Tom Kovach
Suppressing self-preservation
Another lesson learned from the Virginia Tech massacre
By Tom Kovach
There have been many lessons learned from the recent shooting spree at the campus of Virginia Tech University. Surprisingly, even some liberals are beginning to see the wisdom of citizens armed for protection of both self and society. But, are there still deeper lessons to learn than merely the necessity for sensible gun laws?
The roots of the Virginia Tech massacre began long ago. The loony Left has been suppressing self-preservation for decades by means of the popular culture that they attempt to control. Remember the Hippies? The more extreme of those extremists proudly proclaimed on the talk shows of the 1960s that they refused to take baths, "because it would kill germs, and 'thou shalt not kill.'" Those are the same people that proclaimed — while Communist sympathizers hijacked airliners to Cuba, so that the passengers could be "liberated" from America — that we should all just "make love, not war."
In the 1970s, the loony Left, assisted by Hollywood, used the opposite tactic. As the war in Vietnam drew to a close, a new crop of movies came into vogue. Those movies were filled with gratuitous violence. (Director Sam Peckinpah made a fortune by ushering in an era of grizzly detail in the "shoot 'em up" movie category.) The movies were so full of violence that the word "desensitized" became part of the American lexicon. Parents, especially mothers, denounced violence by denouncing all movies with violent content. Thus, movies such as the 1968 classic "The Green Berets" were wrongly lumped in with "The Killer Elite" in some parental scoldings. The effect was that military service became viewed as "too violent" for some. More than a year after the Vietnam war ended, I was spit upon in O'Hare Airport, while wearing a uniform, because many movies of that era depicted virtually all military members as deranged "baby killers." (I did not even go to Vietnam. Saigon fell a few months before I entered Basic Training.) Standing up for a cause was becoming "unfashionable," especially if that cause was to join the ranks of those whose very presence was a deterrent to the global spread of a Socialist Utopia.
The 1980s took another twist in popular entertainment. Violence and heroism became the realm of a very small group of super-heroes. The lead characters of "Rambo," "Die Hard," and "Lethal Weapon" were depicted as members of some sort of different breed of humans. Everyday people could never aspire to do what those characters did. (That was the subliminal message of the movies, anyway.) As one combat veteran that I knew put it, "If only there had been twelve of John Rambo, then none of us would've had to go to Vietnam." Heroism became popularly viewed as the realm of "those guys" — some elite group of faraway experts. It wasn't for everyday people.
By the 1990s, the messages had begun to stick in the minds of not only ordinary citizens, but also of elected officials. The Gun became the bad guy. More and more laws were passed to keep The Gun hidden, shunned, and registered. People that were known to not fear The Gun and its inherent badness were branded as "extremists." In an odd twist from hero to zero, gun owners were also disparagingly called "Rambos." (Of course, that was the end goal of the Hollywood depiction of super-heroes. The Left had made being prepared for heroism unpopular.) Society was developing a mass case of Rodney King Syndrome. In his words, "Can't we all just get along?"
No, we can't.
Thousands of years of human history have proven that evil exists. The Bible commands us to "hate evil." ("Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." Amos 5:15. See also: Psalms 97:10 and Proverbs 8:13) The political Left eschews any mention of the word "evil," because it carries an automatic connotation that there is an ultimate standard — a steadfast dividing line between Good and Evil. If such a standard exists, then many of the behaviors that the Left upholds could be judged by some standard other than Hollywood fashion or Manhattan polls. And, if such a standard exists, then it might enable ordinary citizens to actually (gulp!) question the political Left. (Back in the 1960s, the phrase "question authority" was a mantra of the Left. Now that they are the authority, however, asking questions is "verboten.")
As a result of the Left's relentless imposition of an unnatural (and un-American!) cultural standard, the self-preservation instincts of many citizens seem to be suppressed en masse. Six people were killed, and 19 injured, when Colin Ferguson went on a shooting spree on the Long Island Railroad in December of 1993. One of the stunning revelations from that incident is that grown men cowered on the floor as Ferguson reloaded. Now, in 2007, not only did Cho Seung-Hui have time to reload at Virginia Tech, he had time to restock his multiple magazines between shooting sprees.
But, the imposition of cultural cowardice by the Left is only one lesson revealed by the Virginia Tech massacre. There is an even more "nuts and bolts" lesson to be learned. The Left has so successfully portrayed The Gun as the villain in our modern culture that dozens of college students lacked the knowledge of how to even recognize when self-defense is possible. If the only thing that a young man knows about guns comes from movies and television, then that man might not even realize that a firearm needs to be reloaded — because movie guns rarely run out of ammunition! Because most college-age citizens lack even a basic knowledge of firearms, the Virginia Tech students were probably unable to recognize those moments when Cho was vulnerable to a rush attack while he reloaded.
I realize that my life experiences are not the societal norm. They can be summed up in what I call "my countdown." I have been involved in five gang fights. I've made 44 parachute jumps. Three people have pointed loaded firearms at me at close range. Two people have tried to run over me with cars. One man has tried to strangle me. I'm still here.
Not every mother's son has to serve on a counter-terrorist team overseas to learn some basic life lessons. One of those lessons is that evil — as personified by bullies, rapists, rampagers, terrorists, and other murderers — can be resisted. It must be resisted. One of the evils that must be resisted in our modern society is the suppression of self-preservation. That is true on the societal and political scales, as well as the individual scale. By suppressing individual self-preservation (from killing germs to killing remorseless sociopaths), the Left has subliminally taught the suppression of political self-preservation. (If I'm wrong, then why is Communist-sympathizing vehicular killer Ted Kennedy still a member of the United States Senate?) We must once again teach our children to resist evil — starting at the individual level, and up to the societal level. That, dear readers, is the ultimate lesson to be learned from the Virginia Tech massacre.
Take your children shooting next weekend ... and the weekend after that.
© Tom Kovach
There have been many lessons learned from the recent shooting spree at the campus of Virginia Tech University. Surprisingly, even some liberals are beginning to see the wisdom of citizens armed for protection of both self and society. But, are there still deeper lessons to learn than merely the necessity for sensible gun laws?
The roots of the Virginia Tech massacre began long ago. The loony Left has been suppressing self-preservation for decades by means of the popular culture that they attempt to control. Remember the Hippies? The more extreme of those extremists proudly proclaimed on the talk shows of the 1960s that they refused to take baths, "because it would kill germs, and 'thou shalt not kill.'" Those are the same people that proclaimed — while Communist sympathizers hijacked airliners to Cuba, so that the passengers could be "liberated" from America — that we should all just "make love, not war."
In the 1970s, the loony Left, assisted by Hollywood, used the opposite tactic. As the war in Vietnam drew to a close, a new crop of movies came into vogue. Those movies were filled with gratuitous violence. (Director Sam Peckinpah made a fortune by ushering in an era of grizzly detail in the "shoot 'em up" movie category.) The movies were so full of violence that the word "desensitized" became part of the American lexicon. Parents, especially mothers, denounced violence by denouncing all movies with violent content. Thus, movies such as the 1968 classic "The Green Berets" were wrongly lumped in with "The Killer Elite" in some parental scoldings. The effect was that military service became viewed as "too violent" for some. More than a year after the Vietnam war ended, I was spit upon in O'Hare Airport, while wearing a uniform, because many movies of that era depicted virtually all military members as deranged "baby killers." (I did not even go to Vietnam. Saigon fell a few months before I entered Basic Training.) Standing up for a cause was becoming "unfashionable," especially if that cause was to join the ranks of those whose very presence was a deterrent to the global spread of a Socialist Utopia.
The 1980s took another twist in popular entertainment. Violence and heroism became the realm of a very small group of super-heroes. The lead characters of "Rambo," "Die Hard," and "Lethal Weapon" were depicted as members of some sort of different breed of humans. Everyday people could never aspire to do what those characters did. (That was the subliminal message of the movies, anyway.) As one combat veteran that I knew put it, "If only there had been twelve of John Rambo, then none of us would've had to go to Vietnam." Heroism became popularly viewed as the realm of "those guys" — some elite group of faraway experts. It wasn't for everyday people.
By the 1990s, the messages had begun to stick in the minds of not only ordinary citizens, but also of elected officials. The Gun became the bad guy. More and more laws were passed to keep The Gun hidden, shunned, and registered. People that were known to not fear The Gun and its inherent badness were branded as "extremists." In an odd twist from hero to zero, gun owners were also disparagingly called "Rambos." (Of course, that was the end goal of the Hollywood depiction of super-heroes. The Left had made being prepared for heroism unpopular.) Society was developing a mass case of Rodney King Syndrome. In his words, "Can't we all just get along?"
No, we can't.
Thousands of years of human history have proven that evil exists. The Bible commands us to "hate evil." ("Hate evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. It may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." Amos 5:15. See also: Psalms 97:10 and Proverbs 8:13) The political Left eschews any mention of the word "evil," because it carries an automatic connotation that there is an ultimate standard — a steadfast dividing line between Good and Evil. If such a standard exists, then many of the behaviors that the Left upholds could be judged by some standard other than Hollywood fashion or Manhattan polls. And, if such a standard exists, then it might enable ordinary citizens to actually (gulp!) question the political Left. (Back in the 1960s, the phrase "question authority" was a mantra of the Left. Now that they are the authority, however, asking questions is "verboten.")
As a result of the Left's relentless imposition of an unnatural (and un-American!) cultural standard, the self-preservation instincts of many citizens seem to be suppressed en masse. Six people were killed, and 19 injured, when Colin Ferguson went on a shooting spree on the Long Island Railroad in December of 1993. One of the stunning revelations from that incident is that grown men cowered on the floor as Ferguson reloaded. Now, in 2007, not only did Cho Seung-Hui have time to reload at Virginia Tech, he had time to restock his multiple magazines between shooting sprees.
But, the imposition of cultural cowardice by the Left is only one lesson revealed by the Virginia Tech massacre. There is an even more "nuts and bolts" lesson to be learned. The Left has so successfully portrayed The Gun as the villain in our modern culture that dozens of college students lacked the knowledge of how to even recognize when self-defense is possible. If the only thing that a young man knows about guns comes from movies and television, then that man might not even realize that a firearm needs to be reloaded — because movie guns rarely run out of ammunition! Because most college-age citizens lack even a basic knowledge of firearms, the Virginia Tech students were probably unable to recognize those moments when Cho was vulnerable to a rush attack while he reloaded.
I realize that my life experiences are not the societal norm. They can be summed up in what I call "my countdown." I have been involved in five gang fights. I've made 44 parachute jumps. Three people have pointed loaded firearms at me at close range. Two people have tried to run over me with cars. One man has tried to strangle me. I'm still here.
Not every mother's son has to serve on a counter-terrorist team overseas to learn some basic life lessons. One of those lessons is that evil — as personified by bullies, rapists, rampagers, terrorists, and other murderers — can be resisted. It must be resisted. One of the evils that must be resisted in our modern society is the suppression of self-preservation. That is true on the societal and political scales, as well as the individual scale. By suppressing individual self-preservation (from killing germs to killing remorseless sociopaths), the Left has subliminally taught the suppression of political self-preservation. (If I'm wrong, then why is Communist-sympathizing vehicular killer Ted Kennedy still a member of the United States Senate?) We must once again teach our children to resist evil — starting at the individual level, and up to the societal level. That, dear readers, is the ultimate lesson to be learned from the Virginia Tech massacre.
Take your children shooting next weekend ... and the weekend after that.
© Tom Kovach
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