On Hating Rich Kids . . . and More - The Virginia Tech shooter’s America problem.

National Review Online ^ | April 19, 2007 | Jerry Bowyer

[neverdem]

April 19, 2007, 1:08 a.m.

On Hating Rich Kids . . . and More
The Virginia Tech shooter’s America problem.

By Jerry Bowyer

We know a lot more now than we did on Monday. And we know for sure that Cho Seung-Hui had a problem with America. Today, of course, we are being bombarded by the contents of a package sent by the killer to the folks at NBC: videos, photos, writings, and ramblings — all disturbing and in their own way telling. But I contend that the play’s the thing.

Cho Seung-Hui wrote a viscerally anti-American play called “McBeef” in which a former NFL player and McDonald’s connoisseur sexually molests his stepson and then kills him. Early in the play the stepson rages against the stepfather, calling him a “pedophile” and repeatedly referring to him as “a Catholic priest.” In the eye of the author, pedophilia and Christianity are one in the same. The play also makes constant reference to the evil stepfather’s obesity; in the eye of the author we are all fat Americans who eat at McDonald’s.

The title of the play manages to swipe at Shakespeare and McDonald’s at the same time. Cho Seung-Hui punned Macbeth, the play in which an evil man kills his way to the top of the kingdom. However, he pilfered Hamlet, a story in which a vile man murders the king, takes the queen as his wife, and ultimately kills the son. “McBeef” is about a sick nation; it attempts to inform us that something’s rotten in the state of America. But what we discover is the rot in the killer’s head.

Envy, deep and powerful, comes through it all. Resentment against our society. Christianity, capitalism, and sports all take their hits. This was a man who hated the American regime — our very way of life. And he took a Muslim name to register his discontent — Ismail, the preferred Arab spelling of “Ishmael,” Abraham’s first son, the disinherited son who took second place to the wealthy Isaac.

Do I blame Islam for Cho Seung-Hui? No. He was a curse on Islam, not the other way around. Do I blame films such as Super Size Me for his extreme and bizarre attitudes toward the eating habits of a good many Americans? No again. Do I blame the New York Times and its obsession with wealth-inequality for his hatred of “rich kids”? No, once more.

But I will go this far: There is a rising tide of resentment in our country against the so-called “rich,” and Christianity, and a Big Mac with fries. Talk-show hosts, op-ed writers, documentarians, and authors of all stripes take part in it. They speak to psychologically healthy audiences, although the bent and wicked are listening in too.

Cho Seung-Hui, it seems to this writer and radio host, was exposed to all of it. He gulped the resentment in the air, chewed it over in the dark corners of his soul, and then released it in a torrent of rage. He alone is responsible for his actions, but our society can either stir up hatred or pour oil on troubled waters. Unfortunately we’ve gotten better at the former and worse at the latter.

It’s like poisonous mercury in the ocean. For some reason, a number of fish pick it up but never purge it. The poison grows in concentration, until the life is irreparably lost.  
— Jerry Bowyer is an economic advisor to Blue Vase Capital Management and the author of The Bush Boom.

[EyeGuy]

“There is a rising tide of resentment in our country against the so-called “rich,” and Christianity..”

Fomented largely by the Left and it’s organs of communication: the media, universities and of course the diseased Democrat party.

One palpable symptom of this class warfare is the destruction of our judicial system via the insane and unjust judgments by class and/or race warfare oriented juries.

[LongElegantLegs]

Do I blame Islam for Cho Seung-Hui? No. He was a curse on Islam, not the other way around.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

“Do I blame films such as Super Size Me for his extreme and bizarre attitudes toward the eating habits of a good many Americans? No again. Do I blame the New York Times and its obsession with wealth-inequality for his hatred of “rich kids”? No, once more.”

Well, the author inadvertently does blame these sources. As he says later, they spew their inciting propaganda to the healthy and the unhealthy. The unhealthy, unfortunately, though far fewer, are the ones who act violently.

As I’ve said earlier, this punk’s rantings sound like the ELF/ALF, the WTO glass-smashers, and every other Leftist that spends his or her energy trying to foment hatred against America and Americans and all her traditions. The goal is to stir up people enough to overthrow the establishment so that collectivists can replace it with their Stalinist view of the world.

No, these sources are not solely responsible for the actions of this punk. He was unbalanced. It could have been he was looking for any excuse to finally unleash his evil.

But the steady stream of propaganda that comes from the Left does result in action because it offers the pre-excuse for violent action (burning R&D labs and car dealerships, etc.).

If Obama can blame talk radio, I think we are far more reasonable — when we listen to the content of this murderer’s own writing and recording — in blaming the propaganda that the Left spews.

[SMARTY]

“But I will go this far: There is a rising tide of resentment in our country against the so-called “rich...”

You know, of course, the Liberals have succeeded in stigmatizing and almost totally de-legitimizing prosperity. Prosperity, resulting from hard work is what this country is ALL ABOUT... since we do not have and have never had a hereditary monarchy wherein titles, unearned wealth and privilege devolve upon undeserving, idle and stupid progeny. Somehow, Liberals have succeeded in grafting all the ills of old and decadent monarchic and aristocratic systems upon the Capitalist model. Since our current educational system has been permitted to permanently disfigure the educational process and to rewrite the very facts of history, it was easy for them to represent the basic facts of the Protestant ethic in the US. The disaffected like this Cho guy, swallowed it whole. He was not alone, I think.

[Xenalyte]

In the eye of the author, pedophilia and Christianity are one in the same.

Note to Mr. Bowyer: the phrase is "one AND the same."

"One in the same" makes no sense.

[DungeonMaster]

This is Rush’s current topic.

[DungeonMaster]

Curse the day he was born!

[Badeye]

“As I’ve said earlier, this punk’s rantings sound like the ELF/ALF, the WTO glass-smashers, and every other Leftist that spends his or her energy trying to foment hatred against America and Americans and all her traditions. The goal is to stir up people enough to overthrow the establishment so that collectivists can replace it with their Stalinist view of the world.”

Yep.

[redgolum]

It will be blamed on Christianity soon enough.

[mbynack]

Attempting to rationally analyze this guy’s actions in order to place blame on some portion of American culture is a waste of time. He was a nut job. I don’t care why he did it. I just wish he would have blown his own brains out and left everyone else alone.

[LongElegantLegs]

Just doing my part to torpedo his much desired ‘legacy of terror’...

[SMARTY]

Correction: that is, “MIS REPRESENT” the basic facts of the Protestant ethic

[oh8eleven]

Just more proof that ...

[ReagansRaiders]

I wrote a blog post on this nearly 2 days ago. The libs here in Virginia are going insane over it.

http://virginiavirtucon.wordpress.com/2007/04/17/a-creature-of-the-left/

[krb]

This guy would have hated Duke.

[DungeonMaster]

#4 and the idea of scoring political points. That’s all this is about after the first 15 minutes. It took the liberals no time at all to attach their agenda to it. That forces us to do the same.

[Southerngl]

This boy’s sister was going to Princeton, seems he would have to hate her in a few years.

Although we all know how snooty some can be (kids I mean, and some adults, but mostly teens) when you don’t have the clothes and such that they do. I know it’s always been that way though and shooting people aren’t going to make a-holes not be a-holes.

[FreedomPoster]

>>I wrote a blog post on this nearly 2 days ago. The libs here in Virginia are going insane over it.

I threw out the idea that his rants sounded like the standard Liberal crap you’d learn in English and Social “Science” departments in the schools and universities these days, over dinner last night with a group of friends. A Liberal lawyer in the group immediately jumped in and got all defensive, denied that the schools are Liberal, etc. It was pretty funny, I really struck a nerve.

[FreedomPoster]

Wow, I just looked at the first several comments on your blog.

You can just tell there’s really been a nerve struck with this. Of course it doesn’t lead to introspection, it just leads to more moonbattery.