Hiromi_X
Why it's the French, of course
Boy, I did not see this coming. Here's a list of my top anticipated scapegoats for the Virginia Tech shootings:
1. Too many guns
2. Too few guns
3. Furriners
4. Lax campus security
5. "Lack of awareness" on how to handle the shooter's prior weird behavior
6. Random crazy motherfuckers (my own personal scapegoat)
I didn't think of Foucault. Thank you Rich Lowry for pointing that out. I never woulda thunk it. Here are his illuminating words, taken from this National Review editorial:
There are many reasons for this [why nothing was done about Cho] — the rise of psychotropic drugs, budget cuts, expanded conceptions of civil rights — but one intellectual current behind the trend was a moral disempowerment of sanity. One of the most influential academics of the late 20th century, Michel Foucault, argued that attempts to label and treat madness were inherently arbitrary and repressive. Academia has been celebrating “transgression” ever since.Any attempt to romanticize madness has an incontrovertible answer in Cho Seung-Hui. This is what madness truly is: lonely, painful, shattering, and potentially murderous. After seeing the sick trail of misery left by such transgression, can we expend some of the same intellectual energy honoring wholesome normality?
The above two paragraphs are an astoundingly rich motherlode of stupid. Do I even need to rip it apart? I mean golly...I didn't know that leftist intellectuals with a penchant for French philosophers called all the shots at V. Tech. Or that the ghost of Foucault hovers over the shoulders of administrators like some creepy floating Jesus, telling them, Non! Zat Cho, hees not eensane, he's "transgresseeve..." (apologies to the French for my crap rendition of a French accent).
Lowry's argument above is just a laughably bad attempt to paint the incident as yet another example of the moral decay of Amurrica as caused by the intellectual left. However, the below is downright scary:
But Virginia Tech also had to cope with an extremely strict state commitment law that requires that someone represent an “imminent danger” to himself or others before he can be compelled to seek treatment. A judge ruled in 2005 that Cho met this standard, but nothing much came of it (although he reportedly was on an antidepressant). Virginia hasn’t caught up to other states that have begun to recover from the excesses of deinstitutionalization and have made it easier to compel treatment.
What does he mean, "compel treatment"? I somehow doubt he means, "Send the person to a well-funded facility with a hgh staff-to-patient ratio, with his or her livelihood protected by laws forbidding his or her suspension from school or termination of employment, and with all costs covered."
And had Lowry been paying any attention to leftist intellectuals, he would have understood that the lesson to take away from them is that it's much easier to strip away the civil rights of those lacking "wholesome normality."
People like me.
I attempted suicide -- obviously danger to self. I am also an alcoholic -- definite danger to self, possible danger to others. Lowry suggests we loosen interpretations of what constitutes "imminent danger."
So, friends, what should be done with Hiromi, a source of potential danger? Should I have to report to a probation officer of sorts? If I miss an appointment or an AA meeting, do I get whisked off for "treatment?" What if I didn't have insurance? Would I be "compelled" to seek treatment at the nightmarish state mental health facilities? I shudder to think what would happen to me there.
Not that Lowry and his ilk would shudder. I mean, what the fuck? Who cares what happens to nut cases like me -- y'all are safer, right?
Comments
This:
The above two paragraphs are an astoundingly rich motherlode of stupid.
is why I love you.
1. Posted by Ray on April 20, 2007
Ugh! I don't know why people on the outside don't get this- academics are interested in everything! That's why they became academics! So, yes, there are some academics who are working on transgression or madness or crime or whatever; but there are plenty of others who are working on any other topic you can think of, including 'wholesome normality'. Jesus, I'm working on late 18th century tourism, for crying out loud! How 'transgressive' is that? I'm sure, incidentally, that it would be really fucking fascinating to devote your intellectual life to 'honoring wholesome normality'. Certainly, the fact that madness is interesting couldn't have something to do with people studying it. But, no, I'm sure he's right- those dead academics learned a very powerful lesson about the dangers of reading Foucault. Ugh!
2. Posted by Rufus on April 20, 2007
The concept of institutionally defined "normalcy" is frightening enough. The addition of the word "wholesome" in front of it makes it terrifying. The phrase smacks of some historical nightmares brought on by just such attitudes.
I'm all for not *romanticizing* madness. I don't like seeing people in pain. But that is something far different than this man is talking about. And anyway, WTF? When did all of academia suddenly sign a contract saying they'd all mindlessly believe everything Foucault believed in? I must have missed that piece of paperwork when I was working at a University. I hope they don't revoke my degrees.
3. Posted by Miss Syl on April 20, 2007
Also, the guy's statements bring to mind the Doris Lessing short story "The Eye of God in Paradise." If you've never read it, check it out. It's pretty creepy.
4. Posted by Miss Syl on April 20, 2007
The funny thing, Ray, is that I was trying to be nice!
Surely you protest too much, Rufus. Everyone knows you ivory tower dwellers in Akkkademia have most of the power and influence in this country.
Syl, if that story is as creepy as that editorial, I will definitely check it out. But it can't possibly match Lowry's hilarious mixture of clownish buffoonery and fascism.
5. Posted by Hiromi on April 20, 2007
Having had more than ample experience dealing with several close mentally ill relatives, this one always gives me pause.
On the one hand it's devastating watching someone like my Mom suffer for years and not be able to compel the treatment she desperately needed. On the other, I'm leery of it being too easy or every marginally anti-social person would be headed for bedlam.
It took about five years before we could get her committed in Virginia. Before we succeeded, the only thing anyone was willing to do was throw her in jail when she had a psychotic break. In the end, I spent the years from 9-18 years old living with and caring for a severely disturbed woman on a daily basis. The story was much the same for my Grandmother except she was forced into a state facility in West Virginia that was no better than a dark ages dungeon. She spent about 40 years there and needless to say, only got worse.
My schizophrenic sister never has been committed and gotten any treatment. The result is she has been only marginally functional for about 30 years.
The thing that most annoys me about debates like the one you cited is that they're always by theoretical academics who wouldn't know an insane person if they bit their nose off during a psychotic break.
I guess it makes me a little testy.
6. Posted by Omnipotent Poobah on April 20, 2007
Omni, Lowry is not an academic, he's a right wing parasitic clown using this topic as an opportunity for left-bashing. Nothing more.
In any case, he obviously doesn't know a goddamn thing about what the mentally ill and their families go through trying to actually get some care. And I doubt he cares.
7. Posted by Hiromi on April 20, 2007
You know, it simple amazes me that #6 on your list isn't plenty for EVERYONE. Have we all forgotten the notion of the simplest answer?
Lowry, like every other shithead politico with an agenda, is just hitchin' his rattlin' car to the latest train. Every security nut, every pro gun or anti gun nut, every xenophone; they're all out wavin' the flag of thier causes.
It saddens me more to look at how we react to all this - using it to further idiot political agenda - than the event itself does. Because it once again shows an utter failure to grasp the problem.
But to answer your question:
So, friends, what should be done with Hiromi, a source of potential danger
I say we gve you a hug.
8. Posted by Elvis on April 21, 2007
"Jesus Christ!
Will you get your ass off this carpet I'm trying to stretch?"
(sorry, those pictures were just too annoying and creepy)
9. Posted by aag on April 21, 2007
I heard somewhere that some evangelical preacher is blaming evolution. I choose not understand why that is.
10. Posted by Librocrat on April 21, 2007
"Non! Zat Cho, hees not eensane, he's "transgresseeve...""
I think your accent is terribly cute.... Je fonds sur ma chaise...
11. Posted by Emmanuel on April 22, 2007
I say we gve you a hug.
Right answer! Thanks, Karl.
AAG, I can't believe there's actually a market for those things. Although Ray gets finder's credit for the Creepy Jesii.
Heh, Librocrat, I'm sure they called it "evilution."
Emmanuel, a "chaise" is a chair, right? Are you saying you like your chair??? Engrish preeze!
12. Posted by Hiromi on April 22, 2007
I said I was melting on my chaise because of your cute French accent... Gosh, talk about killing a compliment... :)
13. Posted by Emmanuel on April 23, 2007
Here's to hugs for Hiromi! And for anyone else struggling with Life's Fucking Questions, thankyouverymuch. Congratulations on your achievements! As for answering the why's when you politely decline an offered drink...I am always intrigued by and envious of those who can deflect prying questions with a glance and a half smile...so that's what I recommend!
I wonder about this young man, also, and how we got where we are with random acts of violence. I do know there can be no solace for his family or the families of his victims...no answers. Not one.
But there can be solace for you, Hiromi, and inspiration from you. You have chosen to battle, and you have lived to fight another day.
I lost my oldest sister last year. She struggled with addiction as well as major mental illness her whole life. It taught my family a lot. Most of all, I think, it taught us about endurance and solidarity. I learned how to lean in, when someone broke through the perimeter, draw my listener closer, smile politely, and softly whisper, so that only he could hear, "Get the FUCK away from my sister."
I wish I could have done more, that I had done more. I am lacking, maybe, in some of the qualities you seem surrounded with here: gentility, education. I have, however, found there to be use for that skill which I developed. The ability to look someone in the eyes until they blink and turn away.
14. Posted by John on April 26, 2007