Misplaced Manhood

When I read Cuong Tran and the Nguyen brothers absurd actions in Andrew Lam’s essay “Love, Money, Prison, Sin, Revenge”, I couldn’t help but be disgusted by the double blow capitalism and imperialism dealt to the defendants.  Though I, by no means, approve of their affected display of misplaced manhood, the system within they were raised holds equal blame for their actions.  First, their family was displaced by an ideological war escalated by imperialist intervention.  As Mr. Lam points out, the second wave of emigrants out of Viet Nam were predominantly poor and uneducated.  This means that, immediately upon entry in the United States, many were forced onto welfare.  With the Reagan-esque anti-welfare rhetoric and idea that the Vietnamese refugees were on the “losing side”, it doesn’t take long for ones self-esteem to crumble.  Enter capitalism, with its panacea of products designed to fill every void; especially the void of the damaged ego.  Fill the hurting soul with packaged fantasies in the form of epic action movies, and the soul becomes, specifically in the case of the Nguyen brothers and Cuong Tran’s case, extremely volatile.  In their case, the void that needed to be filled was shattered pride, a thirst for revenge, and a misplaced sense of patriotism towards a lost country.  Time and time again, capitalism acts as both a destroyer and a so-called healer; bringing necessary-but detrimental—changes to communities in one hand, then marketing the solution in the other.  I have to ask myself, what is the inevitable end?  Something tells me that this system of destruction cannot go on much longer.

Melody Yee

Section 2