VA Tech Killer Sent PR Package to NBC
Shortly after NBC’s Matt Lauer arrived at the Virginia Tech campus he walked from West Ambler Johnston Hall to Norris Hall to see how long it would take. He said in a report that it took about five minutes. He wondered aloud what the shooter was doing during the two hours between the shootings in the dorm and the carnage in the engineering building.
Now, we have at least part of the answer and it’s a little ironic given Lauer’s report. It appears that Cho Seung-Hui sent a package to NBC in New York.
BLACKSBURG, Va. - Between his first and second bursts of gunfire, the Virginia Tech gunman mailed a package to NBC News containing what authorities said were video, photos of himself brandishng weapons, and a rambling diatribe about getting even with rich people.
[…]
NBC said that a time stamp on the package indicated the material was mailed in the two-hour window between the first burst of gunfire in a high-rise dormitory and the second fusillade, at a classroom building.
The package included digital images of him holding weapons and a manifesto that “rants against rich people and warns that he wants to get even,” according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the case.
Add to this the fact that he had no ID on him when he committed the murder-suicide, and it took some time for the police to identify him, it sounds like he wanted to control how he was portrayed in the media. Perhaps he hoped that NBC would get the packet before he had been identified. There were three attempts at getting the zip code correct on the envelope and NBC reported on the Nightly News that if it had had the correct zip code, it probably would have arrived a day earlier.
It has been reported more than once that his writings conveyed a hatred of the rich. I’m going to guess that he was either never explosed to Ayn Rand’s philosophy or if exposed, he didn’t understand it.
Here are some quotes from Cho’s video manifesto:
• “You just loved to crucify me. You loved inducing cancer in my head, terror in my heart and ripping my soul all this time.”
• “You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience. You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.”
• “Do you know what it feels like to be spit on your face and have trash shoved down your throat? Do you know what it feels like to dig your own grave? Do you know what it feels like to have your throat slashed from ear to ear? Do you know what it feels like to be torched alive? Do you know what it feels like to be humiliated and be impaled upon a cross and left to bleed to death for your amusement?
You have never felt a single ounce of pain your whole life. And you want to inject as much misery in our lives because you can, just because you can. You had everything you wanted. Your Mercedes wasn’t enough, you brats. Your golden necklaces weren’t enough, you snobs. Your trust fund wasn’t enough. Your vodka and cognac wasn’t enough. All your debaucheries weren’t enough. Those weren’t enough to fulfill your hedonistic needs. You had everything.”
His view of himself as a martyr for some cause reminds me of the 9/11 terrorists. As you can see, religious ideation played a role in his view of himself as some kind of savior and his plot to get back at those he viewed as evil doers.
This kid was in a tremendous amount of pain and he wanted to be sure that everybody else felt it as well.
Again, if he had incorporated the basic tenets of Rand’s philosophy into his thinking, he would not have held self-sacrifice in such high regard, nor would he have held Jesus Christ up in such a bizarre way as a role model.
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April 23rd, 2007 at 4:27 pm
It sounds like he was directing his hate at the unearned (ie: the debauched kids of the wealthy), not the rich per se. Rand spoke often about the differences between the earned and the unearned… whether its knowledge (scientific, personal/philosophical/values, etc) or money or material accomplishments. I’m not defending him or anything, but thought I’d elaborate on your observation. Perhaps he wasn’t able to make the disctinction but I thought I’d make it because its an important one.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:48 pm
You are right. It is an important distinction to make and I’m glad you made it.
Rand also, however, said that the right of disposal of earned wealth belongs to the one who earned it, therefore she would not have a problem with people who received money as gifts or through inheritance. She probably would have a problem with people who gave money to those who lacked objectivist morals, simply because she would see that as irrational and therefore immoral.
The lastest reports that I saw about Cho showed that he was having pretty serious delusions long before the shootings, like having an alien girlfriend, the kind from outer space, not simply from across the border.