Klebold was a pscyhopath who was unable to feel empathy. he was perfectly willing to lie, cheat, kill, and steal simply to get what he wanted - whatever it was. they have no sense of connection to other people. Harris was a depressive. Cullen says that mass murdering pairs have been psychopaths/depressives. (Harris, for instance, was along for the ride, and tried to stop events by telling other people about it, hoping to get caught before things went down)
Psychopaths engage in this sort of behavior - love loud, crazy, pulsating things like bombs, explosives, shoot em ups -- because it's a way to feel something, even if only temporarily.
Apparently, on the tapes they have of the shooters in the cafeteria, you see the two of them wandering around, stunned. students are cowering in fear under tables while the two of them, nothing having really worked the way they planned - none of the bombs went off -- were just sort of bummed. they could have kept on killing, but they didn't. they just looked around, emotionless, and then offed themselves. Cullen says that they probably were all amped up for the time of the lives, turned out to be a dud, and they were back to feeling lifeless, wooden, nothingness. So they offed themselves. They'd gotten what they could get out of shooting people, so they didn't shoot anyone else in the cafeteria once they realized their bombs hadn't gone off.
So, when it comes to columbine, the evidence doesn't seem to be of two kids who were enraged by the horror of life under capitalism Klebold was a kid who repeatedly expressed his belief that he was superior to everyone else on the planet, that no one deserved to breath oxygen, they were so dumb and inferior. Harris was a depressive.
I don't know enough about this latest scumbag to know what his issues were. But he was not employed, still in college. What little I have read suggests that he was very troubled kid.
At 11:09 AM 12/17/2012, Sean Andrews wrote:
>On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 9:24 AM, shag carpet bomb <shag at cleandraws.com>wrote:
>
> > Cullen actually argues that it is imperialist violence and warfare on the
> > part of the US that is connected to these sorts of killings. In that
> > climate, we see more and more pscyhopathology.
>
>
>I am sort of surprised no one has brought up Mark Ames book Going Postal in
>this thread so far - but maybe I missed it. He makes many of the same
>observations as Richard about the emasculating abuse of workers by their
>superiors and also notes that there is a sense in which the psychotic
>element is actually indicative of some recalcitrant nugget of rationality
>on their part.
>
>He doesn't celebrate this, just profiles a swath of the workplace rage
>murders and notes that it is no surprise that many of the people who will
>defy the social norm are also a little off mentally.
>
>"Several things are interesting about Nat Turner's doomed, gory rebellion.
>First, Turner was clearly delusional and yet his response to the madness of
>slavery was, from our vantage point today, the most sane and heroic of all.
>Joseph Wesbecker (perpetrator of one of a string of workplace shooting
>sprees) suffered from depression and was belittled for having a persecution
>complex and for being generally crazy, yet some of the normal people who
>worked with him sympathized with his attack on the company. The fact that
>Nat Turner may have been schizophrenic of delusional does not disqualify
>the inherent political nature of his rebellion. Rather, it suggests that
>sometimes only someone not mentally healthy - not normal - is capable of
>rising up against objectively awful injustice. A normal, healthy person
>finds a way to accept his condition, no matter what."
>
>He goes on to offer a similar critique of Cullen's article on Harris and
>Klebold, e.g. "Blaming evil or psychology is far more comforting [than
>examining the context for actual enraging elements]. Cullen even admits
>this, calling his explanation for Columbine 'more reassuring, in a way.'"
>
>In the present context - which I've found deeply disturbing - I think it is
>worth exploring the fact that, whatever this kid's mental status, his
>mother was a bit nuts as well. The Telegraph reports that she was one of
>the rather nutty crowd called "preppers"
>
>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9749217/Connecticut-school-shooting-Adam-Lanzas-mother-was-preparing-for-disaster.html
>
>BLOCKQUOTE
>
>Nancy Lanza, whose gun collection was raided by her son Adam for Friday's
>massacre at Sandy Hook school, was part of the "prepper" movement, which
>urges readiness for social chaos by hoarding supplies and training with
>weapons.
>
>"She prepared for the worst," her sister-in-law Marsha Lanza told
>reporters. "Last time we visited her in person, we talked about prepping
>are you ready for what could happen down the line, when the economy
>collapses?"
>
>BLOCKQUOTE END
>
>These proud, survivalist views were discussed around town, with anyone who
>would listen, and made her possession of a high powered assault rifle seem
>rational. No doubt she had shared these views with her seemingly "off" son
>on some level. What part the local elementary school played in this. In
>any case, there is certainly a combination of factors here, but it is
>inarguable that, without a high powered assault rifle, he couldn't have
>mowed down 20 first graders and their teachers in a matter of minutes.
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