Overwhelming Soul-Searching and Underwhelming Social Response
It has been a few days since one of the most talked about violent crimes in Taiwan's recent history took place. A 21-year-old student, allegedly neglected by both parents and society at large, stabbed through carriages full of innocent commuters on Taipei's subway, killing four in what people can only dub as a psychopathic assault. Since the incident, both mass and social media here are filled with speculative reports on the background of the 21-year-old, with discussions ranging from how to detect anti-social behaviors early in a person's life to how to properly punish violent criminals of this sort.
What particularly piqued the author's interest, though, the sheer attention this incident has garnered in the course of last few days. Almost all other news of the day, whether it be another military coup in Thailand or market explosions than killed more than 30 in western China, seemed to disappear from coverage, leaving more room for the subway incident despite the clear knowledge that further reporting will not even be especially productive in a time when everyone is still in some sort of psychological shock. Some cynical comments are even out there to say the newspapers can be lazy for few days and not find real news.
But interestingly enough, people here are lapping up all the successive and increasingly meaningless follow-up reports. That is the impact of a violent incident in a society that deem itself one of the safest in the world. Indeed, when the author was talking about the event with a few Asian-Americans, confusion was expressed on just fixated the local populations are on the event. After all, in America, the likes of this 21-year-old regularly shoot up schools, workplaces, malls, and just in general go on public rampages. The frequency of such tragedies in America has made its residents highly desensitized.
Yes, certain degrees of soul-searching are always done, with the public suddenly interested in what institutions are out there to prevent emergence of violent psychopaths. But given America's plethora of groups that could serve this sort of purpose, ranging from Parent-Teacher Associations to anonymous helplines to religious and social community groups (and comparative lack of such systematic support in Taiwan), it is hard to believe that any number of investment in so-called "prevention" can entirely eradicate even the slimmest possibility of something similar reoccurring in the future.
On the contrary, the fact that people are so deeply engrossed in soul-searching has, ridiculously enough, made a strange hero out of the killer himself. In the past days, Facebook groups honoring the 21-year-old in question has emerged, and his alma mater has issued "heart-warming" statements calling him a member of the family. The dubiously positive attention is supposedly consistent with Taiwan's image as a "caring, civilized society," but instead may only serve to strengthen the resolve of others that are on the brink of mental collapse themselves and looking for their personal issues to be recognized "warmly" by society at large.
Weird cult of personality for the killer also stands in direct contrast to society's stance toward people like him prior to his now-famous violent acts. Not just Taiwan, but all Asian societies suffer from need to enforce social conformity among all members. Anyone who seeks to escape a specific behavioral mold given by social expectations, like the killer this time, are forced to live in their own social isolated circles, repressing their own desires and suppressing their sense of hatred toward the society that abandoned them for who they really are. Others choose to not see their social isolation as anything more than "introverted."
In essence, it is the denial of the society at large that those who withdraw themselves from social participation, that may ultimately be the creator of violent monsters. With such a mentality of denial, even if psychopaths are manged to be found before they develop knack for violence, it might still be impossible to stop the determination for violent self-expression. It is because those trying to "help" the psychopaths will be so focused on changing the character of their subjects to something more "normal" that they exacerbate the psychopaths already present hatred to society for not accepting them for who they are.
In narrating a valid social response for such tragedy, people seem to forget one thing: that psychopaths are NOT doomed to kill. They may be mentally lacking in some forms of empathy toward others, but that does not automatically correlate to violence. Their devious energies can be channeled to something productive if others can accept their very nature not as dangerous but simply different. It is only when the social mainstream assign some sort of condescending moral value to the psychopaths' belief systems that the situation implodes. When the psychopaths try to break free, the results are not pretty.
What particularly piqued the author's interest, though, the sheer attention this incident has garnered in the course of last few days. Almost all other news of the day, whether it be another military coup in Thailand or market explosions than killed more than 30 in western China, seemed to disappear from coverage, leaving more room for the subway incident despite the clear knowledge that further reporting will not even be especially productive in a time when everyone is still in some sort of psychological shock. Some cynical comments are even out there to say the newspapers can be lazy for few days and not find real news.
But interestingly enough, people here are lapping up all the successive and increasingly meaningless follow-up reports. That is the impact of a violent incident in a society that deem itself one of the safest in the world. Indeed, when the author was talking about the event with a few Asian-Americans, confusion was expressed on just fixated the local populations are on the event. After all, in America, the likes of this 21-year-old regularly shoot up schools, workplaces, malls, and just in general go on public rampages. The frequency of such tragedies in America has made its residents highly desensitized.
Yes, certain degrees of soul-searching are always done, with the public suddenly interested in what institutions are out there to prevent emergence of violent psychopaths. But given America's plethora of groups that could serve this sort of purpose, ranging from Parent-Teacher Associations to anonymous helplines to religious and social community groups (and comparative lack of such systematic support in Taiwan), it is hard to believe that any number of investment in so-called "prevention" can entirely eradicate even the slimmest possibility of something similar reoccurring in the future.
On the contrary, the fact that people are so deeply engrossed in soul-searching has, ridiculously enough, made a strange hero out of the killer himself. In the past days, Facebook groups honoring the 21-year-old in question has emerged, and his alma mater has issued "heart-warming" statements calling him a member of the family. The dubiously positive attention is supposedly consistent with Taiwan's image as a "caring, civilized society," but instead may only serve to strengthen the resolve of others that are on the brink of mental collapse themselves and looking for their personal issues to be recognized "warmly" by society at large.
Weird cult of personality for the killer also stands in direct contrast to society's stance toward people like him prior to his now-famous violent acts. Not just Taiwan, but all Asian societies suffer from need to enforce social conformity among all members. Anyone who seeks to escape a specific behavioral mold given by social expectations, like the killer this time, are forced to live in their own social isolated circles, repressing their own desires and suppressing their sense of hatred toward the society that abandoned them for who they really are. Others choose to not see their social isolation as anything more than "introverted."
In essence, it is the denial of the society at large that those who withdraw themselves from social participation, that may ultimately be the creator of violent monsters. With such a mentality of denial, even if psychopaths are manged to be found before they develop knack for violence, it might still be impossible to stop the determination for violent self-expression. It is because those trying to "help" the psychopaths will be so focused on changing the character of their subjects to something more "normal" that they exacerbate the psychopaths already present hatred to society for not accepting them for who they are.
In narrating a valid social response for such tragedy, people seem to forget one thing: that psychopaths are NOT doomed to kill. They may be mentally lacking in some forms of empathy toward others, but that does not automatically correlate to violence. Their devious energies can be channeled to something productive if others can accept their very nature not as dangerous but simply different. It is only when the social mainstream assign some sort of condescending moral value to the psychopaths' belief systems that the situation implodes. When the psychopaths try to break free, the results are not pretty.
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