19 April 2007

A Copycat is Born

There is much discussion about whether NBC should have aired clips of Cho’s ‘manifesto’ (not what I would have called it). Some discussion is here.

NBC is being criticized for giving Cho the fame he wanted. Cho wanted fame; now he has it. And it’s NBC’s fault. This sort of thing, some argue, ‘creates’ copycats, or ‘encourages’ their growth (like, one supposes, sunlight, water, fertilizer all encourage the growth of plants). I have a view of
causality and human responsibility that logically prohibits my holding media responsible for ‘creating’ copycats.

The scenario goes something like this. John Doe desires fame above all else. He sees the fame that Cho has achieved thanks to NBC. “Wow,” he thinks to himself, “I too want to be famous.” So, encouraged by what he has seen on TV, he is transformed into a copycat. The media, by giving to one murderer the fame he desires, successfully ‘creates’ a copycat murderer. And, of course, by ‘creating’ this copycat media are to some degree responsible for the murders he commits.

Thoroughly ignored is an important question, Why did John Doe select fame for murder, rather than fame for discovering a cure for cancer? Frankly, I wouldn’t mind being famous. But I would not wish for the fame that Cho has achieved. If fame as a murderer is the best I can hope to achieve, I prefer to live and die in obscurity. Why did Cho choose otherwise?

It isn’t enough to say he wanted fame. Many people desire fame but do not commit murder in order to get it.

There is for me one reason for NBC to air Cho’s ‘manifesto’. Ours is an
open society; we are all, really, social philosophers. When these things happen we want access to information about why. (Okay, I’ll admit some have a prurient interest in these things.) And one thing is clear to me with respect to why. Let us say that all this ‘hype’ (as some call it) does ‘create’ or ‘encourage’ copycats. The real issue – the why – is not the media. It is the fact that there are people who value themselves more than they value other human lives. The real question for me is not whether ‘hype’ ‘creates’ or ‘encourages’ copycats; the real question for me is why do people like Cho come to have no value, no respect for the lives of others.

Let me pose a question: We all started out as fetuses; we all started out with no right to be born, no right therefore even to exist. Why should Cho have valued the lives of others more than his desire for fame? He isn’t the only person in America who thinks that his desires outweigh the lives of others. Focusing on the media assists us in avoiding a discussion of this matter, I think.

It pains me to find myself at odds with
Laura Ingraham on this. Of course, Ingraham neither knows nor cares that I disagree with her, so it’s all good.

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James Frank Solís
Former soldier (USA). Graduate-level educated. Married 26 years. Texas ex-patriate. Ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America.
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