Today more information was released on Hans Van Themsche’s motives for the killings through his lawyer. In my previous post I asked:
Is far-right ideology, in this case Vlaams Belang, responsible for poisoning his apparently unstable mind to such an extent that it would have inevitably led to murder, just like video games or heavy metal are sometimes blamed for violence, or is this just a hugely unfortunate yet isolated case of madness?
Well, it turns out to be a bit of everything.
Apparently Hans Van Themsche was enacting scenes from the popular and violent video game Grand Theft Auto. At one stage of this game players have to kill Spanish speaking immigrants and at the beginning of the game they need to buy a gun…
Van Themsche was an avid fan of violent video games in general. When he went on the rampage he was intoxicated, not by alcohol or drugs, but by his desire to kill himself. The reason why he chose foreigners, he said, was that he had been badgered by a foreigner at the age of thirteen. His family also pointed out that he is highly gifted (high IQ). He kept very much to himself and had social problems as a child. Once at boarding school he seemed to have felt better. His expulsion from this school appeared to have caused him to go over the edge. In short, a combination of elements have played a role and we are now looking at a case that resembles the 1999 Columbine shootings and the 2002 massacre by Robert Steinhauser in Erfurt, Germany.
Who is to blame? Generally hostile attitudes against foreigners? The video games? In any case, this tragic event will be used by many to illustrate their favourite causes, be it racism, violent video games, the lack of values in society or whatever, yet no explanation will ever be fully satisfying. In some ways the events remind me of the movie The Village in which a group of people decide to turn their backs on a violent society and create a brand new peaceful society of their own only to find evil lurking in their midst in the form of a deranged man. Basically, all their good intentions and political correctness notwithstanding, they could not prevent the dark side of one particular human nature from prevailing and smashing all their hopes. In the end, though, they reaffirm their values and continue with their quest for something better…
A few weeks ago, VT4 ran a CSI Miami episode about a group of gamers reenacting gameplay from a fictional video game. I bet he saw it. I wonder if VT4’ll take flak for it.
Gun control, video games, TV, eventually they’ll start taking about cruelty and bullying at school and then the decline of traditional values and the abandonment of the Church, before finally coming to the conclusion that nothing is to be done about the lone nut. And lo, nothing will be done because it’s true, there isn’t much to be done about the lone nut.
Been there, done that; emigrated in part to get away from it.
A significant number of people, often but not always very young people, prefer to become famous by going out in a blaze of gore and glory rather than be nothing. In America, it started to become rather commonplace in the 80s and 90s. The question is why should people think that they are destined to be nothings? I don’t know of anybody trying to give an answer. The only literature on the subject that comes to mind is the film Heathers, and the French novel Allah Superstar.
The reason why he chose foreigners, he said, was that he had been badgered by a foreigner at the age of thirteen.
Is Europe facing up to its responsibilities in the Global War on Badgering? Are we, in fact, objectively pro-badger? How can we resist the threat of badgering undermining the Enlightenment values that underpin our society?
Find out more in our next provocative update on Little Green Brussels Nonbadgers..
Oh dear: http://www.ejpress.org/article/news/8246
A Paris-based Jewish group has called for a “complete investigation†into the activities of a Flemish extreme-right party’s in Belgium and its links to racist killings in Antwerp last week.
And while we are at it: http://www.turkishweekly.net/news.php?id=31795
Headline reads: Racism Increases in Belgium
Yeah, I saw the Simon Wiesenthal Centre thing in La Libre this morning. The Wiesenthal Centre is something of a spent force politically – a lot of calls to arms about the “new anti-semitism” that kind of sputtered out – so I wouldn’t put much stock in it. The VB’s not openly anti-semitic these days, in fact it goes to some trouble to deny such notions.
A little note about Wiesenthal:
Why did the Belgian newspapers never wrote about other Wiesenthal statements and singled out only one?
http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=312458&content_id={3061BA85-D22F-4BC9-B8D7-D8C8153EF101}¬oc=1
http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=245506&ct=304774
http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=fwLYKnN8LzH&b=245494&ct=2221971
or even this related complaint to the antiracism center in Belgium:
http://www.antisemitisme.be/site/event_detail.asp?language=FR&eventId=366&catId=26
Anyone who lived in Stockholm in the early 90s can’t help but think of the parallels with John “Laser Man” Ausonius:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasermannen
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lasermannen (In Swedish, unfortunatley I don’t of any swedish-english online translation engine; if someone does…)
Last year an excellent dramatization was filmed. It’s based on a book by Gellert Tamas, which I’ve been told is also excellent.
I always feel slightly perplex me as to why people always have to react to disturbing acts by individuals by fitting them in some confortably simple category like foreigners, racists, or video game players, when it is obvious that people Van Temsche and Ausonius did what they did because they were lone outsiders that really didn’t belong to any group in society.
Here is a poem to express some thoughts on this. Formatting may be affected by this so if you are more interested the original is posted at http://manofissaquah.blogspot.com/2006_04_10_manofissaquah_archive.html
Grand Theft Auto
I don’t mean to say that Jimmy Hawk
Was a thief or a gangster on the run.
Despite the attitude and hip-hop talk
He was a gamer who paid for his fun.
And when they found his sister broken,
Beaten and shot and raped in the night,
He cried for the cops and laid his grief open
Not so much different than you or I might.
And after the killer was caught and frisked
And the news put his picture right next to hers,
With a t-shirt that said “GTA Rocks”
In the section above the soap opera blurbs,
James Alan Hawk busted all his game discs,
And changed all his clothes,
And took a sledge hammer to his Xbox.
Here is a poem to express some thoughts on this. Formatting may be affected by this so if you are more interested the original is posted at http://manofissaquah.blogspot.com/2006_04_10_manofissaquah_archive.html
Grand Theft Auto
I don’t mean to say that Jimmy Hawk
Was a thief or a gangster on the run.
Despite the attitude and hip-hop talk
He was a gamer who paid for his fun.
And when they found his sister broken,
Beaten and shot and raped in the night,
He cried for the cops and laid his grief open
Not so much different than you or I might.
And after the killer was caught and frisked
And the news put his picture right next to hers,
With a t-shirt that said “GTA Rocks”
In the section above the soap opera blurbs,
James Alan Hawk busted all his game discs,
And changed all his clothes,
And took a sledge hammer to his Xbox.
Apart from video games, some advertisements too drive people insane and led them commit some violence. There’s an urgent need to ban such stuff.