Examining violence: Why didn't we shoot up our schools? (1110 hits)
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Submitted by Forensic (they made me this way) Girl (View user info) at 2007-04-17 22:48:19 EDT
In the wake of the Virginia Tech shooting, and as more information is released, one overall question hovers; why did he do it?
This question was asked post Columbine.
Post Springfield, Oregon when Kip Kinkel murdered both his parents, two students, and wounded 22 others at Thurston High School. The previous day he was arrested, but released, for bringing a gun to school.
Post Jonesboro, Arkansas when 13 year old Mitchell Johnson and 11 year old Andrew Golden killed one teacher, four students, and wounded 10, picking them off as they fled (from a false alarm) into the yard.
And before we pigeonhole school shootings as a uniquely American phenomenon, we need to remember that there have been incidents of school shootings in: Scotland, Yemen, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden.
So while everyone wrings their hands and asks why, let's step back for a moment and ask, "why not?"
What keeps you on the straight and narrow? What stops any of us from grabbing a gun, poison, club, or garrote and exacting our own revenge on those who we perceive to have wronged us?
Oh, but Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were disturbed! They were obsessed with violent video games! They listened to Marilyn Manson! They were bullied! They wore black trench coats! It was obvious why they did it, they were very troubled boys!
Is it really obvious, or are we just looking for commonalities that soothe us into thinking these incidents are the actions of disturbed youths? If we allow for the possibility that anyone, under sufficient duress, could pick up a weapon and murder people, then we would have to allow for the possibility that we ourselves are capable of the same actions.
Think about all the high schoolers and young adults you know. How many of them play violent video games, listen to gothy music, dress in peculiar ways, and have experienced some form of bullying or fall victim to the dynamics of the social order of children? Have all of them grabbed guns and shot up their schools? Of course not, and to assume that every odd, quirky, or troubled child is a potential mass murderer is folly. But remember also, to dismiss them as simply odd, quirky, or troubled adolescents do them (as well as the rest of us) a huge disservice. I'm sure that Kinkel, Harris, and Klebold's behavior was minimalized at the time (pre-shooting) too.
As they say, hindsight is always 20/20.
I make a call to all students of human behavior; instead of always focusing on apparent common pathologies of these youthful killers, let us too examine more intently the commonalities of those who do not murder.
Instead of assuming that people who murder are abnormal, let's try assuming that inside each one of us is a burgeoning lethal killer. Let's accept that, under the right circumstances, each human on the face of this Earth, can and will kill another human being(s).
I'll start.
There are a few very specific people I can think of who I would love to murder. I'm very serious. I would love to level a weapon at their heads and pull the trigger or choke the life out of them with my bare hands. I can almost feel the immense satisfaction I would feel as I watch them suck in their last breath. Even right now, I can picture it.
So what exactly is stopping me? With a small amount of effort, I can obtain a weapon (not necessarily a gun) and seek the individual(s) out. With some stealth and planning, I could reasonably avoid immediate apprehension (if at all). By applying tactical strategy, I could formulate a plan of attack to overpower my potential victims who are physically stronger than I. By devoting enough time and energy to it, I could feasibly carry out these murders.
So why don't I?
I have my own reasons I suppose. Maybe I don't want to go to prison. Perhaps I don't want to deprive their loved ones of their presence. Or maybe it is because I believe that it isn't my right to decide who lives and dies. Perhaps I'm scared of being murdered myself if the job is botched. Maybe I'm unsure of my capacity to actually be able to take another's life. Maybe it's all of these things and more.
So why don't you?
Every one of us has had encounters with people who we grow to loathe so much that the thought of killing them has entered our minds. For that matter, every one of us has pondered suicide at one point or another. We have all thought about acting unethically to further our own interests. People who say otherwise are lying or deluded.
My point is that while we examine the psyches of murderers, rapists, and violent habitual offenders, perhaps we should also examine the variables that stop us from committing violence and murder. Perhaps that will help us to understand.
And prevent.
We owe it to ourselves. After all, only examining one property of behavior (pathology) is like viewing only one side of a 3D sculpture.
Oh yes, one final thing, did you know that on January 29th 1979, one Brenda Ann Spencer, 16 year old female, fired on elementary school children in San Diego, killing two men and wounding eight students and a police officer?
Later she told a reporter, "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."
Later still this early incidence of a school shooting inspired the song "I Don't Like Mondays" by The Boomtown Rats.
I Don't Like Mondays
The silicon chip inside her head
Gets switched to overload.
And nobody's gonna go to school today,
She's going to make them stay at home.
And daddy doesn't understand it,
He always said she was as good as gold.
And he can see no reason
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
The telex machine is kept so clean
As it types to a waiting world.
And mother feels so shocked,
Father's world is rocked,
And their thoughts turn to
Their own little girl.
Sweet 16 ain't so peachy keen,
No, it ain't so neat to admit defeat.
They can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to be shown?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
All the playing's stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with her toys a while.
And school's out early and soon we'll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die.
And then the bullhorn crackles,
And the captain crackles,
With the problems and the how's and why's.
And he can see no reasons
'Cause there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die?
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
Tell me why?
I don't like Mondays.
I want to shoot
The whole day down.
User Reviews
Submitted by iambetteratit (user info) at 2008-07-08 02:48:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Fear of reprisal, from the law and from his or her family. I know that If somone killed a member of my family I would do all i could to kill them or to make them suffer in return... is that a fucked viewpoint? yup. Does it change the fact that it's in our nature? Nope
Submitted by Phallic_Cymbals (user info) at 2008-07-08 02:15:04 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-04-19 08:40:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-04-18 00:30:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There's another explanation I think you've completely ignored. Demonic possession.
I'm serious. Hear me out...
===
lololol
___
That makes me miss ETS. He was good for the "laugh out loud"s
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-04-19 08:41:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
btw forensic, u should read on Marc Lépine, one of our famous school killer. he had very special hate toward women and killed 14 of 'em.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-04-19 08:40:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-04-18 00:30:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There's another explanation I think you've completely ignored. Demonic possession.
I'm serious. Hear me out...
===
lololol
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2007-04-19 06:02:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I can see this VT killers trail of thought, from I'm gonna kill my ex / this chick I'm obssessed with and her new fella, blam blam.
OK, I got two corpses, I'm fucked.
So I'll wait it out, post my video to CBS, write my note, grab more ammo, cuz I'm gonna have to top myself now, but I don't wanna do it on my own in my dorm. Fuck it, I'm gonna go out in a blaze of crazy! - To the Uni!
That's the point where the killer in him showed, personally, if I held as little value on my own life and was upset enough I'd have killed the first two, fair play, then myself - bam. The interesting point is where he decided to head to the uni and take 30 others with him.
There are teenagers wanting to do this all over the world, the only problem is they can't get their hands on guns without risking long jail scentences.
God bless the USA.
Submitted by sexualchocolate1984 (user info) at 2007-04-19 05:57:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice post.
But wasn't the one in Scotland a full grown man? - Not a student.
Submitted by Sphagnum (user info) at 2007-04-18 18:35:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Kill 'em all
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-04-18 16:47:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm sure everyone in their high school years knew the ONE kid, the kid who sat by himself at lunch, and never said a word in class. Even during discussions, when the teacher would try to rope them in, they wouldn't speak. They purposely sealed themselves off from society and their peers. These are the kids who shoot up schools.
I look at the three or so kids out of a science class of sixteen who don't speak--not necessarily the nerds, just the antisocials--and wonder if any of them could be the next to snap.
Submitted by Method (user info) at 2007-04-18 16:16:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I think about you and touch myself, FG
Submitted by Barnymeinhoff (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:55:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ICO (user info) at 2007-04-18 15:22:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
And before we pigeonhole school shootings as a uniquely American phenomenon, we need to remember that there have been incidents of school shootings in: Scotland, Yemen, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden.
The only 'school shooting' we had here in the Netherlands was more of an angry retaliation than complete, all-out zany bastardism. One dude walked in and shot someone from the school (who expelled him the day before), dropped his gun, and repórted to the police station. See the difference between doing it out of anger and doing it for, I don't know, fun?
Before you pigeonhole every incident in a school with a school shooting like Columbine or this latest thing, please remember that the crazed gunman shit is something else than one stupid motherfucker shooting another slightly less stupid motherfucker.
Submitted by indoninja (user info) at 2007-04-18 13:52:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
There are alot of people I say I hate, or who piss me off, but.
To be honest there really isn't a single person I think I would kill because I hate them, or want to hurt them or their family. I have never been wronged to that extent. Even if I knew I could get away with it, I still don't think I am there. It isn't just fear of incarceration, or being killed. I am not really religious anymore but the right and wrong instilled in me growing up through religion is stuck there. I think most people are probably on the same page (maybe not, maybe all those emo kids who have say they have no problem ending life aren't full of shit)
However I would have no problem killing an intruder in my house, or someone who was in the act of hurting my family.
Submitted by creep_firebombing (user info) at 2007-04-18 13:50:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I want you so hard.
Submitted by inion_de_trua (user info) at 2007-04-18 13:45:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
consequences both legal and spiritual.
and the amount of effort it would take to coordinate that crap. i dunno, never that angry? ingrained in us that killing is wrong and for most people that sticks?
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-04-18 13:23:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I would love to level a weapon at their heads and pull the trigger or choke the life out of them with my bare hands. I can almost feel the immense satisfaction I would feel as I watch them suck in their last breath. Even right now, I can picture it.
------
and then, I cum.
btw, Brenda Spenser was up for parole a few months ago - she was denied. Apparently, being locked up for 25 years doesn't make you any less of a psycho...
Submitted by Zebra (user info) at 2007-04-18 13:18:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I think this shows more about the pathology of the poster than society in general.
Many users seem to relish tired variations of -2DIE and such, but your contributions along those lines seem to hold an extra measure of ingenuity.
If ever I hear news of a tragic hospital slaughter, my thoughts, and the thoughts of ubersite, will be with you.
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:57:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Sure sign that a kid will grow up fucked: They burn insects, they kick dogs, and they have an un-natural obsession with other people's hoo-hah's.
Submitted by bart (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:38:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
When I was young, I was taught that killing people was wrong.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:35:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Oh. Right. Swell post, FG.
Fucked up people are sure more interesting than The Normals. It's unfortunate that, typically, people have to die before the investigations can begin and the details are shared.
Submitted by Orgasmatron (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:34:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:06:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's nearly impossible to purge this song from my head once I'm reminded of it. It's a great song.
I heard on radio news today some suggestions for how teachers/parents/professors can attempt to distinguish creative writing from signs of possible trouble. I always cringe when I hear "he had written some troubling stories.." because creativity can be so misinterpreted- hell, several here on Uber *cough*kaos*forensic*orgasmatron*cough* have written some gloriously disturbing material. But their suggestion was to look for sudden changes in behavior in conjunction with such writing to determine whether the issue should be addressed. Since I've never heard you admit you'd like to murder people before, fg, I'm afraid I may have to recommend you for surveillance. Bizarre human behavior is so fascinating.
---
Maybe I should get myself arrested just so someone can look into things like a woman de-sexing herself with shears, men who love to go down on women during their periods, and a guy painting pictures with his dead lover's blood and fluids JUST SO THEY CAN FINALLY GET THE CRITICAL EXAMINATION THEY DESERVE.
I'm a good boy. Or so my knives all tell me.
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:25:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
i thought most experts agreed that these shootings are the result of paranoid schizophrenia (not games or marylin manson) but that the public will seek other explanations because of the media attention those shootings get, despite the fact that murder happens everyday.
in other words, those people are fucked in the head and go out in a spectacular way that captures the collective imaginary.
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2007-04-18 12:23:54 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2007-04-18 09:28:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by ChaosJester (user info) at 2007-04-18 07:54:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well developed and thoughtful, if unorthodox, theory.
Also, I see that someone besides myself is a little worried that they might be a bit sociopathic.
Sweet...
Submitted by Flying_buttmonkey (user info) at 2007-04-18 07:49:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-04-18 06:39:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-04-18 11:32:19 BST (#)
Ranking: 1
Youve made a wee error there in that the shooting in Dunblane, Scotland wasn't a disgruntled schoolkid but a pissed off middle aged paedophile
====================
That was a really weird day. Our school basically shut down and we all had to sit in our classrooms discussing it. I was in P6 or P7 at the time and I remember all the girls in our class were crying and shit. Mental
----
I remember that. I remember feeling so sick when I heard about the teachers who had been hacked to pieces protecting the little kids. Very, very weird day indeed.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2007-04-18 07:48:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
One of the commonalities that we who do not shoot up schools share is the real sense of our own worth. If one places no value on your his/her own life - not just being alive but one's potential for good - the human ego makes it impossible for one to really believe that anyone else's life is of value either. School shooters may act as though they should be feared because of the mystery with which they surround themselves. The 'Trenchcoat Mafia', for example. It's a front to hide their fear and lack of confidence. Everyone feels those things to some extent but a few allow their self-doubt to become their core. Self-destructive behavior follows and the gradient is from daredevil syndrome at one end through violence obsession to emo and on to mass murder at the other end.
I own guns and and have used one lawfully in defense to a threat to life. I do not in any way advocate banning guns nor do I think the V Tech shooting calls for any further laws on the subject. It does call for the enforcement of the existing laws and the understanding that, as tragic as it is, dangerous people exist and will act. You may recall that a while back a group of people flew a couple planes into a couple buildings in NYC killing over 3000 people. Not a single gun involved there, just a coordinated effort by several dangerous people. Different from the Columbine school shooting only in scale and the minor detail of the mechanism.
Submitted by HurtByTheSun (user info) at 2007-04-18 06:39:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-04-18 11:32:19 BST (#)
Ranking: 1
Youve made a wee error there in that the shooting in Dunblane, Scotland wasn't a disgruntled schoolkid but a pissed off middle aged paedophile
====================
That was a really weird day. Our school basically shut down and we all had to sit in our classrooms discussing it. I was in P6 or P7 at the time and I remember all the girls in our class were crying and shit. Mental
Submitted by The_taste_of_Monkeys (user info) at 2007-04-18 06:32:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Youve made a wee error there in that the shooting in Dunblane, Scotland wasn't a disgruntled schoolkid but a pissed off middle aged paedophile
Submitted by Capsize (user info) at 2007-04-18 05:47:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I dunno. I reckon it might be something to do with people's tolerence levels. Anyway.
There's a baby lizard climbing slowly down my monitor. Go lizard, go!
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2007-04-18 05:28:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I remember hearing on a monty python sketch that a murder, a murderer, is nothing more than an extroverted suicide. Hilarious as the joke is, I can't help but wonder if there isn't a little truth in it.
Submitted by Berty (user info) at 2007-04-18 05:22:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't want to kill anyone, I did when I was a child though. That was probably just fallout angst from my parents divorce though.
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2007-04-18 04:22:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Whooooa....
It's too early for deep, considered thinking, but here we go anyway.
Most people, like yourselves, probably have a select few people that they would love to kill, for whatever reason. As for why they don't, then I think it all depends on the driving factors behind why it is they want to kill them in the first place.
Revenge, maybe? But revenge for what? Has someone ruined your life? How? Financially? Emotionally?
If someone did something to me personally that would make me want to kill them, I suppose the reason why I wouldn't is because I would consider several things:
The people who love him.
The people who love me, whose lives would be affected if I were to go to prison.
However, if someone did something to someone I loved that made me want to kill them, that's a different matter. Because now, the reason I want to kill them has nothing to do with me directly. There's a moral sense of 'doing what's right', and an inbuilt human instinct to protect those close to you.
This instinct is often more powerful than the need for gaining retribution over something that has happened to you personally. Maybe because you feel you can 'skate it off', or however you want to put it. But as humans, we feel we can judge the mentality of others better than they can themselves, and the desire to 'teach the motherfucker that did this a lesson' increases exponentially.
But emotion is a bitch, and no matter how much you want to inflict revenge and gain justice for your loved ones, I think it's the sense of 'doing what's right' that would stop me pulling the trigger.
But like I said. It's too early for this, and the coffee machine here is out of order, which means I have to go all the way up to the next floor.
Man, I could kill that maintenance guy......
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-04-18 01:49:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by hidden101 (user info) at 2007-04-18 01:37:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by forensicgirl3 (user info) at 2007-04-18 01:15:58 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Certainly enough people believe in demons and demonic possession that we shouldn't dismiss it as a delusion system of beliefs.
Here's the problem with it though, the existence of demons and the spirit world has never been supported by the scientific community. They can't see it or measure it consistently.
I'm aware of the data from ghost hunters that show mysterious electrical activity that cannot be explained by environmental factors.
One requirement of the scientific method is that your data must be validated by other researchers.
When it comes to the spirit world, this hasn't happened yet.
Also, beliefs of demons and spirits can vary from culture to culture. One culture may strongly believe in spirits while another discourage those beliefs.
But perhaps we can look at BELIEFS in spirits as one aspect of behavior that influence whether someone takes another's life.
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-04-18 00:52:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-04-18 00:30:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
There's another explanation I think you've completely ignored. Demonic possession.
I'm serious. Hear me out...
I think we can all recall moments when we felt like someone or something was watching us. I think we've all had experiences in a certain room...at a certain time...when we felt a 'presence' lurking just out of sight. Given how little we really know about the nature of this reality bubble we're resigned to, I think it's is utter vanity, particularly for a scientist, to rule out the possibility of guiding spirits. Can we really ignore thousands of years of such beliefs for a couple hundred years of empirical (surface) thinking?
-------------------------------
I used to date a girl who said she walks with angels and demons every day, and who claimed to be able to project her mind outside her body, and also to be able to change streetlights at will. she used to tell me about how she'd build defenses in her mind to keep demons out, and i never knew what to think. i would be hanging out with her and if i went to lean over to kiss her or something, sometimes she'd say "niff" (not in front of friends), and explain that she had other friends in the room. Or we'd be sitting around and she'd start talking about how she wished i could feel the energy that just entered the room. honestly, i am attracted to the paranormal, but that's just wierd.
i dont believe a lot of the shit she says, and she might just be crazy. but if she does have those heightened senses...who knows. she talks about how her religion is useless to explain, because if we were able to understand it we'd already know about it.
Submitted by electrictoothsyndrome (user info) at 2007-04-18 00:30:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
"I have my own reasons I suppose. Maybe I don't want to go to prison. Perhaps I don't want to deprive their loved ones of their presence. Or maybe it is because I believe that it isn't my right to decide who lives and dies. Perhaps I'm scared of being murdered myself if the job is botched. Maybe I'm unsure of my capacity to actually be able to take another's life. Maybe it's all of these things and more.
So why don't you?"
----------
Good point.
But seriously...there is a rubicon, I think, that, once crossed, allows for the indiscriminate murder we see in these cases...a sort of "fuck it" moment when not only has your own life become unworthy of living, but the lives of others seem so meaningless and empty as to beg exstinguishment.
In this case it sounds to me like a growing hatred that could no longer be controlled. Can't say I don't understand the feeling. Sometimes I think that if it hadn't been for my upbringing, I would have gone out in some sort of blaze of glory long ago.
There's another explanation I think you've completely ignored. Demonic possession.
I'm serious. Hear me out...
I think we can all recall moments when we felt like someone or something was watching us. I think we've all had experiences in a certain room...at a certain time...when we felt a 'presence' lurking just out of sight. Given how little we really know about the nature of this reality bubble we're resigned to, I think it's is utter vanity, particularly for a scientist, to rule out the possibility of guiding spirits. Can we really ignore thousands of years of such beliefs for a couple hundred years of empirical (surface) thinking?
Also, what about the possibility that this person was systematically brainwashed? Desensitized to human suffering by TV, video games, movies, war, famine, disease, all the things we're bombarded with in this the age of world connectivity... Not hard to imagine a person with fantasies of violence and ha great amount of disgust for his fellow students one day playing an online shoot-'em-up and saying to himself..."fuck it".
Submitted by lechuza (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:53:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:24:46 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
but seriously, i am with hisnameistim on this one. i dont kill people because it's not a kind thing to do. i dont find joy in other people's pain and generally will go out of my way to help a stranger if he needs it. i just dont kill people. its not what i do.
Submitted by PerkMan (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:22:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well basically I just couldn't bring myself to do something so immoral. I mean I wouldn't someone to kill me so I wouldn't kill someone else.
Plus probably the guilt. I get all guilty if I give one of my buddies a hard time. I couldn't fathom killing someone and having the guilt on me all day. Plus I'm too nice for all that shit. I would rather give hugs. Yeah hugs instead of guns.
But on the other hand I would beat the tar out of someone. I would want them to live so they learn their lesson but really who am I to decide if someone should die. Who are any of us?
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:21:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
In my own field, I prefer to focus on static phenomena, the equilibrium, rather than...
Woo hoo! D'Backs just took the lead!!
...significant "events," or punctuations in the equilibria, as most of my colleagues prefer. I do this, partly, to present, purposefully, a counterpoint to my colleagues, who see only part of the picture. To better understand the "whole" of behavioural phenomena of the processual variety, one should consider both the "sexy" (eg, psycho killers) and the mundane (eg, the rest of us). So, yes, I agree with you.
Woo hoo I have "colleagues" and I love commas.
Oh, and, speaking of "sexy"...oh, nevermind.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:21:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
this line has five beats.
please quit moving your fingers.
srsly stop.
=======
HAHAHAHAHA
srsly
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:16:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
When I was younger I was a very awkward kid in school. It's not that I felt awkward, but I was just quiet. But I've always been intense, and when the quiet kid gets all excited outta nowhere, then people wonder. One of my buddies joked with me once that he thought I would blow up the school. I thought that was a rude thing to say so I hid in his dad's wine cellar and lopped his head off with a sicle. and then i invented poetry:
this line has five beats.
please quit moving your fingers.
srsly stop.
Submitted by DonovanMD (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:11:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Great post, well thought out and insightful too. The best of todays school shooting posts indeed.
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:09:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
well written, and interesting way to look at it. Here's why I don't:
Because it's wrong.
I believe all human beings have evolved an inherent moral system that we tend to obey to further ourselves as a species. It takes some form of an abnormality to convince oneself that it's OK to circumvent the moral route and go with the mass-murder route. I can't prove it, but it has been justified and reasoned by some people smarter than me.
Submitted by Sacrilicious (user info) at 2007-04-17 23:06:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's nearly impossible to purge this song from my head once I'm reminded of it. It's a great song.
I heard on radio news today some suggestions for how teachers/parents/professors can attempt to distinguish creative writing from signs of possible trouble. I always cringe when I hear "he had written some troubling stories.." because creativity can be so misinterpreted- hell, several here on Uber *cough*kaos*forensic*orgasmatron*cough* have written some gloriously disturbing material. But their suggestion was to look for sudden changes in behavior in conjunction with such writing to determine whether the issue should be addressed. Since I've never heard you admit you'd like to murder people before, fg, I'm afraid I may have to recommend you for surveillance. Bizarre human behavior is so fascinating.
Submitted by Zebra (user info) at 2007-04-17 22:58:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Interesting point of view.
Submitted by Coyote (user info) at 2007-04-17 22:54:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Other people aren't worth my time. Seriously. It would be a huge hassle to get away with killing people, and I have no interest at all in getting killed or caught.
People who kill people have no imagination.