it wsn't the royals who were killed
btw, I didn't stick that up in some 'omg! they tried to kill the royals' outrage. but there seems to be an exceptionally high number of random rage killings since the crash, and i was wondering whether we're in for much more of this kind of thing
i read a really good book about rage killings called 'going postal' recently, very depressing but rings true, in that the arguement the guy puts forward, entails slavery, bullying, institutional bullying, depressing work ethics regarding work since Regan etc..
Charlie Brooker talked about this phenomenon - and how it's inextricably linked to media coverage of it - in Newswipe recently. Then he had this renowned psychologist saying stuff like "I've been saying for years, DO NOT lead the story with the death toll..." - cue clip of news anchor doing just that - "...DO NOT show close-ups of the killer's face..." - ditto - "...DO NOT go on about how much a loner/misfit/'quiet, intense type' he was..." and so on. Really depressing to see news networks making the whole thing seem ghoulishly glamorous, even 'heroic' to a certain sort of mind, and so of course just setting the stage for the next one. I mean, how often are these kind of killings called 'copycat' incidents?
I think this was referred to in the V-tech thread. Can't say I wholly buy into it - are people subjected to more bullying at work than they were in the 20s/30s?
That said, clearly people lead more isolated lives and many white-collar environments probably encourage them to regard co-workers not as colleagues, or even comrades, but rivals.