Eat The Press

Here Come The Frames

Jason Linkins |  Posted Tuesday April 17, 2007 at 01:11 PM

Douglas Adams once said of humanity that if their mouths ever stopped moving, their brains might suddenly start working. Here is a brief rundown of the emerging memes of the Virginia Tech shooting that will be threatening cognitive thought everywhere:

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS: One side is decrying "gun culture." The other side maintains that this is a slam-dunk case to be made for a heavily armed populace. We were bound to hear about this, and quickly, too--the National Rifle Association's headquarters is in Northern Virginia. You can expect both sides to immediately deploy factota to the various pundit shows to yell at one another while advancing no new thought and coming to no resolution.

THE JIM WEBB COROLLARY: Virginia Senator Jim Webb, who has issued a statement on the shootings, may very well find himself back in the center of controversy over a March 26th incident where his aide, Phillip Thompson was arrested for carrying Webb's loaded pistol into the Russell Senate Office Building.

EVERYONE IN CHARGE FAILED AND SHOULD BE FIRED: The heads of Virginia Tech President Charles Steger and Campus Police Chief W.R. Flinchum are already being called for. One can't help but sympathize with people caught in these crosshairs--their policies are likely to be no different from the ones college presidents and police chiefs have used and are continuing to use across the country. Nevertheless, they will find themselves facing heat for something that they couldn't have planned for even if they had the benefit of being able to analyze the sort of response that was offered as an audience to the event, rather than participants in it. Slate at least endeavors to explain just what kind of authority campus police typically have.

"INSTANT PREJUDICE": Salon has a piece from Andrew Leonard on how "[i]ndividual prejudices inform our comprehension of any new tragedy much faster than facts." Conclusions were jumped to, even by those who should have known better.

CREATIVE WRITING AND THE AGONIES OF ARMCHAIR PSYCHOANALYSTS: You'll likely hear more about how the assailant's work in a creative writing class raised red flags, which is bound to lead to a discussion on artistic freedom. As if someone who confined their literary efforts to happy smiling daisies wouldn't be considered disturbing.

VIDEOGAMES? REALLY?: MSNBC has already hosted a package with David Gregory featuring a guest who related how school shooters "train" on videogames. You know, like "Dungeons and Dragons" used to "train" people to wield broadswords and shoot flame out of their fingertips. But since this is like, Hillary Clinton's ONLY issue, you can expect a whole lot of chat.