Class warfare...why do the productive, wealthy people get demonized and killed?

Question

Just because someone has worked hard and was rewarded with wealth, that gives others an excuse to demonize and kill them?

Look what happened in Virginia:

BLACKSBURG, Va., , April 17, 2007 (UPI) -- Alleged Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-hui reportedly left a note listing his grievances against "rich kids"

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/04/17/cho_complained_about_rich_kids/

Answer 1

Class envy can be very nasty with some unpleasant consequences. Amazing how Dems make a living out of exploiting the envious and consistently fanning the flames of class warfare (e.g., estate taxes, even more progressive tax rates, etc.).

Answer 2

Cho obviously had serious mental health issues. Maybe the "rich kids" had access to quality health care... including mental health care ... that he didn't. Who knows????

I hate that this tragedy is being used as a mirror for the Conservatives, Liberals, Christians, NRA and now the Upper Income Bracket to narcissistic-ally debate Their issues.

Typical disenfranchised students don't go around shooting themselves or others. Cho was a sick-mixed up kid, that for whatever reason, didn't get the mental health help he needed. He pulled the trigger. Ultimately, it was no one else's fault. Why would you feel the need to defend?

Why not turn our attention towards the victims, the survivors and their families in their time of tragedy and grief? Other questions can wait.

Answer 3

I will assume that you either have wealth or identify with those who do. I congratulate you if this is the case.

Yes, it is selfish to keep everything to yourself.
It is also selfish for others to want what you have earned.

Both are failures, and both pertain to resentment on both sides.

Kids are sent to these campuses to earn their way into a "meritocracy," to offset inherited wealth by increasing their opportunity through education. Maybe this concept was lost on Cho, or maybe he realized that the American Dream is still a dream, and that he wasn't going to get unlimited help turning that dream into a reality.

The kid got into Virginia Tech, not an easy feat. He had enough brains to qualify, and to learn a second language. I'm willing to bet that if he hadn't been shocked to find a virtual caste system in this land of opportunity, he may have liked his chances playing the game out there. Something got to him.

Every country has some form of royalty, even ours - it's a natural human tendency to elevate some above others, and for those so honored to feel they deserve it.

We teach equality and opportunity as a "serving suggestion," but some people misunderstand it as an entitlement. The way we portray ourselves to the rest of the world as the "land of milk and honey" can lead some to this mistaken conclusion, especially in other cultures. We know it's only partly true.

It is up to each of us, our families, and our friends, to make it happen. From what I've read on these posts, conservatives seem to be more in tune with this concept - that success is part luck, part work, and part opportunity.

I have also read plenty on the other side to indicate that these ratios should be tinkered with, in an effort to "even the playing field." In fact, we've been doing just that in this country for hundreds of years, and the results are mixed at best.

Year by year, it is never, ever the same. We experiment, we throw beads to the masses in the great Mardi Gras of life, and some people wind up with more than others. I am not shocked that life isn't "fair," but I have to allow for the fact that some people can't - for whatever reason - handle it.

I hope that the questioner realizes that this may look like war, but it's not. It's business as usual, except in this case a particularly tragic example. People who have, and people who don't will strive against each other as long as there are people and things to possess.

If you feel you have earned everything you have, remember there are plenty of people out there who disagree. They think you lucked into it, at least in part, and they'll never see the difference.

There will always be another Cho out there waiting to snap, who will think you are keeping him down, who will want to go out in a blaze of glory and take you with him.

If you indeed earned what you have, and have any business sense at all, it is urgent that you to apply it to the real world, not just to your business. How successful would you be if you stood alone against all others, said it's all yours and should be, never offered a deal, never conceded to a customer, just closed your doors and told everybody to go away?

The Chos of the world see the wealthy just that way. They think you don't want to engage in commerce with them, just want them to get by on their own and mind their own business at the bottom of the hill on which your mansion stands. Is it possible that without thinking about it much, you may project that image? Change it. Change it now.

I don't think the incident you cite was a dead canary, but it could be. The more we cordon ourselves off from each other behind gated communities and exclusive clubs, the more it will appear that a battle line has been drawn. Don't give tomorrow's psychopaths the excuse to cross that line in desperation.

If you are not willing to share what you have earned, you are entitled to feel that way, but keep those feelings to yourself. Express, instead, a fervent desire to share your knowledge, expertise, and culture with the growing number of those who feel cut off from hope. They need a chance to belong, too. You will then appear more attainable, more of what others would aspire to be.

Change the image - it's yours to remake. If you can do that, you will change cultural expectations, remove the excuses, disarm the critics, and most importantly, make it much less likely a smart, resourceful kid like Cho will be able to fashion a demon to kill.

Answer 4

Yes well I think we all have bad people in our particular demographic. How about there are no "freedom fighters", lets call them a case of conscious for people that live outside of ethics but inside the law.

Answer 5

Well since the rich got killed it will likely cause a change for the better, I doubt however he was able to target rich kids specifically. God knows when the poor die daily in Iraq nothing changes.

Answer 6

Because as soon as you start making good money you're automatically labeled lazy and greedy. People cry about how others become rich off of a parents business after they die and crap... It's almost as if they hate rich people because they're parents aren't millionaires who hands them cash. It's not these peoples fault that Americans are making these people rich.

I say that it is not the rich who are greedy, but the envious poor who constantly cry about the rich.

Answer 7

He ALSO spoke against "debauchery", I don't know why you included that part as well. Sounds like a really angry person, I don't think politics played into what he did.

Answer 8

well... clearly you don't know anyone who's wealthy... if you think they all have worked hard and have been rewarded with wealth...

odd? you would think that you would know at least one rich person?

it really all comes down to the classic example of Marie Antoinette... did she work harder than the citizens?

Answer 9

Because most of them are greedy snobs! Share the wealth and Karma will reward you!

Answer 10

It could just as easily been the other way round.