Yes, they are actually edging closer to the root problem, finally. I’m impressed that all the discussion about this San Diego kid has been about the social situation he was in, not what kind of music he listened to. I don’t know what to say about Harris & Klebold, they were one of a kind (or two of a kind, rather.)
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Yes but going to school shouldn’t feel like walking into an airport or a courthouse, it gives the impression that you are walking into a possibly dangerous area. Which is true these days, I suppose.
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Considering how the media plays up each event…yes, yes it is. Used to be, if you shot up the place where you work, it’s national headlines for days. Now you might not get more than a blurb in the local paper.
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It seems to be universal that the jocks are the “cool” kids and the A-students are “nerds”. Maybe this is endemic to human nature and can’t be changed no matter how hard we try.
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No, what I mean is that when it comes to social status, quality of home life, hobbies, rich or poor, etc., they are all over the map. The only consistent indicator is being teased, and since such a high percentage of ALL kids are teased on a daily basis, it’s basically worthless as a pre-indicator. It’s not like serial killers who are nearly all 25-35, white, male, middle to upper class, sociable, etc.
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Not as many as they should.
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I don’t know the specific details, of course, but it’s hard for me to imagine any school life worse than what I went through, which is enough for me to empathize with his situation. I can’t figure out how you think ANYONE would go out of their way to be picked on, it makes no sense to me. I do remember kids who were always acting up and getting into trouble, possibly on purpose, but intentionally setting yourself up for constant, daily humiliation and psychological torture?? Get real.
Quite a distinction you are making there, saying that we should grieve for the families (whose children may have been the ones who teased him daily, and are therefore partly culpable) while the kid who suffered endlessly and felt he had no other recourse except to act out in a VERY extreme way should be utterly dismissed and in fact submitted to further humiliation and torture. Don’t lecture me on feeling empathy for the “victims” when you don’t even recognize that the shooter was perhaps an even bigger victim himself.
You know, I was going to say that I kind of empathized with school shooters to some extent, but after reading this, I think I’ll try to distance myself from JET’s POV as much as possible.
JET–we’re not all gonna get subpoenaed in a few weeks, are we? Keep your finger off the trigger, and have a coke and a smile.
First, to everyone who suggested I get psychological counseling…interesting idea, I’ll bring it up when I see my shrink tomorrow.
Duck Duck Goose: Yes, the people who teased him are at least partly at fault. There’s no way of knowing, of course, if he would have done the same thing if he had never been teased at all. But I’ll bet it had a helluva lot more influence than KMFDM or Quake.
dantheman: Regarding your last paragraph, we’re in the same boat and thank you for at least corroborating the fact that school teasing is NOT a wound that heals easily.
msmith537: For your sake and the sake of others, I am going to ignore your post outright. Consider yourself lucky.
Scylla: I was born.
J.E.T.
(P.S.: For the record, my psychiatrist does not believe that I am a true sociopath, I just pretend to be one. I think he’s wrong.)
As usual, nice insights, SW. But I would speculate that sociopathy (not “sociopathology”) is not “exceedingly rare,” but instead can be found among countless thousands of individuals with personality/dissociative disorders so severe that they would have no compunction about maiming, torturing, or killing anyone who gets in their way. The miracle is that most of these walking powder kegs are able to hold themselves together as long as they do, probably as a means of self-preservation in their bleak, deadened world. Our prison system (and graveyards) contains many, but others are on the loose.
Reacting with expressions of revulsion to JET’s vengeful fantasies is precisely what he revels in it, feeds off it, lives for. Your horror empowers him, reifying his narcissistic delusions and emboldening him to consider acting on them, which, of course, would culminate in his ultimate fantasy: international celebrity, courtesy of the media. He doesn’t want death–at least not his own. He wants attention, an issue his psychiatrist must battle with constantly.
(yawn) Sorry, JET, but you really bore me. See ya when you get another user I.D.
What a second. What did I do to you? I benefit from life but my happiness did not come at your expense. I stood up for the outcasts at my school. I gathered together all the rejects and anyone that messed with one of us had to mess with all of us. Had I known you I would have taken you in. And you offer me death?
Pain and suffering is not all life brings. It can also bring joy and happiness. I’m sorry that you have not experienced the good part of life. You seem to have let the bullies win. But why become one of them? Why add to the pain and suffering of life. Your position makes no sense. Pain and suffering passes. Death comes soon enough. Enjoy life and let others do the same.
It must be morbid curiosity that made me even open this thread. I was sickened by the title, and sickened even more by the OP. I can’t decide if you really believe this stuff, JET, or you’re just having some sick fun yanking our chains by starting off your posting career with a really offensive and insensitive series of statements.
That said, I can agree that some really horrendous stuff is allowed to happen in our schools at times. Unfortunately, the schools are staffed by humans, like anywhere else. You will find some incredibly empathetic, caring people, as well as some raging jerks, and everyone in between. Consequently, harassment is frequently allowed to go by the boards, particularly if the victim doesn’t know who to go to when it happens. (“It’s just words. Shake it off. Get over it. I can’t do anything about it if I didn’t witness it, since it’s just your word against his, etc.”)
Unfortunately, people just don’t get it. They continue to make fat jokes, nerd jokes, or other offensive comments to those outside the clique. They use the ability to put down others as a way to bolster their own poor self-esteem (usually because they have few merits upon which to build a self esteem.) They’re not being taught that being purposely hurtful and insensitive to others is not just being a jerk, but in this day and age it has become dangerous as well.
What really scares the hell out of me, though, is that through all the reporting of these school shootings, we are creating a monster. The “school rage” thing is being identified as THE way to express teen angst or respond to harassment. It’s upped the ante. When a loner who has faced harassment for years has finally built up enough rage to seek revenge, it’s no longer enough to lash out directly at the attacker. Now anyone who has existed in the same community and allowed the bad people to attack the “victim” are deemed just as evil and deserving of revenge. If you can’t come up with a revenge response as impressive as the one at Columbine, then obviously that would mean that you are not giving the pain you suffered its just revenge. We must cause even more death and more carnage than the previous school tragedy in order to truly honor the pain we have suffered and to prove that it, indeed, was truly the worst.
The fact is, though, that there is no humiliation vile enough to warrant these massive assaults like this. Random shootings and bombings harm innocent people, and the damage done to them and the people who love them is a hell of a lot more permanent and traumatic than anything which could have been done to the perpetrator. Speaking as a mother, I can imagine no hell on earth worth than losing my child in one of these senseless outbursts of anger.
JET, if you truly believe the things you said, I agree with many of the other posters and urge you to get help. Sounds as if you may be working on it already (possibly with someone who’s not much help…) Sometimes you have to work to find someone who can understand a problem and be of any assistance. If, on the other hand, you’re just yanking our chains… please go away.
[Mods: If you find that last line offensive, please delete.]
Then why don’t you kill yourself immediately? I notice that practically no one who thinks that death is preferable to life in the abstract ever seems to have the courage of their convictions.
Seriously, man. I suffered through high school pretty much as much as an eccentric queer geek can suffer, and I suffer from depression on a fairly regular basis, but at my lowest depths I’ve never stooped to the sheer absence of ethical consideration you seem to be advocating.
Take my word for it, as someone who has actually attempted suicide, that death is positively unquestionably NOT preferable to life. Not, even, to a painful life.
I stared death right in the face, and I quickly came to understand that death stinks. It’s not a “release” from pain or suffering, it’s absolute complete and total nothingness. When you’re alive, you experience relief from pain or suffering as a “good” feeling. Thus you might think, consciously or unconsciously, that death will give you this same feeling of “relief.” But it won’t. It can’t. When you’re dead, you don’t have feelings, good or bad. You aren’t aware that you even could have feelings. You’re not even aware that you’re dead. Because you’re dead. It’s like being knocked unconscious, except you never ever wake up. I’d say it was like being immersed in total blackness forever, except you won’t even be around to be aware of the blackness. 'Cause you’ll be dead.
I will not deny that there were times in school I wished I had an UNLOADED gun to SCARE people away from picking on me, but never did I want to kill someone. It was more I wanted to scare them away-like if I had telekinetic powers like Carrie, I could suspend my bullies from the ceiling, freak them out, drop them unharmed, and they’d leave me alone. I usually would witness instant karma sometimes-the girl who made my freshman year a living hell was being reduced to tears because of people saying nasty things about HER our senior year. I can’t say I didn’t relish the thought.
It is one thing to empathize with people who feel so tormented by the cruelty that is high school society. It is quite another to applaud these people when they turn around and kill.
Time will work out its own revenge. It’s not up to us. My plan is more to move on and make MY life a success, as the best revenge.