sat plotting the mass murder of his classmates along with his own suicide on the idyllic campus of Virginia Tech.

Now that the fog of horror is beginning to lift everyone is scrambling to find someone to point a finger at.

Last week rap music was to blame for the arsenal of racist and sexist insults that are at the disposal of shock jocks like Don Imus. This week the NRA and Hollywood are to blame. The NRA, says the Left, makes it possible for mentally sick young men like Cho Seung-Hui to get his hands on an arsenal of weapons to act out their private fantasies of murder and suicide. At the same time, says the Right, Hollywood is to blame for churning out an arsenal of violent movies like Quentin Tarantino "Grindhouse" that feed our appetite for carnage and violence.

Nothing like hateful speech and violent rampages to keep things in perspective.

If we're going to blame NRA, Hollywood, or even video games we all have some blame to shoulder. Lord knows, ours is culture that is fascinated with violence.

I am as liable as the next person for indulging in the guilty pleasurable pasttime of watching crime dramas on television every week (e.g., Law and Order, CSI, Cold Case). I don't know when it happened. Recant: I do know. But that's another story. What I also know is that figuring out the motivation behind the murder is half the" fun" of watching the crime show. But the rampage at Virginia Tech is a sobering wake up call, or it should be.

It doesn't matter what "motivated" the gunman behind the Virginia Tech shooting. I won't join the media detectives in pouring over the identity of the killer's family and the putative ethnic nature of his rage, nor do I care to watch as journalists shove a microphone in the face of every person who ever bumped up against him in the hallway or try reconstructing what he had for breakfast the morning of his rampage. Besides, we haven't bothered to do the same type of psychological and cultural analysis upon those who four years ago committed our youth to the bloodbath and carnage reported weekly out of Iraq. Enough.

Stop the violence by keeping up the protest against pro-gun lobbyists and by boycotting movies that showcase gratuitous violence. Better time is spent praying for the tortured souls that commit these acts of violence. Stop the violence by turning it off in ourselves. After tragedies like the one this week, says one Virginia Tech student who also survived the Columbine massacre of ten years ago this week, normalcy never returns.

After a steady diet of violence all these years, can any of us say what normal — or decency and civility, for that matter — is anymore?

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Original Source: Something Within by Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems
<a href="http://www.somethingwithin.com/blog/?cat=73">http://www.somethingwithin.com/blog/?cat=73</a>

This work is licensed under a
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License</a>.

Rev. Dr. Renita J. Weems

2008-02-11

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States

eng

The Virginia Tech Shootings: A Case for Redundant Communications

<b>By Fred Burton</b>
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

Campus police at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., on April 17 identified the perpetrator of the shooting rampage on campus a day earlier as South Korean English student Cho Seung Hui. Thirty-three people died as a result of the attack and several others were injured, some seriously.

The shooting began about 7:15 a.m. on the fourth floor of co-ed dormitory West Ambler Johnston Hall. According to reports, Cho shot and killed his girlfriend and then a resident assistant who responded to the sound of the shots. Police were investigating those shootings when Cho stormed Norris Hall, a classroom building some half a mile away, and opened fire on faculty and students, killing another 30 people. The rampage ended when Cho killed himself.

Authorities have not released many of the details of the attack, though several important points can be ascertained from the known facts. Given the history of school and university shootings in the United States, the certainty that others will occur and the warning from the FBI about a possible <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=260207">Beslan-style </a> militant attack, the lessons from the Virginia Tech attack can be instructive - perhaps even lifesaving.

<b>Methodical Planning</b>

First, the shooting was planned in advance and methodically executed. This conclusion is supported by the fact that Cho carried two pistols and loads of ammunition, that he went directly to another building for the second phase of the attack and that he used chains to secure the main doors to Norris Hall before opening fire. The chains served to keep targets inside the building and to impede the entry of responding law enforcement officers. Cho had studied the building and planned accordingly.

Although criticism has begun over the level of security at Norris Hall, and Virginia Tech in general, attacks of this nature cannot be prevented by security devices and programs. Educational institutions, especially sprawling universities, are soft targets that cannot be hermetically sealed like a federal penitentiary. As such, prison-style security measures would be not only impractical, stifling and prohibitively expensive, but also ultimately ineffective — because even tight security cannot stop a determined, suicidal attacker.

On campuses, even the best physical security measures — closed-circuit television coverage, metal detectors, identification badges, locks and so forth — have finite utility. These measures serve a valuable purpose, but they cannot stand alone. For one thing, the technology cannot evaluate and react. Also, it can be observed, learned and even fooled. Moreover, because some systems frequently produce false alarms, warnings in real danger situations can be brushed aside. Given these shortcomings, it is quite possible for anyone planning an act of violence to map out, quantify and then defeat or bypass physical security devices. In fact, security devices can be relied on too much, resulting in a <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=271340">false sense of security</a>.

History shows us that even adding guards into the mix is not enough to prevent attacks. The March 2005 <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=246560">shooting</a> in Red Lake, Minn., demonstrates that even strict access-control measures, such as ID badges, metal detectors and security guards, can be circumvented -or neutralized. In Red Lake, the security guard was the first person killed.

<b>Indicators of Planning</b>

In past cases, school shooters often have given prior warnings as to their intentions. In other words, they did not just "snap" and go on a killing spree. In most cases, their attacks were methodically planned, often over a long period of time. Jeff Weise, the teenage student arrested for the Minnesota shootings, allegedly spent more than a year planning his attack, including conducting walk-through rehearsals and noting the location of security cameras. Weise also had help from a friend, who eventually pleaded guilty to transmitting threatening messages via the Internet.

As in <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=248076">workplace attacks</a>, one of the biggest contributing factors to school shootings is the failure to identify the warning signs or to take the signs (even obvious ones) seriously. Because of this, following the April 1999 Columbine shooting, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Secret Service conducted an extensive study of school shootings and developed educational materials that have helped raise the awareness of such warning signs.

The warning signs include sudden changes in a person&#39;s behavior, his or her decreased productivity, withdrawal from friends or the sudden display of negative traits, such as irritation, poor hygiene or snapping at or abusing fellow students. Perhaps the most indicative signs that serious trouble is looming are talk about suicide and/or the expression of actual or veiled threats. In most previous cases, especially those involving detailed planning, the factors leading to the violent outburst have built up over a long time. These factors have included failed romantic relationships, stress from family relationships, failing grades or perceived injustice at the hands of peers or teachers. As was highlighted in the Columbine case, quite often the shooter fantasizes about committing the attack for some time and even shares those fantasies with a friend or via an online form such as a blog or Web site.

Due to the government&#39;s educational efforts, several attacks have been foiled by people who have recognized and reported the warning signs to authorities. Of course in some cases, the signs have been as blatant as students sharing their plans for an attack in advance with their friends or warning other students not to go to school on a certain day.

Although the details of the events leading up to the Virginia Tech shooting are not yet clear, Cho apparently spent quite some time planning his attack, which strongly suggests he gave some indication of his intent that was not recognized or that he even made threats that went unheeded. There are now unconfirmed reports that Cho set at least one fire on campus, that he had stalked a student, that he had been sent for counseling and that he was taking an antidepressant. At least some of these indicators likely are true, and we anticipate that others will surface as the investigation into the attack progress.

<b>Warning Systems</b>

Some of the most critical comments about the Virginia Tech administration have centered on the long delay in notifying the faculty and student body that a shooter was at large, that the eventual warning was not transmitted to all and that it was confusing to those who did receive it.

One source at Virginia Tech said many people received no warning and that communication of the event was "very much a case of who had cell phone or wireless devices before the system was overloaded and crashed." In some university buildings, such as the library, the public address system is not used to convey emergency instructions. The source said the result was that large clusters of students "seemed to be caught between orders to go inside and some sort of building evacuation instructions," and thus remained outside. This confusion was cleared up once police began using the PA systems on their vehicles to convey clear instructions to the students.

So perhaps one of the biggest lessons from this attack will be the need for large institutions to have redundant and overlapping notification systems that will convey clear and consistent instructions. Such systems could incorporate e-mail notification, text messages and public address systems. Of course any such system would have to be routinely tested and refined to become more effective.

<b>Contingency Planning</b>

Historically, incidents of school shootings tend to spawn similar attacks so that three or four major incidents occur within a few weeks of one another. Given that precedent, the FBI&#39;s current concerns over a mass attack against a school, and the April 20 anniversary of the Columbine attack (which also is Adolf Hitler&#39;s birthday), it would be prudent for university security directors, local school boards, parents and students to review or establish emergency plans.

Like 9/11, the massive 2003 <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=221262">U.S. power outage</a> and <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=254863">Hurricane Katrina</a>, the confusion evidenced in Blacksburg highlights the need for <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=248481">contingency plans</a> in the event of an accident, natural disaster or attack by criminals or militants.

Such plans are important not only for corporations and schools, but also for families and individuals. Furthermore, there should be a plan for each regular location — home, work and school — that outlines what each person will do and where they will go should they be forced to evacuate. This means establishing meeting points for family members who might be split up — and backup points in case the first one also is affected by the disaster.

When such incidents occur, the ensuing chaos often results in difficulty communicating, as cell phone and regular phone circuits become overwhelmed with traffic. The lack of ability to communicate with loved ones can greatly enhance the panic felt during a crisis. Perhaps the most value derived from having a personal and family contingency plan is a reduction in the amount of stress that results from not being able to immediately contact a loved one. Knowing that everyone is following the plan — and that contact eventually will be established — frees each person to concentrate on the more pressing issue of evacuation.

Because of this, communication is an important part of any such plan, and redundant forms of communication must be established in advance. Past crises such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have shown that even if cell phone and regular phone circuits are jammed, text messages and e-mail frequently will continue to work. This means that every member of the family, including technophobes, must learn to use text messaging and e-mail. While no emergency plan can account for every eventuality, such plans do provide a framework from which to work, even during times of panic.

The open nature of schools and universities makes preventing attacks on campuses extremely difficult — though a student body, faculty and staff that know the warning signs can be a vital line of defense. Once an attack begins, proper communications and well-designed contingency plans can minimize the casualty count.

<b>Distribution and Reprints</b>

This report may be distributed or republished with attribution to Strategic Forecasting, Inc. at <a href="http://www.stratfor.com/">www.stratfor.com</a>.

For media requests, partnership opportunities, or commercial distribution or republication, please contact <a href="mailto://pr@stratfor.com/">pr@stratfor.com</a>.

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Original Source: <a href="http://crackerboy.us/emergency-preparedness-checklist/virginia-tech-shootings/">http://crackerboy.us/emergency-preparedness-checklist/virginia-tech-shootings/</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License</a>.

Fred Burton

2007-09-22

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

eng

Where do we go now?

Sometimes I can be really eloquent. Giving a toast at a wedding, a briefing at work; I can really hit the post. I&#39;ve been wanting to write about how I feel here for two days. But I haven&#39;t, stopped by disbelief, the taxes I couldn&#39;t bring myself to finish on Monday, and the belief that I wouldn&#39;t adequately be able to put together words to explain what Blacksburg and Tech have meant to me.

That picture, <a href="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/6929893_3276db6dfb_m.jpg">http://farm1.static.flickr.com/5/6929893_3276db6dfb_m.jpg</a>, is of a couple of my old room mates Jeff (in glasses) and Donnie tailgating at the Tech - USC game in August of 2004. I graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986, with a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies. 20 plus years later, we are still close friends. Probably closer than we were in school. We vacation together, are godparents to each others kids, and watch football obviously.

Blacksburg is a special place. When you&#39;re there, you might not realize how special. It&#39;s beautiful, peaceful and even knows how to have a good time. I have idyllic (and therefore heavily filtered) memories of my time at school. I think that&#39;s why all of my old room mates and I are still such good friends. When you leave Blacksburg, you realize that the real world isn&#39;t so beatiful, isn&#39;t so peaceful, isn&#39;t so special. And you reach out and hold on to whatever can give you a little of that Blacksburg feeling again. After 20 years you&#39;ll still see most of the alumni I know dressed pretty much like the kids you&#39;ve been watching on TV this week. Virginia Tech Sweatshirts and Hats are ubiguitous.

Returning to Blacksburg, was to drink in that atmosphere, to rejuvenate the energy that the real world has sapped from you. Coming around the 460 bypass and seeing the mountains rise up beyond campus elated me. A burger at Mike&#39;s, a pitcher at Hokie House, a walk across campus returned me to the man of my youth. And now that bastard has let so much of the real world into Blacksburg, where it doesn&#39;t belong and isn&#39;t welcome.

It&#39;s amazing the lasting ties that we have to Tech. One old college friend is an agronomy professor there now. I spent Monday morning exchanging emails with him as he was locked in his office. Today I can&#39;t help but think about all the students that I met at his tailgate last Fall. Jeff, I&#39;m sure, knew Dr. Librescu. Three or four of the victims so far have been international studies majors. The statistical improbability of that I can&#39;t explain. I graduated in a class of 6,000 with only 12 other international studies majors.

Soon the news vans will leave, hopefully the TV movie vans won&#39;t come right behind them, and we can all hope that the ugliness of the real world ebbs back out of town. God bless the victims, the heroes, the students, everyone.

Ut Prosim.

posted by Paulie @ 07:02 April 18, 2007

Permalink: <a href="http://paultrumble.blogspot.com/2007/04/where-do-we-go-now-sometimes-i-can-be.html">http://paultrumble.blogspot.com/2007/04/where-do-we-go-now-sometimes-i-can-be.html</a>

Paul Trumble

2007-08-19

Paul Trumble

eng

Virginia Tech Massacre--Finding Peace

Sometimes I&#39;m just amazed at the ignorance of people. I&#39;ve come across many blog entries that are outright idiotic but usually chalk it up to &#39;that&#39;s where they&#39;re coming from&#39; or &#39;everyone&#39;s entitled to their opinion&#39;. However, some Erie bloggers recently have been spewing forth complete garbage that needs to be addressed. The gist is this: those students killed at Virginia Tech were partly to blame for their death by not fighting back. Underlying this is the premise that American&#39;s have been lulled into submission and taught not to self-defend. I reject this in all of its absurdity and callousness.

I was absolutely furious this morning after reading these two Erie bloggers, <a href="http://www.sassafrassin.com/?p=636">Sassafrassin </a>and <a href="http://koderas-korner.blogspot.com/2007/04/somebody-has-to-say-it.html">Kodera</a>, for their statements. To try and disguise their comments as intellectual or serious commentary would be disingenuous. Flat out, they are out of line and need to be called out on their statements and insinuations. Disregarding the fact that no one really knows what was going on in the minds of those who were murdered, but to turn around and somehow place the blame on them is reprehensible. It&#39;s disgusting. It&#39;s obscene. Although part of me realizes that what is going on here are people trying to understand and give meaning to what is completely senseless and without explanation, these kinds of statements reveal underlying problems of our society. Not only does it reveal a deeper violent tendency, but a lack of ability for compassion and understanding--both of which are essential to Peace in this world. To these two bloggers, who seem to be professedly conservative (and at least one has expressed he is Christian), Jesus Christ would be considered a liberal pansy for allowing himself to be executed and for making the statement, "If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also." Instead we&#39;re all expected to be like warriors in some Hollywood flick, living up to superficial ideals.

You know, part of my response and anger to these two bloggers has to do with the fact that I&#39;m confused and angry about what happened as well. But I hope that I have enough sense to step back and to see the humanity of it all but more importantly God in all of this. While working out at the gym, I was randomly watching the overhead television sets when a particular segment on Good Morning America caught my eye. A <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/VATech/story?id=3055979&page=1">young woman</a> who almost found herself killed and even lost a friend in the massacre said this: "I lost, I lost a friend. I lost one of the girls in my Bible study. And I know, I know, I know that she&#39;s already forgiven him. I know she was probably praying for him when he was in her classroom and when he was shooting people." I was shocked when I saw that she said this and also said herself that she wants to forgive as well. Instead of placing blame or expressing hatred, this young woman has a sense clarity and perspective that those of us could only hope to have. Also, if you watch the video of her accounting of what happened, I think you&#39;ll see how ridiculous these two bloggers suggestions are.

We should be trying to do more good in this world, not talk about how if we would be in the situation of those students at Virginia Tech how we would beat our chest and smash someone&#39;s skull in. Violence begets violence and this kind of discourse only sustains the miserable status quo. Instead of trying to blame one another, we should be supporting each other through prayer and solace.

Here&#39;s something you can do if you&#39;re feeling helpless after this tragic event: do something nice for a complete stranger this week if the opportunity arises--hold the door longer than you normally would, resist flipping off that driver who cut you off, or buy that homeless guy a cup of coffee or a sandwich. Your act doesn&#39;t have to raise to the level of heroic--just human. It&#39;s all that we can expect of each other.

Posted by <a href="http://richardz.com/contact.php">RichardZ.com </a> on April 19, 2007 11:46 AM | <a href="http://richardz.com/blog_archive/2007/04/virginia_tech_massacrefinding_peace.php">Permalink</a>

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Original Source: RichardZ.com
<a href="http://richardz.com/blog_archive/2007/04/virginia_tech_massacrefinding_peace.php">http://richardz.com/blog_archive/2007/04/virginia_tech_massacrefinding_peace.php</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States</a>.

RichardZ

2007-08-09

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States

eng

Status Anxiety Pt. 2: How Did We Get Here...How Do We Get Out

<b>Yesterday we talked about Status Anxiety and how it related to the Virginia Tech shootings. Today we continue talking about it and focus in on Alain de Button&#39;s book by the same title <i>Status Anxiety</i>.</b>

Part of understanding Status anxiety is viewing the transition from status that was given by heredity to a system where people who don&#39;t earn status are seen as failures. The example used in Alain de Button&#39;s book is that of Christianity the major religion of western societies and the one that the VT shooter ranted about in the infamous videos sent to NBC.

The gospels have three stories that Jesus told during his life time that provide an example of how people were viewed. The first story is summarized as, "The poor are not responsible for their condition and are the most useful in society." The second story says, "Low status has no moral connotations," and the final story says, "The rich are sinful and corrupt and owe their wealth to their robbery of the poor," aka, "It is harder for a rich man to enter heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle."

Now contrast those with the stories that have emerged in our western societies. The first of these says, "The rich are the useful ones, not the poor." The second says, "One&#39;s status does have moral connotations," and the final alteration to the stories surmises that, "The poor are sinful and corrupt and owe their poverty to their stupidity."

This is a form of meritocracy. In this system, "all persons, however humble, know they have had every chance...If they have been labeled dunce repeatedly they cannot any longer pretend...Are they not bound to recognize that they have an inferior status, not as in the past because they were denied opportunity, but because they ARE inferior."

All of this plays into the recent shootings because something of this magnitude generates questions that demand answers. Questions like, how could this have be prevented? What causes people to act out in such a violent fashion? Is there anything that we can do to prevent these types of incidents in the future?

The shooter at Virginia Tech really doesn&#39;t stand out from other recent school shootings because in each case the shooters had similar personalities. Whether we are thinking of the killers from Columbine or the most recent shooting at Virginia Tech the common thread is people who are unhappy about their status in life. So how do we stop this from happening again? How do we beat this.

Alain de Botton shares some suggestions that have worked in the past and continue to work in various degrees. He lists these as philosophy, intelligent misanthropy, art, Christianity, and finally bohemia. The book goes into great detail on each of these solutions, but the common theme is that they help people find value in their lives despite what those around them might be saying or despite what society at large is pushing upon them.

John Ruskin is quoted in Button&#39;s book and in my estimation does a good job summing up the problem and the solution. He says, "There is not wealth but life, life including all its powers of love, of joy and of admiration. That country is richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest who, having perfected the function of his own life to the utmost."

My hope is that the few people that read this stop comparing themselves to everyone else and start living their lives. John Lennon famously said, "Life is what happens when you&#39;re busy making other plans. " Could this be translated as &#39;life is what happens when we&#39;re comparing ourselves to others?&#39; I know I too have experienced this reality. The hope is that in the future we will learn to recognize more situations that are happening right here right now. Personally I would be fine with becoming successful or popular or even having money. In fact I think status anxiety in moderation is a good thing. I just don&#39;t want you and I to HAVE to get rich, famous, or powerful to view our lives as a success. I&#39;m sure that the VT shooter was a disturbed person and might have needed hospitalization, medication, and more but there are other people out there right now who just want to be recognized for the person they are . Can&#39;t we do more of this? I for one am going to try.

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 12:29AM <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/display/ShowAuthorProfile?registeredAuthorId=47619&rootReturnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hiphoosier.com%2Fthe-beat%2F2007%2F5%2F3%2Fstatus-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html">AJ Meyer</a>

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Original Source: <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html">http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5</a>.

AJ Meyer

2007-08-05

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5

eng

Status Anxiety and What Happened at Virginia Tech Pt. 1

<p>By now the mass media has inundated you with coverage of the Virginia Tech massacre, but I don&#39;t want to rehash the details of the event. I want to take a deeper look at a possible motive. Some people will argue about gun control, or the failure of the mental health community. While these are salient issues they miss what I gathered from the videos to be an overarching reason behind his rampage. He like many school gunman before him felt inferior to his peers. He turned this "status anxiety" inward until it manifested in a maniacal rampage.

Status Anxiety, I&#39;m pretty sure that the people living in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4359904.stm">Rublyovo</a> know all about it. From what I&#39;ve heard Los Angeles is right up there too (I&#39;ll let you know this summer). Increasingly and unexpectedly another type of high status local has begun to emerge in previously quite towns like Bloomington, IN. That&#39;s right, university towns are working hard to be included in the same breathe as other high status locals. It used to be that college was a time when people ate ramen and being "poor" was rite of passage. Not anymore. I&#39;m sure that some students still have a tough time at college, but increasingly the term poor college kid is a joke. Youth and excess money make these towns the perfect starting place for status anxiety.

Before we go on lets give a quick explanation of status anxiety before I am labeled a communist and you quit reading. The basis of the problem can be summed up by William James&#39;s simple equation</p>
<p align="center" style="text-align: center;">Self Esteem =&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <u>Success </u><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Expectations</p><p id="nq">The problem is that in our modern society expectations continue to rise at rates that are unattainable for most people. This creates a rise in levels of status anxiety which translates into a rise in levels of concern about importance, achievement, and income. What happens then is that self-esteem suffers. People feel anxious about their lives. They feel that life is not amounting to what they expected. In the worst case scenarios like the one at Virginia Tech people take out their frustrations on others who they perceive as having the success they so desire. One University of Kentucky student put it this way "I think the biggest pressure would probably be social. Being at the right bars or parties on the weekend and then for girls the right fashion, outside the sorority I guess it would probably be the same."

These feelings are all part of a trend that has been going on for some time now. One author Alain de Botton in his book titled <em>Status Anxiety </em>identifies the ignominious nature of this problem. He notes that the sharp decline in actual deprivation found in many western societies paradoxically increases the sense of deprivation and fear of it. Even in America a nation blessed with riches and possibilities far beyond those imaginable to our ancestors we continue to believe that nothing is ever enough.

Now you might being say to yourself I have no desire to be Donald Trump, but what if one of your closest friends got rich. Take for example this weeks episode of the HBO uberstatus series <a href="http://www.hbo.com/entourage/episode/season03/episode38.html">Entourage.</a> In the episode Ari (rich Hollywood agent) has an old friend come for a visit. He believes that his old frat buddy is managing a Hooters somewhere back east. When he finds out that he made 65 million dollars from stamps.com and got a beautiful young fiance he gets jealous. Botton makes note of this psychological phenomenon that sees us comparing ourselves mostly to our closest friends our "reference group". It is their relative successes that creates the most status anxiety.

In Part 2 tomorrow we look more closely a Bottons reasons for how we got here and how we can break free from our status anxiety. <span class="sizeGreater20">Pt. 2 Tomorrow (<a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/3/status-anxiety-pt-2-how-did-we-get-herehow-do-we-get-out.html" target="_blank">Click Here</a>)</span>

Posted on Wednesday, May 2, 2007 at 12:26AM by <a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/display/ShowAuthorProfile?registeredAuthorId=47619&rootReturnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hiphoosier.com%2Fthe-beat%2F2007%2F5%2F2%2Fstatus-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html">AJ Meyer</a>

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Original Source:
<a href="http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/2/status-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html">http://www.hiphoosier.com/the-beat/2007/5/2/status-anxiety-and-what-happened-at-virginia-tech-pt-1.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5</a>.</p>

AJ Meyer

2007-08-05

Brent Jesiek

eng

What If It Happened Every Day?

By Keith Boykin, in <a href="http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/politics/">politics</a>
Tuesday, April 17 2007, 10:24AM

The news was gruesome and alarming. Reuters reported that at least <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM628011.htm">30 people</a> were shot yesterday in a deadly gun rampage that rocked a city once known for its <a href="http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/baghdad.htm">safety</a> and <a href="http://islam.about.com/cs/history/a/aa040703a.htm">scholarship</a>. By now, you&#39;ve heard about the story, and many of us have already stopped paying attention.

But I&#39;m not talking about the deadly school shooting in Virginia Monday morning. I&#39;m talking about the deadly violence in <a href="http://icasualties.org/oif/IraqiDeaths.aspx">Iraq</a> that goes on everyday. While most of the world was understandably horrified by the campus shooting at Virginia Tech yesterday, almost no one paid attention to the 30 people who were <a href="http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAM628011.htm">shot and killed</a> in Baghdad on the same day. The shock and horror of watching such dramatic violence in Virginia immediately resonated with Americans. But here&#39;s something else to ponder. What if it happened every day? What if we saw that kind of carnage in our communities every night on the evening news? It sounds far-fetched, but that&#39;s exactly the situation that faces many Iraqis almost every day of the year.

If the shooting in Virginia tells us anything about human society, it should tell us that violence is far too common in the world. It&#39;s not just an American problem or an Iraqi problem, it is a global problem. What kind of world do we live in where young students have virtually unfettered access to sophisticated deadly weapons that can be used to kill their classmates and teachers? And how did we become desensitized to the tens of thousands of civilian casulaties in a war we&#39;re still fighting in Baghdad?

I don&#39;t think it is possible to stop every murder or every killing that takes place in this country or abroad, but I do believe we have a responsibility to promote the conditions for peace.

For all the talk about our Christian values in America, we are an extraordinarily violent society. The FBI reported <a href="http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_01.html">1.4 million</a> violent crimes in the U.S. in 2005 and more than 16,000 murders. That&#39;s a drop from the record high figures in the early 1990s but it shows that we are still far too violent.

Through elective wars, capital punishment, gang violence, and media depictions of violence, we demonstrate our collective societal preference for violence as a solution to our problems. I don&#39;t know what motivated the young student in Virginia to shoot up his classmates, and I don&#39;t know what motivates the suicide bombers in Iraq to blow up their neighbors. But I do know that we have a duty to promote peace in this country and abroad.

Imagine the impact that could be made if America lead an international campaign for peace instead of a war on terror. Imagine the goodwill we could generate if we diverted some of the $500 billion we&#39;ve spent on war in recent years so that we could build hospitals, schools, and housing throughout the undeveloped world.

Imagine the difference it might make if our leaders dropped some of the macho rhetoric and talked about service, duty and community responsibility? I know there will be much discussion in the next few days about gun control and mental health counseling and legislation, and I welcome that conversation. But we should also ask ourselves about the world we&#39;ve created and what each of us can do to make it better and more peaceful.

The Virginia shooting was shocking, in part, because it was so unusual. Unlike the Iraqis, we&#39;re not accustomed to seeing such large-scale violence on a regular basis. Or, more precisely, we&#39;re not accustomed to seeing it here in the United States, because clearly we know it&#39;s happening in Iraq. But what if it happened here everyday? That might be the tragic catalyst that would finally inspire us to do something positive and constructive about the violence in our country and the rest of the world.

It would be tempting to point to the shooter in Blacksburg and isolate him as the problem. But the problem and the solution don&#39;t lie outside of us. They answers are within.

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Original Source: keithboykin.com
<a href="http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2007/04/17/what_if_it_happ">http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2007/04/17/what_if_it_happ</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0</a>.

Keith Boykin

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 1.0

eng

Virginia tech shooting

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

A nutcase shot 32 people and himself in Virginia tech. He was a loner, was obsessed with violence, and left some notes blaming "rich kids" and "debauchery" (that is, disapproved of other people having more money and getting laid more often than himself - which is a rather common human emotion, but most people don&#39;t go postal because of it).

The university is being blamed for not acting fast enough on the day of the shooting. I don&#39;t know if they should be blamed for it - I am sure an investigation will find out, one way or another - but what I would like to know is how come the university did not do anything after the guy harassed a few women and set fire to the dorm. (Maybe there is some good answer to that, too.)

The man has also written two plays that the readers found very violent and highly disturbing. <a href="http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/">Here they are.</a> I have read them and have not found them particularly violent or disturbing: they are rather violent, but I and people I know have written worse without shooting anyone, and they are quite angry in a teenagery way, but nothing really out of ordinary. They would not have rung a warning bell with me. I wonder if that&#39;s just me being desensitized to violence, or the people did not really see anything scary about them earlier and are just having a flash of hindsight now, or do the creative writing teachers and students see warnings much more efficiently than ordinary people like myself.

There was a lot of conversation of gun control after this. I have no strong opinion on gun control one way or the other, at least as long as it does not interfere with my pistol shooting hobby (and currently in Finland it doesn&#39;t), but after seeing several people in the US point out that the gunman could have been stopped earlier if any of the students or teachers had a gun on them, and several of my friends on IRC make fun of this argument, I must say that those people in the US really do have a point:

I don&#39;t, generally speaking, believe that an armed society is a polite society. It&#39;s a tradeoff: on one hand, if you outlaw guns only outlaws will have them, on the other hand it might well be safer when only the serious outlaws have guns than when every teenage hooligan has them.

However, if we already are in a state where people are allowed to buy and carry firearms freely, banning guns from a small area like a university campus really will lead to a situation where everyone who is up to no good can have a gun, and no law-abiding citizen will. The worst of both worlds.

Posted by Vera at <a href="http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html">4/18/2007 12:40:00 PM</a>

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Original Source: Vera&#39;s log
<a href="http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html">http://izrailit.blogspot.com/2007/04/virginia-tech-shooting.html</a>

This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License</a>.

Vera Izrailit

2007-07-17

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License

eng

Guns Don&#39;t Kill People, Kids Who Play Video Games Kill People...

April 18, 2007

<i>I apologize in advance for the tone of this piece. I thoroughly appreciate the devastating gravity of the situation, and I extend my heartfelt condolences to those families and friends affected.</i>

Blacksburg, Virginia.

Less than a week ago, nothing would have sprung to mind. In fact, many would not even have known this small town existed.

Now, for obvious reasons, it&#39;s on the map.

The events of April 16 serve as a reminder - a reminder that society is imperfect; that society is unpredictable; and that society is unprepared.

In fairness to those involved, the events at Virgina Tech could not have been predicted with any ease. What happened was not a commonplace, run-of-the-mill, every-day happening.

I won&#39;t even go so far as to say that what happened could have been prevented - there is no reasonable way of knowing that. What I will do, however, is take a few quick shots at the aftermath.

Everyone has their own concocted theory on how to respond to this type of situation. Pat Brown, for example, argues that whoever was the owner of the weapons used in the attack should be held accountable for the deaths of each and every student and professor on Monday. She believes that somehow, this would prevent a psychopath from acquiring the weapons they would choose to employ for such causes.

The real world begs to differ, Pat.

What we need to take away from the Virginia Tech Massacre is very simple - there are people out there that need help. Guns didn&#39;t kill those students; the Asian man didn&#39;t kill those professors; what transpired at Virginia Tech is exactly what happened at Columbine, Taber, Montreal, and every other mass shooting.

These people were neglected.

Do I believe in any way that whatever circumstances the shooter may have been put through justify his actions? No. Reciprocity, particularly when it involves violence, solves nothing.

With that said, however, how do we take ownership of Monday&#39;s events? Do we pretend that this was an isolated incident - a single student lashing out at random? Did this man wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and decide that morning to take the lives of 32 innocent people?

I don&#39;t think so.

Society perpetuates the attitude and the atmosphere that leads these people to commit horrendous acts. If this young man had been cared for, appreciated, respected, and amongst friends, would there still be 32 innocent people dead? Would the thought ever have even crossed his mind that he could be capable of such an atrocity?

These murderers are not the product of their own tendencies - they are products of society, as are we all. Maybe they needed medical attention, or maybe they had deep-rooted psychological issues; that could absolutely be a contributing factor.

At the end of the day, however, someone pushed this young man over the edge, and was repaid in the most horrific kind.

DO NOT fool yourself into believing that we are not responsible for what happened. Each and every one of us, through our thoughts, words, or actions, could spur or prevent the next Virginia Tech. We point fingers at the school&#39;s administration, the local police, the county flower... ultimately, we must all hold ourselves and one-another accountable for the citizens we are.

Blacksburg, you have our thoughts and prayers. If nothing else, remember:

This too shall pass.

In mourning, this is BSPM, signing off.

Posted by keh619 on April 18, 2007 05:08 PM

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Original Source: <a href="http://blogs.usask.ca/politics/2007/04/guns_dont_kill.html">http://blogs.usask.ca/politics/2007/04/guns_dont_kill.html</a>

Licensed under <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0</a>.

keh619 / Tales of a Back Seat Prime Minster (blog)

2007-07-09

Brent Jesiek

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0

eng