“Everyone should be put to a test, an ULTIMATE
DOOM test, see who can [survive] in an environment using only smarts and
military skills – put them in a doom world, no excuses, no refuge, no BS copout
excuses.” - Eric Harris’s Journal, p.4-5
The
picture above depicts the perspective of the gunman, Brenton Tarrant, as he
livestreamed his blatantly hateful crimes.
It looks reminiscent of a first-person shooter game. Doom was one of the first of its kind. While video game makers are not legally
liable for a customer’s criminal actions, the game platform has transcended to
reality.
Unlike
the game, the monsters are the ones with the guns. With recurring attacks, it’s hard to
disbelieve that we are in a doom world. Eric
Harris and Dylan Klebold inspired copycats after killing 13 people in Columbine
High School twenty years ago. The media
circulated the idea that bullying motivated the perpetrators. In negation, both Harris and Klebold were
mistreated and then became bullies, sometimes targeting Special Ed students,
much like the Virginia Tech killer they inspired. Cho Seung Hui bought into the bullying victim
motive and praised the Columbine gunmen as “martyrs,” even though they probably
would have belittled him too.
Over
the past two decades, the motives to massacres have changed. If a boy can not get sex, like Elliot Rodger,
or a man hates liberal women doing yoga, like Scott Beierle, a shooting spree
ensues. Some causes weren’t viewed as
petty, but more politically widespread. Abortions
enraged Robert Dear to target Planned Parenthood. Heightened anger of any kind incentivized the
active shooters. Murder is justified in
extremist eyes, and the cause could be anything from social rejection to being
the rejecter – killing anyone the bully-shooter perceives as unfit for their
ideal world.
The anger has turned into hate – and
the new pattern of motives aligns with white supremacy. Dylan Roof’s rampage was rooted in racism
when he shot peaceful people in a predominantly African American church in
Charleston, South Carolina. Robert
Bowers unleashed his anti-Semitic rage at the Tree of Life synagogue in
Pittsburgh. Fatal hatred struck once
again in Christchurch, New Zealand.
On March 15th, at 1:39pm, Brenton
Tarrant walked into Masjid Al Noor mosque and opened fire. He left at 1:45pm, and traveled to Linwood
mosque to continue murdering. On route,
the livestream ended; it was 17 minutes of willful self-incrimination and
narcissistic claim to his crimes. He
killed 50 people and wounded 50. He used
five guns in this spree, which were two semi-automatic firearms and two
shotguns. He wrote the names of
internationally recognized mass murderers on his guns, including Alexandre Bissonnette
– the Quebec mosque shooter, and Luca Traini – the xenophobic killer in
Italy. Tarrant released an 87-page
manifesto, praising Anders Behring Breivik and President Trump. Breivik murdered 77 people in Norway in 2011,
and Tarrant specifically stated that Trump was "a symbol of renewed white
identity and common purpose" as reported from Al Jazeera. Manifestos spill motives and tomes worth of
criminological information. However,
outside of the psychology community, manifestos are unoriginal gimmicks, and
the general public yawns without reading one page.
Reactions to these attacks are
changing. Hearing about mass murders on
the news is becoming as frequent as Tide commercials. Some people are numb from the repetition. Tragedy turns stale despite lives
expiring. Another spray of bullets, what
else is new? Others experience a renewed
depressive state each time these atrocities occur. While the numbness sets in, we still can not
ignore the exponential growth of these unnatural disasters.
The
Christchurch mosque attacks happened last month. The month before, there was a warehouse
shooting in Aurora, Illinois. Last
November, 13 people were murdered in a bar during a line- dancing class in
Thousand Oaks, California. The Tree of
Life synagogue shooting happened less than two weeks before, in October. The Capital Gazette shooting, the Santa Fe
High School shooting, and the Nashville Waffle House shooting all happened
within three months. The Stoneman
Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida was on Valentines Day of last
year.
“maybe we will even start a little
rebelion [sic] or revolution to fuck things up as much as we can. i want to leave a lasting impression on the
world.” – Eric Harris, Online post
Did
Eric Harris get his wish? The misspelled
rebellion is open to interpretation. In
that online posting and page 12 of his journal, he expressed the desire to
destroy major cities like Denver and New York City. Halfway through the short online post, Harris
contradicts himself, denying that their massacre would be repeated and
de-normalized school shootings! His
metaphorical crystal ball went dark there.
However, with ironic contradictions aside, the first part signifies the
possibility that he wanted his rampage to inspire more rampages, which is
happening. Statistics from the FBI
support this domino effect.
The
Federal Bureau of Investigation published reports in 2013 and 2017. During 2000-2013, there were 160 active
shooter incidents, and in 2017 the total climbed to 250. Within four years, there were 90 more
incidents, which is a 56% increase from 2013. The total number of deaths in 2013 was 486,
and in 2017, it was 799. The 90
shootings resulted in 313 casualties, averaging 3.5 deaths per incident. The number of wounded victims more than
doubled. Either shooters are getting
worse at aiming, or they are more interested in the number of people shot, not
caring if their victims were killed.
My Current Analysis on
Mass Shootings
Active
shooter scenarios have changed and become increasingly warped
ideologically. School shootings used to
be carried out by bullying victims like Luke Woodham and Evan Ramsey. Our education system requires children to be
locked in a building for 35 hours per week for 13 years of their lives,
including during early developmental years.
It can be a positive or negative experience, or it can inflict long-term
psychological harm. Abusive faculty and
repetitive bullying inculcates victims to hold negative world views, especially
if abused over a long period of time.
The words, “but there are mean people everywhere,” only validates that
cruelty is widely accepted. Another old
phrase echoes from my past, “The more it bothers you, the more they want to do
it!” Apply that to mass shootings.
Why do
we have so many massacres? My unpopular
opinion is that, it’s effective. If a
person refuses to stop angering you, terminating their life will end the unwanted
behavior permanently. It’s not right,
but to terrorists, it’s like hitting the same button to reproduce a desired
outcome. Handling conflict the mature
way doesn’t work on immature people, and teaching people to improve their
morals and wisdom may be a waste of time since the aggressors are unwilling to
learn. Though now virtually anything can
enrage someone. Instead of being a
cornered child with emotional contents under pressure who has renounced all remaining
love for humanity, people will exploit any cause just to rake up infamy. Tolerance is lowering. Motives used to be ending daily abuse, and
now massacres are over immigration and melanin levels. Soon are there going to be shootings over
Nickleback and Croc shoes? Point: Massacres are becoming temper tantrums with
bullets.
Noticeably,
not as many active shooters are committing suicide afterward. Examples include Brenton Tarrant, Anders
Behring Breivik, and Nikolas Cruz. Perhaps
their causes are no longer worth dying for, they wish to experience their
infamy, or they know that lethal injection chemicals are scarce. Infamy would not encompass the whole population
since the fellow extremists would cheer from afar.
There
is a pattern of “Then and Now’s.” Motives have changed, feelings toward
consequences have dulled, and little nuances have deviated over time. Harris had Arlene carved on the butt of his
rifle, while Tarrant had Alexandre Bissonnette painted on his magazine. The former is a fictional character from
Doom, and the latter is a real killer.
Contemporary perpetrators are idolizing nonfiction killers, rather than
virtual ones. The element of fantasy in
committing crimes is fading, and inspiration is now being drawn from actual violence.
What has
remained constant is that perpetrators want society to change and use terrorism
to spread their ideology. Harris and
Klebold’s diaries were not intended as manifestos, but when reading Harris’s
writings or transcripts to his videos, it was obvious that he spoke to an
audience. Cho Seung Hui, Elliot Rodger,
Brenton Tarrant, and Anders Breivik had manifestos detailing their views and
intentions behind their crimes.
Conversely, Ted Kaczynski’s publication predated the Columbine Massacre. Still, it seems like there are more
book-length documents in this crime category in recent times.
Two
elements that sum up mass shootings were plainly depicted on Harris and
Klebold’s T-shirts. Under their black
duster trench coats, Eric Harris wore a white shirt with “Natural Selection” in
black, and Dylan Klebold wore a black shirt with “Wrath” in red. Wrath is self-explanatory, whereas natural
selection is ironic. Mass murderers play
god in deciding people’s fates. The
right wing extremists want to eliminate liberals from the gene pool, because
the perpetrator selfishly believes they are weak and unfit for their narrow
minded utopia. Racists want to eliminate
black genes to somehow prevent their imaginary white extinction. Tarrant and Bissonnette were not trying to
convert Muslims to another religion, but perceived them as separate from their
own people. Religion and political stances are not hereditary, but liberals and Muslims can indoctrinate their children. Mass murderers are selecting
people out of the gene pool and nurture lagoon, thus controlling who can go on to reproduce. Their man-made natural selection is a
paradox. Murder is unnatural
selection.
Humanity’s Fate: Division vs. Unity
Here is one last quote.
Is the Earth naturally selecting us out in favor of less harmful
creatures?
“The human race isn’t worth fighting
for, only worth killing. give the Earth
back to the animals, they deserve it infinitely more than we do.” – Eric
Harris’s Journal, p.8
Is this
where we’re headed? With climate change,
there is a possibility that the Earth is dying prematurely. More animals are joining the endangered
species list. There is garbage and acid
in our oceans. Humankind is the culprit,
and chances are, the rest of the animal kingdom would thrive without us. It is only a speculation at this point. Harris was not predicting the end of the
world, only that animals are more deserving of this world. What will come first? Will mankind destroy the only planet that
supports life, or will the human race destroy itself through killing one
another?
What is
the solution to all of this? It would be
nice if everyone unified efforts to heal the Earth and learned to respect one
another. Focusing on respect, we need to
exercise more self-control, which is the opposite of freedom. The United States values freedom, but people
will use their freedom to take away another person’s freedom. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
get twisted because people enjoy schadenfreude and wrecking others’
happiness. Without respect, there is a
declining respect for life.
So
instead of faking friendliness, people should try to restrain themselves from
being unkind. When someone is dressed
unfashionably, make no comments – the clothes are not on your body. If you perceive someone to be stupid, either
politely correct them or say nothing. That
rude comment you are tempted to type, withhold it. Then you are withholding emotional
poison. If someone has never wronged
you, why wrong them – why invoke their retaliation? Try to be accepting of others, and try to
understand what you don’t understand.
Seek no apologies, and don’t force forgiveness.
If someone wants to be left alone,
allow them solace to collect their thoughts.
If someone wants to speak, listen.
If someone doesn’t want to answer some inane, personal question, don’t
ask again. Always mind other people’s
boundaries, physically or the space around them. You can sense consent by knowing when you are
welcome. These may seem like a lot of
rules, but start with one or two, and you may get respect in return.
If we
treated one another better, maybe we would have fewer massacres. Maybe, however friendliness can only go so
far – bigotry is a bigger problem. I
intend no harm in the following statements, which do not apply to every member
of a given demographic, but to offer a simplified conception of a societal
problem.
Racism is rooted in a fear of
poverty, and social climbing is harder for people with darker complexions. The 1% hoards wealth, and impoverished minorities
blame the white majority in the top one percent. Poor white people don’t feel privileged, and
the hateful ones demographically dissociate from the wealthy white people,
assuming they’re all Jewish with worldly control. Aristocrats feel entitled to their earnings
and excuse their hoarding by voluntarily donating to charities annually, which
can be written off on their taxes.
Corporate moguls outsource to countries with cheap labor or hire
immigrants willing to work for lower wages, all to save money. The lower middle class compete for the
monetary leftovers, and then they start blaming each other.
In perceiving parasites in the job
market, the sneering Neo-Nazis are probably angry at both the immigrants taking
jobs and the presumably Jewish corporate figures paying them. It can be inferred that white supremacists’
motives are derived from overwhelming conspiracy theories that Jewish power
tycoons are mass-puppeteering everyone, that the white race is dwindling, and
immigrants are invading the nation, possibly shifting religious statistics in
their favor. These delusions corner them
mentally and internally pressure them to reduce the “enemy” population by
killing them. These are only inferences
drawn through pondering, not proven. What
is tangible for comparison is that Eric Harris scrawled swastikas in his
journal, but he wasn’t an actual Neo-Nazi.
Now we have real Neo-Nazis carrying out attacks. Just being nice to a hardened bigot is like
offering a flower to a tank.
If the tank is bigotry, then the
flower to give is a columbine, reminding us that no one is bulletproof. If we are divided, we will kill each other as
the Earth kills us because we aren’t caring for it.
Regardless of demographics, if you
extract DNA from anyone, it will be the double helix of a Homo sapiens. If we work together, we can improve the
world. If we are ever to tackle the bigger problems
on a global level, we need to unite. In
order for humanity to unite, we need to remember that we are all human.
©2019 Caroline Friehs
Posted on: April 20, 2019
Header photo credited to: The Straits Times.
©2019 Caroline Friehs
Posted on: April 20, 2019
Header photo credited to: The Straits Times.
References
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Associated Press (2019 Mar 16). New Zealand mosque attacks suspect praised
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