Politics: Va Tech

32 + 1. = 33.

every few days, somewhere in the middle east, some young man, ranging from 16 to 30 in age, straps a bomb on his chest, in his car, in a bag, and walks into a crowd. boom.

we in america watch in the distance, mildly saddened, but tempered by distance. by the certainty that it is baghdad, kabul, jerusalem. then madrid, london, new york.

then finally it becomes irrational. finally there is no more politics. no more agenda. no more cause. just a maniacally depressed young man with two guns and a desire to end lives.

and this we don't understand.

is it fair to call Cho a martyr? no, not to us. just as suicide bombers aren't martyrs to us. but to some other alienated kid out there, someone watching the news and receiving the tapes on a different frequency, who's hearing it in the suburban american version of jihad-dom, there is the martyr's message: hedonism, vodka, sex, U.S.A.

truth is: we don't understand suicide bombers. and, after all the forensics is done, we won't understand suicide shooters. we'll just have to accept that for some, there is a sense of alienation so strong that it must be resisted against by any means necessary. this is durkeimian anomie, the fit of not fitting, a collective subculture of people who hate culture. counter-culture with guns instead of guitars.

he's silent, but he's not alone. there's others out there. and that. that is frightening.