There’s a great essay at Time Magazine by reporter David Von Drehle about the “extreme self-centeredness” and pervasive narcissism of our age. Von Drehle believes narcissism is at the root of the killing spree at Virginia Tech. As I’ve said on these pages many times, self-centeredness is the most natural consequence of our modern rejection of God. When we reject the King of Kings, we appoint ourselves the kings of the jungle — and there is no good reason why the universe shouldn’t revolve around us.
I’ve lost interest in the cracks, chips, holes and broken places in the lives of men like Cho Seung-Hui, the mass murderer of Virginia Tech. The pain, grievances and self-pity of mass killers are only symptoms of the real explanation. Those who do these things share one common trait. They are raging narcissists. “I died — like Jesus Christ,” Cho said in a video sent to NBC.
Psychologists from South Africa to Chicago have begun to recognize that extreme self-centeredness is the forest in these stories, and all the other things — guns, games, lyrics, pornography — are just trees. To list the traits of the narcissist is enough to prove the point: grandiosity, numbness to the needs and pain of others, emotional isolation, resentment and envy. …
Freud explained narcissism as a failure to grow up. All infants are narcissists, he pointed out, but as we grow, we ought to learn that other people have lives independent of our own. It’s not their job to please us, applaud for us or even notice us — let alone die because we’re unhappy. — It’s All About Him, David Von Drehle, Time, April 19, 2007
Worth reading. And then it’s worth asking some hard questions about how we are raising our children.
Thanks to Barbara Nicolosi at Church of the Masses for this link.
Cho claiming that ‘he died like Jesus Christ’ is as narcistic as a person could get! It is obvious that he wasn’t a Christian and made that statement to make himself look important and appear to be some sort of martyr.
Lots more information about Cho is coming out in the news every day. On the Sean Hannity radio show today, I had heard the (unsubstaniated, so far) claim that Cho’s family lived in Saudi Arabia for 6 years during his youth. If it is true, then he would have been educated in a Muslim school. The “Ismail Ax” tattooed on his arm and placed as a return address on the video mailed to NBC could be a hint about his indoctrination into radical Islam.
I think that Cho was a psychotic case with the combination of narcissism, Islamo-fascist indoctrination and the accompanying “victimhood” mentality that radical Islam recruits with, and festers upon the world.
The following is a copy of an interesting comment that I found over at Infidels are Cool blogspot:
Comment on Ismail Ax by sausage girl
Posted: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 09:12:03 +0000
Cho was a true muslim through and through.
You know what makes a person who they are? It’s their ideas, their beliefs, their psychology and if that psychology is damaged it becomes a pathology.
Cho’s pathology was identical to muslim pathology. That of a total and utter victim.
Hitler wrote an open letter from his bunker hours before his suicide STILL blaming the jews and the communists. 60m dead and he still hadn’t learnt his lesson. A victim to the end.
Palestinian suicide bombers have such little self esteem that instead of taking the noble path of Gandhi or Martin Luther King they believe their best option is to die. Again, the ultimate victims.
Islamic terrorists having to blow up civilians because of American foreign policy. American did it to them. America’s to blame. Once, again. Muslims are the ultimate victims.
Did you hear Cho in the video? “You made me do this. The decision was yours.”
Cho suffered from muslim pathology. One of victimhood.
In this sense Cho was a true muslim.
p.s. islam is the number promoter of the victim pathology. if their was no islam cho would never have done this.
islam has been very successful at promoting the victim mentality around the globe and this is why terrorism is becoming more and more common