A knife darting out in a packed subway car. An assailant, chasing shoppers, stabbing wildly in the street.
These nightmares have played out in the minds of many South Koreans following a mass stabbing attack last week - the country’s second in as many weeks.
On 21 July, a man attacked commuters in the capital, killing one person and stabbing three more at a subway station. He later told police he lived a miserable life and “wanted to make others miserable too”.
Well if that isn’t a succinct summary of why many of these attacks happen. So often, they are carried out by alienated and angry young men who want to punish society for some reason.
They tend to be more dramatic in the US because citizens have access to guns, but the underlying causes are similar.
No way to figure what “some reasons” are but society must suffer. That’s a price people in charge are willing to pay.
I think any society that equates social worth with financial success is vulnerable to this tragic phenomenon, especially if the responsibility for failing to become “successful” is laid solely on the shoulders of the individual rather than on society itself.