This kind of thing always makes me sad and upset. What on Earth was he thinking? What was going on in his life that he thought this was a rational solution to his problems? He clearly had a pychological disorder and needed help. One report said he was "smiling" as he walked and shot (luckily hitting no one), before killing himself in the library.
I guess the selfish part of me freaks out a little when I realize that as low a possibility as it is, I work at a place where I might get randomly killed someday just because. I've been studying martial arts since I was little, and I'm pretty strong for a tiny woman, but there's not a lot I could do to protect myself or my students against a gunman, especially at long range. Scary.
I wonder what I'd actually do in the situation... would I hide and cower? Would I try and attack him and take his gun away? That's something I won't know until I'm in that situation... which means it's something I hope I never learn about myself.
On Saturday a college grad named Mitchell Heisman walked to the Harvard Yard, mounted the steps of Memorial Church and shot himself. He recently finished a nearly two-thousand page book on nihilism, and while the Boston Globe tried to come up with some possible explanations (His father died when he was young, he never seemed to keep a girlfriend, etc.) at the root all they could say was that nihilism was his life and his life was not worth continuing. My point in bringing this up is that whatever drives somebody to either kill themselves, or shoot up a college and then commit suicide, is very individual. In fact, these acts may be the one truly individual thing these people ever do in their lives.
(As a peek into the mind of a "nihilist" Heisman's website is at http://www.suicidenote.info/index.php)
Update on Heisman's magnum opus: it's either a startling new view of the development of Nihilism from the Norman Conquest to today or it is the greatest work of crank literature ever written. I just can't tell yet - and this comes from someone who has read a lot of crank literature.
Actually if you read that chapter it's actually about how Jesus was the product of rape by a Roman soldier. The chapter titles are bizarre, but it doesn't feel as crazy as the "S.C.U.M Manifesto" or Gene Ray's Time Cube website.
If this Heisman nihilistic crap is true, then there's also no basis for choosing death over life. So I'm going to stick around and have another bourbon and embarrass myself a little bit.
What is it with Harvard and the crackpots? The girl who plagiarized half her novel, that guy kicked out of Bowdoin who was showered with honors for plagiarized or merely made-up crap with stunningly bizarre titles? What is up with admissions there? Had I only known the prereq was a total lack of ethics and hearing voices in your head, I could have gotten in, pre-meds.
This is horrible, but at least no one else was injured or killed. We all assure ourselves that the likelihood of an on-campus shooting at our own schools is practically non-existent, but why? As far as I can see, it's quite random and could happen to anyone. Now, I realize it's ridiculous to even consider it in the light of that professor who teaches at a base in Afghanistan and most of us are far safer than he or she is, but that doesn't mean that a campus shooting is absolutely impossible. I live in an area where it is practically impossible to get a carry permit, but considerably easier to buy an illegal gun from the black market. There are no metal detectors on our campus, security is very lax (the campus IDs required for entry to the building are easily counterfeited), and the security guards are unarmed and most are around 80 years old and/or morbidly obese. I wouldn't rely on them to disarm a crazy gun-wielding assailant.
Ultimately it's just like worrying about a plane crash: nothing you can do about if that random bit of bad luck happens to single you out, so there's probably no point worrying. Statistically, students are far more likely to die on campus than faculty. But if you do take any sort of self-defense training, work on gun disarms. It won't help if there's a long-distance sniper but at least you might have a fighting chance if you are held hostage and in imminent danger of being shot.
Mitchell Heisman graduated from the University of Albany. He shot himself in the Harvard Yard because Memorial Church was holding a Yom Kippur ceremony and Heisman was nominally Jewish. He even dressed up to go, and spoke to a roommate before he went, never revealing that he was going to kill himself with a pistol he purchased a few years previously.
Oh, Gawd. A math major....
ReplyDeleteThis kind of thing always makes me sad and upset. What on Earth was he thinking? What was going on in his life that he thought this was a rational solution to his problems? He clearly had a pychological disorder and needed help. One report said he was "smiling" as he walked and shot (luckily hitting no one), before killing himself in the library.
ReplyDeleteI guess the selfish part of me freaks out a little when I realize that as low a possibility as it is, I work at a place where I might get randomly killed someday just because. I've been studying martial arts since I was little, and I'm pretty strong for a tiny woman, but there's not a lot I could do to protect myself or my students against a gunman, especially at long range. Scary.
I wonder what I'd actually do in the situation... would I hide and cower? Would I try and attack him and take his gun away? That's something I won't know until I'm in that situation... which means it's something I hope I never learn about myself.
On Saturday a college grad named Mitchell Heisman walked to the Harvard Yard, mounted the steps of Memorial Church and shot himself. He recently finished a nearly two-thousand page book on nihilism, and while the Boston Globe tried to come up with some possible explanations (His father died when he was young, he never seemed to keep a girlfriend, etc.) at the root all they could say was that nihilism was his life and his life was not worth continuing. My point in bringing this up is that whatever drives somebody to either kill themselves, or shoot up a college and then commit suicide, is very individual. In fact, these acts may be the one truly individual thing these people ever do in their lives.
ReplyDelete(As a peek into the mind of a "nihilist" Heisman's website is at http://www.suicidenote.info/index.php)
I was humiliated by the loss to UCLA too, but that's no reason to start shooting anyone.
ReplyDeleteIncluding yourself.
ReplyDeleteUpdate on Heisman's magnum opus: it's either a startling new view of the development of Nihilism from the Norman Conquest to today or it is the greatest work of crank literature ever written. I just can't tell yet - and this comes from someone who has read a lot of crank literature.
ReplyDeleteOne of his chapters is entitled "On the Seditious Genius of the Spiritual Penis of Jesus".
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing crank.
Actually if you read that chapter it's actually about how Jesus was the product of rape by a Roman soldier. The chapter titles are bizarre, but it doesn't feel as crazy as the "S.C.U.M Manifesto" or Gene Ray's Time Cube website.
ReplyDeleteIf this Heisman nihilistic crap is true, then there's also no basis for choosing death over life. So I'm going to stick around and have another bourbon and embarrass myself a little bit.
ReplyDeleteIn the UT incident, the gunman hit the right person.
ReplyDeletePrissy Prof: that's good stuff.
What is it with Harvard and the crackpots? The girl who plagiarized half her novel, that guy kicked out of Bowdoin who was showered with honors for plagiarized or merely made-up crap with stunningly bizarre titles? What is up with admissions there? Had I only known the prereq was a total lack of ethics and hearing voices in your head, I could have gotten in, pre-meds.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Beaker Ben :O)
ReplyDeleteThis is horrible, but at least no one else was injured or killed. We all assure ourselves that the likelihood of an on-campus shooting at our own schools is practically non-existent, but why? As far as I can see, it's quite random and could happen to anyone. Now, I realize it's ridiculous to even consider it in the light of that professor who teaches at a base in Afghanistan and most of us are far safer than he or she is, but that doesn't mean that a campus shooting is absolutely impossible. I live in an area where it is practically impossible to get a carry permit, but considerably easier to buy an illegal gun from the black market. There are no metal detectors on our campus, security is very lax (the campus IDs required for entry to the building are easily counterfeited), and the security guards are unarmed and most are around 80 years old and/or morbidly obese. I wouldn't rely on them to disarm a crazy gun-wielding assailant.
ReplyDeleteUltimately it's just like worrying about a plane crash: nothing you can do about if that random bit of bad luck happens to single you out, so there's probably no point worrying. Statistically, students are far more likely to die on campus than faculty. But if you do take any sort of self-defense training, work on gun disarms. It won't help if there's a long-distance sniper but at least you might have a fighting chance if you are held hostage and in imminent danger of being shot.
Marcia, Marcia, Marcia...
ReplyDeleteMitchell Heisman graduated from the University of Albany. He shot himself in the Harvard Yard because Memorial Church was holding a Yom Kippur ceremony and Heisman was nominally Jewish. He even dressed up to go, and spoke to a roommate before he went, never revealing that he was going to kill himself with a pistol he purchased a few years previously.
Dang! Apologies. But not really to Harvard, which strikes me as having an overload of crackpots.
ReplyDeleteWho's surprised that Texas politicians and gun nuts are using this as their launching pad
ReplyDeletefor having guns on campus?