Decius wrote:

flynn23 wrote:
equally ill-formed continuum. There's no silver bullet here.

Sure, the totality of the circumstances that created this particular result is a complex milieu involving the intersection of Harris's psychopathy with Kliebold's depression, the firearm culture in Denver, the Internet, video games, KMFDM, American History, BMW, and bowling. But there is an active ingredient and there are flavorings. Changing the flavorings would not have prevented this, it just would have manifested differently, and the flavorings alone do not cause this sort of event. The active ingredients are necessary and the most important active ingredient here is clinical psychopathy. If Harris was capable of empathy the result would have been not just slightly different but dramatically different. If we had a better understanding of why that happens, how to identify it, and how to treat it, and we applied that knowledge systemically, we might have identified Harris. Changing KMFDM or video games or firearm availability doesn't get you near the same kinds of results.

Me personally? I would never change KMFDM.

But I think you are missing the point. I don't think Harris was that far gone. He was just a typically isolated and frustrated teen. In the 50's, they smoked cigarettes and wrote naughty poetry. In the 60's, they did drugs and had premarital sex. In the 70's, they pierced their noses with safety pins. In the 80's, they shopped and dressed up like whores. In the 90's, they made music that was so obnoxious and gauling that it was practically inaccessible to themselves, let alone the parents they were trying to piss off.

It just so happens that today's form of rebellion is murder. There's nothing shocking enough anymore. Everything has already been done. So if you really want to break with convention and differentiate yourself, kill people. Fantastically.

RE: Columbine