The Edge of Random Violence

Unfortunately what appears to be random violence isn’t. The victim’s perception of random violence is seldom shared by perpetrator. Peyton Quinn in his book “A Bouncer’s Guide to Barroom Brawling...” suggests that unprovoked violence is the result of the victim being too happy. The perpetrator loaded with misfortune, unhappiness, locked into a dead-end with no conceivable way out, finds a target that seems too happy. So the theory goes.

Usually the targets are weaker, less able to defend themselves. The attack comes at some moment controlled by the aggressor, usually when the target is the weakest. With perverse logic, the more helpless the victim the better the target, so who could be a better victim then children? This seems to be the pattern we see reported from China, where depressed, failed business men attack grade school children.

In a dictatorship, were it is unlikely, impossible and inconceivable a private citizen could obtain a handgun, knives and even hammers are used.

What I find surprising is the success of these attacks in land considered the sun-source of martial arts. With the martial art tradition of China, how can one man with a knife, assault several teachers and manage to harm children? Where is Kwai Chang Caine when we need him? Well Mao took care of him. Outlawing traditional martial arts, Mao promoted something called Wushu. No matter what you read about it, any fighting style in which the entire blocking surface of the forearm is replaced with the palm in a rising block is the art of the dilatants.

The latest attack seems different.

http://editicnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/19/china.knife.attack/

CNN reports that 5 or 6 men rushed a college dorm in the pre-dawn morning attacking anyone in their way. Armed with knives and meat cleavers, nobody was killed, but several were injured. One student hand his hand chopped off.

The story makes me wonder. Was someone caught red-handed in the cookie jar? Maybe trifling with someone’s daughter or broke some taboo? I suspect the news media for their lack of veracity. How should I evaluate the Chinese government controlled news media?

It is especially troubling to see knives fall into the category of favorite tools of children killers. Every time I read about these incidents I feel knife collectors and admirers take a right hook to the face and get a collective shiner. There’s no beef steak for this shiner either. I wonder how long it will be before somebody gets the idea that maybe knives should not be sold out of hardware and department stores to the general public.