April 20, 2004

Columbine Plus Five

Today marks the five-year anniversary of the massacre that left 13 dead at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Today I remember the tragic deaths of those people, while also lamenting that it was exploited for political gain by a wider range of ideologues than any other event in recent American history, at least prior to September 11.

The bodies weren’t even out of the school before the blame game began, as the massacre was instantly blamed on everything from the NRA to the anti-gun movement to Hollywood films to video games to goth culture to Marilyn Manson to Hitler to the “4/20” stoner holiday to “those damn kids” to “The Matrix” to, by a guy on a Jewish listserv I read back then, Dylan Kleibold’s mother’s decision to not raise her son as a Jew.

For a period of about eight months, every single political argument that anyone made about anything was preceded with “in the wake of Columbine…”, as Americans on all sides decided to quench their twin desires for self-righteousness and "justice."

Eventually leading to very good movies (Gus Van Sant’s “Elephant”) and very bad ones (Michael Moore’s “Bowling For Columbine”), the post-Columbine period’s “We must blame them and cause a fuss Before somebody thinks of blaming us” mentality was finally perfectly satirized in the Oscar-nominated “Blame Canada” song in the “South Park” movie.

Yet after all that, guess what: just as 9/11 was ultimately the fault of Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda (not Clinton, not Bush, not Islam, etc.), responsibility for the Columbine massacre belongs squarely at the feet of… the killers, Harris and Kleibold.

Posted by Stephen Silver at April 20, 2004 09:39 PM
Comments

I remember listening to Howard Stern the following day - when everyone was still in an uproar - and he said something like, "Just you wait. They're gonna try to blame this on people who manufacture black trench coats."

Basically making the point that they needed to blame someone, anyone, anyone. (God forbid we blame the poor little misfit killers.)

Posted by: red at April 21, 2004 12:33 PM

Saying that Dylan and Klebold were solely responsible for their own actions is as stupid as saying that the earth doesn't revolve around the sun.

Yes, it is just as assinine to attribute these events to totally inaminate objects, but there are factors that influence the behaviour.

These "criminals" are the product of the society they live in, and did not become killers. One need look no further than statistics comparing school violence domestically with those in foreign nations where environmental factors are better controlled. In the end, there is bad parenting, lack of discipline, and peer pressure, among other things.

Sorry Stephen. There's no real justification for what the parent's in the Baltimore did, but lumping it together with Columbine in an effort to exonerate the faults of American society is lame.

When kids start bringing guns to kindergarten, is it "their responsibility" to know better?

Posted by: Joe at May 3, 2005 12:39 PM

And yes, the above should ready "they did not become killers in a vacuum"

Posted by: Joe at May 3, 2005 12:45 PM
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