WTF?

Check this out, in case you haven’t heard about the violent murder (decapitation) on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba.

When I think about the victim, I understand and sympathize with the agony of the people who ever loved him in the only way that I can. The boy seems to have been loved by many from what I can gather online, which is wonderful and terrible at the same time. And I think I can empathize with the devastating WTF and the horror the victim must have felt with his last breath.

But mostly what I can think about is that the world may not be as predictable a place as I had once hoped in my childishness. All I really feel is WTF. The reason why I am reading and talking so much about this incident is because I want to understand why this has happened – and I want to understand it, because I am frightened at its randomness. I want to know that there was a reason why this happened, and I don’t care if it’s about chemical imbalances in the brain or an Oedipus complex, as long as it exists and is true.

Unlike in some incidents of extreme violence that ends with the perpetrator’s suicide, we have this guy in our hands, alive. That is a good thing, because he can answer our questions – that is, if we can ever trick him into talking to us – and I think we should ask him lots of questions. I firmly believe that every act of violence that happens amidst us is a phenomenon that reveals something about the society we live in.

A thought, also: we know that he has worked at Walmart and as a paper-delivery boy, low paying jobs often reserved for teenagers and immigrants with a poor grasp on English. So I was wondering, does his status as an immigrant and a member of the minimum-wage class matter in this context, when we are attempting to understand why? The feelings of alienation almost every first generation immigrant feels and the feelings of incompetence and impotence that comes with being stuck in a job one does not care for – is that a part of the picture? He is clearly an exception to the rule, but did these experiences put a pressure on the murderer’s incredibly fragile mental state?