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Posted Apr. 19, 2007, 10:53 a.m. ET
Terrorist Cho Seung-Hui's Multimedia Manifesto
By David Hershkovits
A madman has struck and left a trail that tells one of the most frightening stories that we've heard in a long time. It's a story that we don't want to hear which is why Cho Seung-Hui, America's home-grown suicide bomber, chose this way of telling it. Devoid of any meaningful social contact on the campus of Virginia Tech or elsewhere, he became a cypher of a world without love. Like the terrorist Muslim suicide bombers of the Middle East, he leaves a multimedia manifesto of words, photos (the one of above, of bullets, is by Cho) and videos as a final testament. He speaks of the "martyrs," uses the name "A Ishmael," rails against "hedonism" and makes reference to 911, Osama, Kim Jung II, Hummer and Bush. Though what he says can scare your pants off, the student who couldn't connect with anyone communicates beautifully with the camera. We know all this about Cho because he took the time to shoot, edit and Express Mail it all to NBC. (MSNBC has done an incredible job covering this and has been releasing pages and visuals from the manifesto.)
Cho's Multimedia Manifesto leaves behind a treasure trove of material for experts to rummage over in the coming years as they try -- with 20/20 hindsight -- to understand what motivated this young man to do such a horrible act. I expect that anyone as proficient with multimedia tools as Cho, and as talented an artist, will have many more writings, drawings and videos stashed away in his hard drive.
On the day of the shooting I was on the phone with Jon Savage, the British author of Teenage, a monumental book of cultural history that traces the creation of youth culture. When I mentioned the events at Virginia Tech to him he said, “Remember, your country and my country are at war in Iraq. When you’re at war it hits people in a weird way, especially young people. When the top guy is waging war and acting like a big bully, it’s going to make a difference. Kids pick up on this. But they don’t have the wherewithal of adults who learn how to handle it.” Given Cho's multimedia handiwork and the numerous allusions to the Middle East in his video, Savage's comments -- made before anything was known about the killer -- seem more prescient than ever.
Comments
Oh great, how many more of the disenfranchised with ammo and ProTools are going to be encouraged by this?
Posted at 12:23 p.m. ET on Apr 19, 2007 by ann magnuson
It SHOULD NOT BE RUMMAGED OVER.....! ! ! ThiS whole incident was sparked because someone could not get the attention he coveted in real life so decided to kill the people who lived the lifestyle he wanted.....by acknowledging his video and brainless manifesto we only acknowledge him and give the face he wanted ...his immortality or 15 minutes of fame along with every other pathetic serial killer who has come along and becoMe infamous for brutalizing others.... I consider myself very interested in morbid things....but I think there is a drawn line......its not unlike th ridiculous cultural phenomenon that The Black dahlia murder and Charles Manson murders are to Southern california .... am I sounding a bit conservative,....? I just do not see the intellectual depth here or in the previous inidents I mentioneD ....why did this happen ; I simply think some people are fucked up and lose it one day.What should be aSked is why this does not happen more...?
Posted at 6:15 p.m. ET on Apr 19, 2007 by randy focazio
Given Cho s multi media work it is obvious he is not ignorant and in fact calculating with intent for media fame....so I find it hard to believe events like the IRAQ war were affecting him.... I do think that its easier and easier to be cut off from the world simply because we have things like computers which beCome the new parents when the real ones are not there.....its easier to not see people as real ..... we are making a prefabricated reality more and more ...a unnaturalistic one in hopes that everyone can identify but its still fake...and in fact alienates us even more from each other....
....I feel alienated from my coworkers...I hate the IRAQ war and despise the hypocrisy of this country as well the maneuverability of social clics and am an artist as well .....so why am I not out there blowing people away..? Theres no way to ever decipher why people decide to do this other than they lose it one day .....or you know something was undeveloped in their frontal lobes... I think we all have that potential to a degree.....that reptilian part of our brain ...the beast within which has not fully evolved out of us ...
Posted at 4:49 a.m. ET on Apr 20, 2007 by randy focazio
As I watched the media coverage on suicide/terrorist CHO it dawned on me that he was a "terrorist" and that he killed more people than the explosion in London several years ago. Our media and country are being led down the wrong path and being made to believe this was a disgruntled, mentally ill student.
Why arent' we being told the truth? We were just attacked....where is homeland security???????
What the hell is going on here?
Cho's jihad/manifesto rant wreaked of words and phrases embraced by the same people who committed terrorist acts on 9/11. He spoke of "debauchery" and entitlement as a bad thing, he seemed disgusted by student's materialism.
Ismail Ax sounds like it.....?
I smell a coverup.
Posted at 10:19 p.m. ET on Apr 27, 2007 by CA Haws
I really doubt its a coverup..... every kid on the street is out there shouting their digruntal views on 9/11 .....fuck Bush and end the war .....undeveloped frontal syndrome is more like iT.....and angry youth who cannot live the jetset life he secretly covets....
Posted at 3:33 a.m. ET on Apr 28, 2007 by randy focazio
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