Quantum Storytelling

I find it interesting that in the search for explanations into the Virginia Tech tragedy that everyone is focusing on the violent fiction of the shooter. It is only natural to want answers, but it often disgusts me that in the search for meaning, people focus in on these things.

I remember when Columbine happened, there was an uproar over the fact that the teen shooters had played the computer game DOOM. Yeah? So did millions of other teens who… *gasp* actually stayed sane and somehow managed to NOT shoot up their school!

Millions of people write or have written violent stories, just as millions play violent video games. It doesn’t even come close to explaining why a young man decided to kill a bunch of his fellow students.

Now any student who creatively expresses themselves by writing violent stories is going to be suspect as someone who might go on a rampage. I guarantee that violent fiction itself is going to become a central topic in the coming months.

I suppose it’s only natural for a society in shock and frustration over senseless deaths be motivated to go on a witch hunt. I know lots of people are hurting, and in addition, searching for answers. But let’s keep the search rational. There’s no need to knee-jerk into the realm of alarmism and censorship. But unfortunately everytime something like this happens, that’s exactly what we as a society do.

Cho Seung-Hui obviously had serious mental and emotional problems. Why can’t we leave it at that? What does his writing, or any writing, have to do with what his decision to mass murder? He made a condemnable choice of premeditated murder, and that’s all we really need to know. Why?

Because he was an unstable person. It’s not a great answer, but it’s probably the only rational one we’re going to get.