Why do such sickening things happen?

I was waiting for it, and today it transpired in at least one report I’ve read on the Virginia Tech “massacre”. What I was anticipating was for the suspect in the hideous madness to be called a “troubled loner.” A troubled loner who gave signs galore that something upstairs had slipped a cog and trouble just might be a-brewing.

That, according to accounts, was definitely the case with Cho Seung-Hui, who is believed to have been the perpetrator of the largest act of academic terrorism thus far in history. All the signs were there, reports indicate, including creative writing exercises in which he decried the “debauchery” on campus, railed against rich kids, suffered a grievous sense of rejection, and showed all the trappings of the wack-jobs at Columbine, Montreal and everywhere else such bits of hideousness have taken place.

Cho had been referred to the school’s counselling services, but it’s unclear what was recommended. But, in light of commentaries from those who knew him, it becomes agonizingly clear that he had a fuse that was burning down rapidly and that he should have been removed from the campus at any of those hints.

I’m neither psychiatrist nor psychologist, so I’ll leave such matters up to the experts like Drs. Serani and Tempest, both of whom we’re privileged to have as fellow bloggers, and Dr. Deb has some good insights and references in her blog of today, but I can only say that the mental meanderings of those who would do such a thing go beyond any speculation I can offer here.

FBI profiling expert, John Douglas, in The Anatomy of Motive offers some insights into the mental workings of the mass murderer, which Cho is alleged to have been, and Douglas points out that the mass murderer is a different breed of cat from a serial killer or a spree killer, and certainly different from an assassin, who has a specific target in mind. At the same time, however, we are still left with the question ‘why?’ A profiler can suss out ‘who’ they guy is (and it’s invariably a male), but to me they don’t come close to addressing why somebody does such a ghastly thing.

The point is, the huge majority of us would never dream of taking a life. We might be called upon to do so if we are combat soldiers or law enforcement officers, but to take a life, even in the line of duty, is agonizing, even for the most hardened.

Sure, we’ve all been enraged. We’ve even thought “I could kill him or her for doing that,” but we would never do so. During a very stressful time of my life, following the break-up of a marriage, I was asked by a counsellor I was seeing if I felt suicidal. I responded in the negative. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. He then asked, which surprised me, if I felt homicidal. “Good God, no!” was my immediate response. No matter how angry I had been in the preceding weeks, such a thought literally never entered my consciousness. “I had to check,” he responded.

Sometimes I’ve thought that if somebody were to threaten my wife or child, I could take their life in terms of protecting my nearest and dearest. I say that. I don’t really know if I could. I’d want to, but I still don’t know if I could.

This is a rambling offering because such human tragedies send the mind in many directions.