Love and Unhappiness in an Alien Culture
Virginia Tech and Cho Seung Hui
By JERRY KROTH
Hui was motivated by something else. He was deeply unhappy. He had no friends, none in high school, none in college. No friends in his entire adult life. He struggled with being Korean in a country which never accepted him. Never, in his mind, not ever.
And, sure, he wanted to have a girlfriend, but he didn't, not one, so he created an imaginary one. And in his virtual, insular world, he had a favorite song, one that he played over and over and over. I think it is appropriate to quote and read it in its entirety. This is what an assassin who killed 32 people on Monday listened to. It wasn't David Geffen's murder music after all. It was from Collective Soul:Give me a word
Give me a sign
Show me where to look
Tell what will I find ( will I find )
Lay me on the ground
Fly me in the sky
Show me where to look
Tell me what will I find ( will I find )
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
Love is in the water
Love is in the air
Show me where to go
Tell me will love be there ( love be there )
Teach me how to speak
Teach me how to share
Teach me where to go
Tell me will love be there ( love be there )
Oh, heaven let your light shine down
I'm going to let it shine
Heavens little light gonna shine on me
Yea yea heavens little light gonna shine on me
Its gonna shine, shine on me.
Once Cho Seung Hui was hopeful. He was waiting for love, hoping it would shine on him, but no matter how often he played it, and no matter how many imaginary girlfriends he conjured up, it never came. Two days ago, he gave up.
Perhaps instead of focusing on gun control, David Geffen, media violence, or beefing up campus security, we should look more closely at the alienation and lack of intimacy in American life. After her first visit to this country, Mother Teresa said the United States was the "loneliest" country she had ever been in. A recent Pew poll bears out her impressions by reporting that the number of Americans who have "no one to talk to about a personal issue" has more than doubled in just the last decade. We need to direct our attention to the lonely, depressed, alienated, and emotionally discarded segments of our society. There needs to be a sincere national dialogue about psychotherapy, mental health, and the absence of love in our society which gives rise to the evil that we all are trying to come to terms with today.
I think it would be wrong-headed to reduce his alienation to merely a question of race-relations and identity, and to make a big fuss about it, as if this would solve the problem, as those who desire political power by promoting race politics are wont to do. Rather, what needs to be done is for community to be restored, and to let people sort out these sort of questions for themselves. They may not get it right at first, but it is surely much better than having the Federal Government (at the behest of some powerful lobbying group) step in and try to eradicate suspicion, mistrust, ignorance and put in their place tolerance and even authentic virtues of justice and benevolence through social engineering.
Of course, this also requires a more just economic order, so that each individual will not be dependent upon the nanny state (or subject to the power of corporations, which is greater than that of individual racists) and not only regain economic independence, but a measure of self-respect through being responsible to himself and to his community. Are there any quick fix solutions to economic inequality due to racism, past and present? No. But I think that through relocalization, those who wish to provide for themselves and for their families and attain a decent standard of living will do so, and this will work towards easing tensions between different racial and ethnic groups.
Of course, for Christians, what is needed is for them to exercise charity towards others, and to provide an authentic and joyful witness to God.
No comments:
Post a Comment