Collective Soul makes you want to kill

by Kris   ⋅   April 21, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

I hope this is the last blurb I post about Cho Seung-Hui, but this time it’s a quick opinion piece. Judge me if you will but some of the evidence supporting his “dementia” is pretty darn funny. For instance, his two roommates supposedly mentioned that Cho loved the song “Shine” by Collective Soul, incessantly playing it and scribbling the lyrics on his dorm room wall. I agree that liking that song is a sign of psychosis, but being a Collective Soul fan should be a personal Hell on its own.

I’m wondering though, if all of these family members, former teachers and classmates believed Seung-Hui was deranged and a threat to himself or others, why did they continue to dismiss him? Is it because our country idolizes babbly incoherent superficial freaks? Research even proved that the loudest citizens are falsely perceived to be the most intelligent, even if they are spouting rubbish. Whatever happened to “[b]etter to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”?

And I’m sure there are pages and pages of “sadistic” scrawl from hundreds of English majors/creative writing classes all across the nation; many famous authors, poets, screenwriters have infused violent imagery.

I just think it’s fascinating that everyone is rallying for a gun ban when it is so easy to learn how to make a bomb or purchase weapons illegally.

People are also quick to jump on terrorism ties as an explanation for the words “Ismail Ax” Cho inked on his arm, decreeing him a Muslim terrorist. Are they forgetting Cho was an English Lit major and there are a slew of books (Melville’s Moby Dick, Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael - a novel actually in the Virginia Tech curriculum) that describe a character named Ishmael who sets out to rectify humanity; some actually wield an ax (Ishmael Bush in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie). Author Ishmael Reed discusses racism in America. Maybe Cho had a beef with Armani Exchange. It could be a combination of things, who knows?

Also, Cho was diagnosed with Autism but that is rarely mentioned in the media. I would think that would be a key factor in not being able to cope with societal pressure and peers. And many a serial killer has sprung from the womb of intense devout Christian mothers like Cho’s. I’m no psychologist, but it seems to me that mass murderers with an intention to perpetuate societal analysis through martyrdom believe themselves to be the victims of their peers. In other words, they are not born overnight.

People just want a tidy little excuse, a scapegoat, like video games as the cause for Columbine.

I’ll leave you with the lyrics for “Shine” so you can decide if that is a killer’s theme:

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 (x4)

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 (x4)

I’m going to let it shine (x2)
Heavens little light gonna shine on me
Yea yea heavens little light gonna shine on me
Its gonna shine, shine on me
Its gonna shine, come on in shine

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