James Holmes, the 24 year old man who created the greatest number of casualties in any mass murder in American history, at the movie multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, yesterday, is being described as a “loner” and a highly educated, “book smart” person, who was pursuing a doctorate in neuroscience at the University of Colorado.
While both details are true, there is already the sense that if one is a “loner” or highly educated, that will be used as a new weapon in the news media to label all people who are one or the other characteristic as automatically a danger to society.
Being a “loner”, being shy, is no more a danger sign than a person who is the “life of the party”, a “jock”, or a “social butterfly”, as many such cases also lead to criminal activities.
And just because someone is “book smart”, an intellectual, does not mean that he or she is dangerous either.
If we are going to attack the concept of educated, quiet scholars as dangerous, we will undermine our future in this nation, as being the opposite of these traits is not something we need to have more of, and to glorify, as media and the general public tend to do much too often!