the killer inside

when did fresh-faced boy james holmes become crazed killer james holmes?

murderers, maniacs and movie myths

thanks probably to a steady diet of "chiller theater", i've been fascinated by sociopaths for a long time. thankfully, most of them don't fall into the well-worn hollywood trope, i.e.; the hannibal-lecter-style genius super-predator.

however, unlike most real life homicidal maniacs, james holmes comes closer to the movie myth than most, since, unless he's suffered a recent drastic personality change into sociopathy, he has somehow managed to suppress his homicidal tendencies while advancing to a high degree of intellectual accomplishment.

but until his manifesto is found and/or holmes starts talking, this is all i'm ready to say about him. it is probably too early even to assume he's a sociopath.

see also:

"almost famous"

ritual sacrifices

while there's no sense to be found in a senseless massacre, these tragedies do happen for a reason. they happen because americans have collectively decided that our way of life is worth at least one or two senseless massacres a year.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by further restricting which people can buy which guns, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by further restricting which manufacturers can sell which guns, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by further restricting which people can buy and sell body armor, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by better tracking the violence-prone and the unstable, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by building more mental health facilities, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by reducing the violent content of our media, we've decided that it's not worth it.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by tightening security in public spaces, well, we're in the eleventh year of an experiment in doing just that.

if it's possible to prevent another massacre by expanding the government's police powers, again, we're in the eleventh year of an experiment in doing that too.

the one thing that we've decided that's worth doing, in lieu of most of the above, is engaging in a well-practiced national ritual: the nonstop replay of the crime; the mourning of the victims; the dissection of the killer; lastly, the hollow demands and promises of action, before returning numbly to whatever it is we do between the massacres. the ritual is necessary because we refuse admit to ourselves that we won't do anything else. the victims are the necessary sacrifices that allow the rest of us to continue enjoying the american way of life. the ritual is the necessary trade-off that allows us to trade away the guilt.

it is of course possible that there is actually nothing we can do or agree upon that will prevent another massacre, but who really believes that? so if this latest tragedy goes by without our acting meaningfully to prevent the next, it's because we've decided that it's not worth it — or maybe we think that it's worth at least one more senseless massacre.

some perspective

from juan cole:

i keep hearing from us politicians and the us mass media that the "situation is improving" in iraq. the profound sorrow and alarm produced in the american public by the horrific shootings at virginia tech should give us a baseline for what the iraqis are actually living through. they have two virginia tech-style attacks every single day. virginia tech will be gone from the headlines and the air waves by next week this time in the us, though the families of the victims will grieve for a lifetime. but next tuesday i will come out here and report to you that 64 iraqis have been killed in political violence. and those will mainly be the ones killed by bombs and mortars. they are only 13% of the total; most iraqis killed violently, perhaps 500 a day throughout the country if you count criminal and tribal violence, are just shot down. shot down, like the college students and professors at blacksburg. we americans can so easily, with a shudder, imagine the college student trying to barricade himself behind a door against the armed madman without. but can we put ourselves in the place of iraqi students?