suicide note

[Chris Burford]

At 02:35 24/04/99 -0500, dave wrote:
>digloria at mindspring.com wrote:
>
>> Eric's suicide note from WSJ.  Anyone know what the last line 12Skitzo
>> might mean?
>
>"12" and "Skitzo" are references to two songs by Insane Clown Posse from
>Detroit, best described as the quintessential stupid suburban outcast
group (I
>write this as a music lover and former suburban outcast myself, albeit nearly
>a generation removed). The songs: 
>
>"12" > http://pw1.netcom.com/~jgiovenc/12.htm
>
>"Hokus Pokus" > http://pw1.netcom.com/~jgiovenc/hokus.htm
>
>Their lyrics are rife with gratuitous sex and violence, with a strong
>apocalyptic bent that supposedly culminates with their as-yet unreleased
sixth
>album. The mileau they inhabit is often pejoratively defined by upper-class
>whites as "wigger" (sic), i.e., african-american identified whites. For
>context, one can read hostile commentary re. the group ICP (and "white trash"
>[sic] in general) here:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Strand/2525/trash.html
>
>This reveals some interesting dynamics vis-a-vis the ideological space Harris
>and his cohort felt themselves a part of, especially in relation to
class/race
>issues in Littleton and beyond, and as discussed so far on this list. Any
>apologetics for Harris and Klebold would be severely misguided, but it would
>be remiss not to consider the origin of their torment and the conditions that
>led to their abhorrent actions. That they may have identified with ICP as
>noted above, not only on a simplistic level with respect to the vengeful
>fantasies portrayed in the lyrics but also with the social mileau ICP
might be
>construed as representing (of which they were surely aware), sheds an
>interesting light on many of the analyses that have been presented thusfar.
>
>-- 
>
>/  dave  /

The first two sites as listed were unobtainable but I see from the ICP
website the two songs refer to pipe bombs, and 12 dying. Both songs are
schizophrenic in tone. 

I see the last web-site dave quotes  argues...


> Work ethic for white trash is typically low. They get poor grades because
they don't  
> try, but they don't seem to care. White trash won't go to college and
will end up in 
> blue collar jobs with little advancement.

Sounds like lumpen intelligentsia, but resentful that they have not been
welcomed into middle class acculturation with open arms. The term "suburban
outcast" sounds expressive. Presumably thay can continue for a small space
of time on their parents' money. But hate the dependency.

Some sort of subjective rebellion against the hypocrisies and
contradictions of middle class education, is pretty common. Many supposed
left wing views stem from this and agonise over a difference between the
working class with higher education ("middle class") and the working class
without higher education. 

But the weakness of the left means there is no progressive channel for this
subjective rebellion. In fact left opportunist marxist errors contribute to
the social context of  nihilism. 

Chris Burford

London