Rewarding mass murderers?
Syl is going to get on my case nagging me with the "I told you" because the Washington Post published an article which confirms many peoples thoughts concerning the recent Virginia Tech killing spree.
Despite all the searching-for-an-answer hand-wringing we have been subjected to this last week, the most obvious ounce of prevention would be to stop allowing the likes of Cho to play the media like a piano. As it is, we gave him everything he would have wished for. In so doing, journalists who claim only to be helping us to “understand,” the better to prevent future rampages, are hypocritical. Ask any Skinnerian psychologist: Reward behavior, and it rises.
As a novelist, I covet that “understanding.” As a citizen, I resist it. Pity for Cho’s purportedly tormented childhood and fascination with his psychotic, solipsistic universe only entice other disturbed characters to make a bid for the same sympathy.
What are your thoughts concerning the way mass media handled the ordeal, or any violent incident in the past? Furthermore, does coverage of such events motivate more violence?
