Why, Porter, why?

For all of his faults, real or otherwise, Dave Cullen devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to his attempt to answer the question, "Why did Columbine happen?"

Here's my attempt. Feel free to pick it apart. For my sake, I hope your criticism will be as ineffective in shaping public opinion as my criticism of Cullen has been.

(Don't hesitate to make ad hominem attacks. )

I will use vulgar language to demonstrate my edginess or ... something.

...

The following is excerpted from Ted Tally's screenplay of Jonathan Demme's film of Thomas Harris (that name!)'s novel of suspense, The Silence of the Lambs:

Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?

Clarice Starling: He kills women...

Hannibal Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?

Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...

Hannibal Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.

Clarice Starling: No. We just...

Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?

...

What do teenage boys see every day?

Chicks their own age - chicks who are at or near their peak female attractiveness.

(Sorry, this is a bit icky to think about. But, generally speaking, female attractiveness peaks in the late teens and early twenties.)

...

What do teenage boys covet, by and large?

Pussy. And power - a feeling of strength.

Pussy and power relate to one another, you see. When a man feels powerful and strong, his dick swells with blood. And chicks can't resist powerful men.

Or so I've heard...

...

Did Eric and Dylan want pussy?

Oh, yes.

...

Both of them?

Yes. Dylan had some pretty whacked-out emo ideas about love, but he wanted to get his rocks off, no doubt about it.

...

Did they get pussy?

No. Their dicks were perpetually dry.

...

Seriously?

Yeah.

Eric went on dates and shit. But he didn't get any.

Dylan went to the prom, but he never even considered making a move on Robyn.

Or maybe he did...

...

Okay, I just got a very bad mental image.

Sorry.

...

I forgive you. Let's move on.

Yes, let's.

...

Did they want power?

Yes, most assuredly. They craved the feeling of strength that a man feels when he knows that he is the top dog, that he can do whatever he damn well pleases, and no one can stop him.

When you perceive that you're the strongest, most powerful man in the room, you can actually feel the blood coursing through the veins of your swollen member. There is nothing like that feeling. It is intoxicating.

Or so I've heard...

...

Where do you hear these things?

Here and there.

...

Tell me about your swollen member. Is it big or small?

Uh ... let's stick to the topic at hand, okay?

...

All right. Did Eric and Dylan have power?

No. But they figured out a way to get it by going out in a blaze of glory (or so they thought).

Here's a quote from Manhunter (1986), the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs:

Hannibal Lecter: Didn't you feel so bad, because killing him felt so good? And why shouldn't it feel good? lt must feel good to God. He does it all the time. God's terrific! He dropped a church roof on 34 of his worshippers in Texas last Wednesday night, just as they were groveling through a hymn to his majesty. Don't you think that felt good?
Will Graham: Why does it feel good, Dr. Lecter?
Hannibal Lecter: lt feels good because God has power. lf one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is. God's a champ. He always stays ahead. He got 140 Phillipinos in one plane crash last year. Remember that earthquake in ltaly last spring?

Both Eric and Dylan wanted to be God (or gods, at the very least). They wanted their peers to adulate their prowess, and bow down to them. They alone would decide who lived and died. (Well, their bombs would make quite a few of those decisions for them.)

It didn't work out that way.

...

Tell me more about these boys.

Well...

Eric was short and skinny. He was socially awkward. He felt belittled and ignored by his ostensible peers. He resented his (self-perceived?) lack of social status. He felt that he was being denied the respect to which he felt entitled.

Dylan was tall and gangly. He was socially awkward. He felt belittled and ignored by his ostensible peers. He resented his (self-perceived?) lack of social status. He felt that he was being denied the respect to which he felt entitled.

...

So what?

Yeah, that's a valid question.

Lots of boys are short and skinny, or tall and gangly. Lots of boys are socially awkward. Lots of boys feel belittled and ignored by other kids their age. Lots of boys resent their lack of social status. Lots of boys feel they are being denied the respect to which they feel entitled.

Few boys draw up plans to blow up their schools. Even fewer boys attempt to turn those plans into reality.

...

What was different about these two boys?

Well ... they *really*, *really* resented their lack of social status, to a pathological degree. They were obsessed with it. And they seemed uniquely unable to do anything about it.

...

What do you mean?

They were stuck at the bottom of the social totem pole, and they couldn't figure out how to move any higher. Furthermore, they lacked the perspective to see that, after they grow up, people don't give a shit about their high-school social status.

(Sadly, some people never grow up, no matter how old they get.)

...

What's with all this talk about their total lack of status? They had friends, didn't they?

Yeah, they had friends, and many of those friends were nearly equally low in status. But even their friends had perks Eric and Dylan craved but lacked.

Brooks Brown had a girlfriend, so he was ... getting more than Eric and Dylan, one would assume. (Brooks and his babe broke up before 4/20, but it seems likely that he had surrendered his V-card by then.) Nate Dykeman had a girlfriend.

Eric wanted a girlfriend, but could not find any girls who wanted to be more than friends. He was cute, but he gave off a weird vibe that pushed chicks away. Dylan wanted a girlfriend, but was crippled by his whacked-out emoness. He also failed to recognize that girls have a strong aversion to guys who don't bathe regularly.

...

Dylan didn't bathe?

Not as often as he should have, that's for sure. But neither did Brooks, according to rumor. (Maybe Brooks was lucky enough to meet a girl who dug that funky stench.)

...

Porter, this conversation is going all over the place. Get to the fucking point. What caused Columbine?

It's hard to say. But here goes:

Eric and Dylan a) were at or near the bottom of the Columbine social pyramid, b) were deeply resentful and full of rage, due to their inability to attain the status they craved, c) directed their resentment and rage toward the school, whose students had failed to grant them the respect they felt they deserved, d) had complementary personalities (hot/cold) that canceled out impulses that might have diverted them from their plan, e) were intelligent enough to draw up detailed plans, f) were disciplined enough to maintain their focus, g) had decent-paying jobs that enabled them to buy needed supplies, and h) somehow managed not to get caught. And so on.

...

What do you mean, "And so on"?

There were other factors.

...

How many?

Enough to use up the entire alphabet, at least.

Columbine was a perfect storm. Lots of elements came together and coalesced to produce a tragedy. It's pretty much impossible to identify the precise mix of ingredients that turned the brew toxic.

When we talk about crime, we talk about means, motive, and opportunity. Eric and Dylan's means and opportunity are fairly easy to explain, conspiracy theories aside. Motive is the big question mark.

...

Is that it?

Well ... they were really, really fucked in the head, I guess.

That's all for now.

...

lasttrain, have fun.

I think you hit the nail on the head there. You make a good point of most of everything that’s at play with what happened in Eric and Dylan. Yes, they were uncomfortable in their bodies, virgins and seemingly without power in the social environment at school but more than anything, they could not handle whatever rejection, lack of respect, low status they were faced with. They couldn’t bear it and the anger kept bubbling inside. It’s not all you’re saying there but, that’s the main thing I gather from your point. There was another thread at some point about how many school shooters have that same issue with being able to handle frustrations and rejection and how that only that is already a really big contribution to going on a rampage. They often feel on the periphery of life and get unbearably mad with that.

I’ve also like you wondered about how the interplay of power and sex played out in this situation. They could get neither. So, when Eric writes in his diary ‘’you know what maybe I just need to get laid. Maybe that’ll just change some shit around’’, do you think Eric meant it? That getting laid was really so important, so central to feeling more powerful, that it would actually have changed ‘’some shit around’’ (like avoid planning a massacre)?

You point out they could not imagine their lives differently after. Like they were complete and utter losers for life, with no future. They could not imagine how their social status would be different after high school. It’s as if their minds were boxed-in and that is one thing what depression does. You don’t see any option, everything is closed-off. So, yes, they were angry and unable to deal with rejection but, there must have been depression and possibly other mental health issues that made them not consider any other options for their future.

‘’Eric and Dylan had complementary personalities (hot/cold) that canceled out impulses that might have diverted them from their plan’’.  You know, that could be a topic in itself. I’m not sure what you mean by hot/cold, maybe you mean Eric was sort of activating, energetic and Dylan more passive, moody in an apathetic way? So, how do you think they canceled potential impulses to do things differently? Do you think Eric fired up Dylan in his depression and that Dylan in turn convinced him of the hopelessness of their situation? The way I see it, they’re both different in personalities, they come off differently from their private self as reflected in their diaries. But together, they’re all angry and must have been stoking each other’s fire. I just don't know how much of their private selves they really shared with each other. It's the combination of what they were together that sealed the deal, and in the way they expressed that part, they were similar.

You cooked up some quotable quotes here, but the conclusion is pretty good: ''Columbine was a perfect storm. Lots of elements came together and coalesced to produce a tragedy. It's pretty much impossible to identify the precise mix of ingredients that turned the brew toxic.''

GREAT post, you really hit the nail on the head there ;)

Agree! Great post and presented in a very cool form.

I wrote this three years ago. It makes basically the same points as the post I wrote last night, but in a more direct fashion:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Orgasm of Blood

To what extent was the 4/20 massacre a masturbatory act?

That is, to what extent were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold driven to kill by sexual frustration?

...

Aside from the outright lies of Brenda Parker, and the dubious assertions of Dave Cullen, I see no evidence to suggest that Eric Harris ever got laid.

It seems clear that Dylan never got his dick wet, either.

...

Both Cullen and Kass have pointed out, quite correctly, that the killers did not discuss bullying at length in their diaries.

They lamented their lack of social prominence. They expressed resentment toward those who failed to give them the "respect" they felt they deserved ... and anger toward the "stuck-up kids" who regarded them as inferior ... but they did not dwell much upon the humiliations that they experienced from time to time.

They did, however, vent about their sexual longings and frustrations.

...

I think we can safely assume that Dylan felt a certain stirring in his underwear when he gazed at one of his various "beloveds."

Eric very explicitly stated that looking at certain girls made him want to drool.

And his freshman-rape fantasy made clear that he (like many "normal" people) conflated sex with violence, at least on occasion.

...

As has been widely noted, Eric Harris ended his "wolf-god" journal with a whiny entry about his inability to "get some."

I have engaged in a number of arguments with various Cullenistas about the significance of that entry. Some maintain that Eric was merely expressing frustration that he couldn't get sex sex sex every minute of every day.

"He was a horny bastard, but that doesn't mean he didn't get any."

I disagree.

I contend that Eric's frustration ran much deeper than that. I contend that he was desperate to "get some," and finally prove to himself that he was a real man.

...

We know that he was depressed by his inability to score a prom date. Numerous acquaintances have testified about that.

And many on this board have noted that his conduct toward Susan DeWitt on the 17th was fairly provocative.

He sent a clear signal to her: "I want to fuck."

She didn't respond to it.

Most men can relate.

...

The social status of a male is directly related to his ability to convince a female to open her legs. Indeed, the definition of an "alpha male" is that he has his pick of the females in the pack.

...

In many if not most American high schools, prominent athletes constitute a large portion, if not the entirety, of the "alpha male" pack. They stand at the top of the social structure.

Eric placed a number of prominent athletes on his shit lists.

Some (Cullen, in particular) have attempted to minimize the importance of these lists - by pointing out, for example. that Tiger Woods was included on one of them.

I think they're a bit more significant than that.

In particular, I think it's significant that Eric made a "Class of '98 Who Should Have Died" list.

By all accounts, his junior year was his roughest, and whatever bullying he did endure during his tenure at the school was at its worst during that year - especially around January.

Keep in mind that Eric wrote no journal entries during the 1997-98 school year, except for one in April.

It's very difficult for us to know precisely what he was thinking during the period when the plans for NBK were being formulated.

We only know what his thinking was after he and Dylan had more or less finalized their plans.

By that time, Eric had already committed themselves, body and soul, to their deadly quest.

I would really like to know what he was thinking just a few months before.

...

Brooks Brown has stated that Eric and Dylan were the two "uncoolest" kids in the entire school.

I don't know if I would go quite that far ... but it seems clear to me that Eric and Dylan were at or near the very bottom of the social structure.

Kass and Larkin agree on that point, as well. It's a very reasonable conclusion, based on the available evidence and the testimony of those who actually knew the killers.

(Cullen disagrees, of course ... but that dead horse has been beaten to a bloody pulp.)

Most of their friends were about as socially undesirable as they were ... but even Brooks had a girlfriend.

(He broke up with her right before Columbine's prom.)

...

My idea of the massacre, as I have said before, is that it was a "perfect storm."

Unlike Cullen, or those who cling to the outmoded notion that 4/20 was a simple parable of humiliation and revenge, I believe that a variety of factors contributed to the two boys' mental deterioration.

How much importance should we ascribe to sexual frustration as a factor behind Eric and/or Dylan's psychological decline?

Should we regard it as a primary factor, or a secondary one?

...

Any thoughts?

LPorter101 wrote:

I wrote this three years ago. It makes basically the same points as the post I wrote last night, but in a more direct fashion:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Orgasm of Blood

To what extent was the 4/20 massacre a masturbatory act?

That is, to what extent were Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold driven to kill by sexual frustration?

...

Aside from the outright lies of Brenda Parker, and the dubious assertions of Dave Cullen, I see no evidence to suggest that Eric Harris ever got laid.

It seems clear that Dylan never got his dick wet, either.

...

Both Cullen and Kass have pointed out, quite correctly, that the killers did not discuss bullying at length in their diaries.

They lamented their lack of social prominence. They expressed resentment toward those who failed to give them the "respect" they felt they deserved ... and anger toward the "stuck-up kids" who regarded them as inferior ... but they did not dwell much upon the humiliations that they experienced from time to time.

They did, however, vent about their sexual longings and frustrations.

...

I think we can safely assume that Dylan felt a certain stirring in his underwear when he gazed at one of his various "beloveds."

Eric very explicitly stated that looking at certain girls made him want to drool.

And his freshman-rape fantasy made clear that he (like many "normal" people) conflated sex with violence, at least on occasion.

...

As has been widely noted, Eric Harris ended his "wolf-god" journal with a whiny entry about his inability to "get some."

I have engaged in a number of arguments with various Cullenistas about the significance of that entry. Some maintain that Eric was merely expressing frustration that he couldn't get sex sex sex every minute of every day.

"He was a horny bastard, but that doesn't mean he didn't get any."

I disagree.

I contend that Eric's frustration ran much deeper than that. I contend that he was desperate to "get some," and finally prove to himself that he was a real man.

...

We know that he was depressed by his inability to score a prom date. Numerous acquaintances have testified about that.

And many on this board have noted that his conduct toward Susan DeWitt on the 17th was fairly provocative.

He sent a clear signal to her: "I want to fuck."

She didn't respond to it.

Most men can relate.

...

The social status of a male is directly related to his ability to convince a female to open her legs. Indeed, the definition of an "alpha male" is that he has his pick of the females in the pack.

...

In many if not most American high schools, prominent athletes constitute a large portion, if not the entirety, of the "alpha male" pack. They stand at the top of the social structure.

Eric placed a number of prominent athletes on his shit lists.

Some (Cullen, in particular) have attempted to minimize the importance of these lists - by pointing out, for example. that Tiger Woods was included on one of them.

I think they're a bit more significant than that.

In particular, I think it's significant that Eric made a "Class of '98 Who Should Have Died" list.

By all accounts, his junior year was his roughest, and whatever bullying he did endure during his tenure at the school was at its worst during that year - especially around January.

Keep in mind that Eric wrote no journal entries during the 1997-98 school year, except for one in April.

It's very difficult for us to know precisely what he was thinking during the period when the plans for NBK were being formulated.

We only know what his thinking was after he and Dylan had more or less finalized their plans.

By that time, Eric had already committed themselves, body and soul, to their deadly quest.

I would really like to know what he was thinking just a few months before.

...

Brooks Brown has stated that Eric and Dylan were the two "uncoolest" kids in the entire school.

I don't know if I would go quite that far ... but it seems clear to me that Eric and Dylan were at or near the very bottom of the social structure.

Kass and Larkin agree on that point, as well. It's a very reasonable conclusion, based on the available evidence and the testimony of those who actually knew the killers.

(Cullen disagrees, of course ... but that dead horse has been beaten to a bloody pulp.)

Most of their friends were about as socially undesirable as they were ... but even Brooks had a girlfriend.

(He broke up with her right before Columbine's prom.)

...

My idea of the massacre, as I have said before, is that it was a "perfect storm."

Unlike Cullen, or those who cling to the outmoded notion that 4/20 was a simple parable of humiliation and revenge, I believe that a variety of factors contributed to the two boys' mental deterioration.

How much importance should we ascribe to sexual frustration as a factor behind Eric and/or Dylan's psychological decline?

Should we regard it as a primary factor, or a secondary one?

...

Any thoughts?

Yes, obviously their sexual fustration was a factor too but I dont think it is a huge factor. I think is it something that contribute the factor of the rejection that they suffered and what took them to commit what they did.

You made a good post. I really enjoyed reading both.

LPorter101 wrote:

For all of his faults, real or otherwise, Dave Cullen devoted a considerable amount of time and effort to his attempt to answer the question, "Why did Columbine happen?"

Here's my attempt. Feel free to pick it apart. For my sake, I hope your criticism will be as ineffective in shaping public opinion as my criticism of Cullen has been.

(Don't hesitate to make ad hominem attacks. )

I will use vulgar language to demonstrate my edginess or ... something.

...

The following is excerpted from Ted Tally's screenplay of Jonathan Demme's film of Thomas Harris (that name!)'s novel of suspense, The Silence of the Lambs:

Hannibal Lecter: First principles, Clarice. Simplicity. Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?

Clarice Starling: He kills women...

Hannibal Lecter: No. That is incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does? What needs does he serve by killing?

Clarice Starling: Anger, um, social acceptance, and, huh, sexual frustrations, sir...

Hannibal Lecter: No! He covets. That is his nature. And how do we begin to covet, Clarice? Do we seek out things to covet? Make an effort to answer now.

Clarice Starling: No. We just...

Hannibal Lecter: No. We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don't you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don't your eyes seek out the things you want?

...

What do teenage boys see every day?

Chicks their own age - chicks who are at or near their peak female attractiveness.

(Sorry, this is a bit icky to think about. But, generally speaking, female attractiveness peaks in the late teens and early twenties.)

...

What do teenage boys covet, by and large?

Pussy. And power - a feeling of strength.

Pussy and power relate to one another, you see. When a man feels powerful and strong, his dick swells with blood. And chicks can't resist powerful men.

Or so I've heard...

...

Did Eric and Dylan want pussy?

Oh, yes.

...

Both of them?

Yes. Dylan had some pretty whacked-out emo ideas about love, but he wanted to get his rocks off, no doubt about it.

...

Did they get pussy?

No. Their dicks were perpetually dry.

...

Seriously?

Yeah.

Eric went on dates and shit. But he didn't get any.

Dylan went to the prom, but he never even considered making a move on Robyn.

Or maybe he did...

...

Okay, I just got a very bad mental image.

Sorry.

...

I forgive you. Let's move on.

Yes, let's.

...

Did they want power?

Yes, most assuredly. They craved the feeling of strength that a man feels when he knows that he is the top dog, that he can do whatever he damn well pleases, and no one can stop him.

When you perceive that you're the strongest, most powerful man in the room, you can actually feel the blood coursing through the veins of your swollen member. There is nothing like that feeling. It is intoxicating.

Or so I've heard...

...

Where do you hear these things?

Here and there.

...

Tell me about your swollen member. Is it big or small?

Uh ... let's stick to the topic at hand, okay?

...

All right. Did Eric and Dylan have power?

No. But they figured out a way to get it by going out in a blaze of glory (or so they thought).

Here's a quote from Manhunter (1986), the prequel to The Silence of the Lambs:

Hannibal Lecter: Didn't you feel so bad, because killing him felt so good? And why shouldn't it feel good? lt must feel good to God. He does it all the time. God's terrific! He dropped a church roof on 34 of his worshippers in Texas last Wednesday night, just as they were groveling through a hymn to his majesty. Don't you think that felt good?
Will Graham: Why does it feel good, Dr. Lecter?
Hannibal Lecter: lt feels good because God has power. lf one does what God does enough times, one will become as God is. God's a champ. He always stays ahead. He got 140 Phillipinos in one plane crash last year. Remember that earthquake in ltaly last spring?

Both Eric and Dylan wanted to be God (or gods, at the very least). They wanted their peers to adulate their prowess, and bow down to them. They alone would decide who lived and died. (Well, their bombs would make quite a few of those decisions for them.)

It didn't work out that way.

...

Tell me more about these boys.

Well...

Eric was short and skinny. He was socially awkward. He felt belittled and ignored by his ostensible peers. He resented his (self-perceived?) lack of social status. He felt that he was being denied the respect to which he felt entitled.

Dylan was tall and gangly. He was socially awkward. He felt belittled and ignored by his ostensible peers. He resented his (self-perceived?) lack of social status. He felt that he was being denied the respect to which he felt entitled.

...

So what?

Yeah, that's a valid question.

Lots of boys are short and skinny, or tall and gangly. Lots of boys are socially awkward. Lots of boys feel belittled and ignored by other kids their age. Lots of boys resent their lack of social status. Lots of boys feel they are being denied the respect to which they feel entitled.

Few boys draw up plans to blow up their schools. Even fewer boys attempt to turn those plans into reality.

...

What was different about these two boys?

Well ... they *really*, *really* resented their lack of social status, to a pathological degree. They were obsessed with it. And they seemed uniquely unable to do anything about it.

...

What do you mean?

They were stuck at the bottom of the social totem pole, and they couldn't figure out how to move any higher. Furthermore, they lacked the perspective to see that, after they grow up, people don't give a shit about their high-school social status.

(Sadly, some people never grow up, no matter how old they get.)

...

What's with all this talk about their total lack of status? They had friends, didn't they?

Yeah, they had friends, and many of those friends were nearly equally low in status. But even their friends had perks Eric and Dylan craved but lacked.

Brooks Brown had a girlfriend, so he was ... getting more than Eric and Dylan, one would assume. (Brooks and his babe broke up before 4/20, but it seems likely that he had surrendered his V-card by then.) Nate Dykeman had a girlfriend.

Eric wanted a girlfriend, but could not find any girls who wanted to be more than friends. He was cute, but he gave off a weird vibe that pushed chicks away. Dylan wanted a girlfriend, but was crippled by his whacked-out emoness. He also failed to recognize that girls have a strong aversion to guys who don't bathe regularly.

...

Dylan didn't bathe?

Not as often as he should have, that's for sure. But neither did Brooks, according to rumor. (Maybe Brooks was lucky enough to meet a girl who dug that funky stench.)

...

Porter, this conversation is going all over the place. Get to the fucking point. What caused Columbine?

It's hard to say. But here goes:

Eric and Dylan a) were at or near the bottom of the Columbine social pyramid, b) were deeply resentful and full of rage, due to their inability to attain the status they craved, c) directed their resentment and rage toward the school, whose students had failed to grant them the respect they felt they deserved, d) had complementary personalities (hot/cold) that canceled out impulses that might have diverted them from their plan, e) were intelligent enough to draw up detailed plans, f) were disciplined enough to maintain their focus, g) had decent-paying jobs that enabled them to buy needed supplies, and h) somehow managed not to get caught. And so on.

...

What do you mean, "And so on"?

There were other factors.

...

How many?

Enough to use up the entire alphabet, at least.

Columbine was a perfect storm. Lots of elements came together and coalesced to produce a tragedy. It's pretty much impossible to identify the precise mix of ingredients that turned the brew toxic.

When we talk about crime, we talk about means, motive, and opportunity. Eric and Dylan's means and opportunity are fairly easy to explain, conspiracy theories aside. Motive is the big question mark.

...

Is that it?

Well ... they were really, really fucked in the head, I guess.

That's all for now.

...

lasttrain, have fun.

Excellent post, Lporter! I agree with the others that you really hit the nail on the head with this post. Great job!

I agree with everyone that has posted here thus far, LPorter.

Both your new and older posts are absolutely incredible.

I always look forward to reading what you have to say.

"Everything in the world is about sex, except sex. Sex is about power." - Oscar Wilde

Was Wilde right?

It's not hard to understand why so many teenage boys are bursting at the seams with violent impulses. Their hormones are raging and they have no satisfying outlet for their frustrations.

I agree with Dave Cullen that Eric and Dylan expressed their impulses in different ways. But I disagree with his conclusion that their underlying pathologies and motivations were substantially different. Both boys felt strongly entitled to sex and companionship, and both harbored immense rage over their failure to attain either. Both boys directed this rage not only at the girls who had kept their legs closed to them, but at the boys who (they believed) were outpacing them in the race to harvest the glorious wheat of the golden valley (i.e., get laid).

(My use of "golden valley" is an in-joke: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

But boy does not live by vag alone. He needs a purpose, a higher calling.

...

Perhaps Cullen was on to something when he wrote that Dylan believed in God - or, at the very least, in a hierarchy of beings, in which were included whose radiance superseded that of ordinary humans.

Of course, Cullen implies a dichotomy between Dylan and Eric - he contrasts Dylan's spirituality to Eric's nihilism. But, setting aside the variances in their forms of expression, did they differ all that much in terms of their beliefs?

Are Dylan's "zombies" the same creatures as Eric's "snotty ass rich mother fucking high strung godlike attitude having worthless pieces of shit whores"? I think they are. If they're not members of the same species, then they're at least both part of the same genus.

The bottom line is that both Eric and Dylan divided humanity into at least two groups: the towering geniuses and the drooling morons. Eric and Dylan placed themselves in the former group, naturally; they dumped nearly everyone else in the world into the latter.

And both boys were totally pissed that their pathetic inferiors regarded themselves as superior. They raged at a world that was too dumb to appreciate the extent of its own stupidity. And they seethed at the injustice of being denied perks - pussy, yes, but also prestige - that the Untermenschen enjoyed.

"We're a million times better than you miserable fucks!" they shrieked. "We're on a totally different plane of existence, for God's sake! How dense do you have to be not to see it?"

But they might as well have been standing on the shore in the midst of a Category 5 hurricane, screaming, "I deny the wind!"

They could not force the world to acknowledge their superiority or to adulate their prowess. They were impotent.

Impotence leads to rage. Rage leads to violence. Violence leads to dish.

...

No doubt Cullen could write thousands of words explaining why this quote:

Dylan Klebold wrote:

Almost happiness in
slavery -- the real people (gods)
are slaves to the majority
of zombies, but we know
& love being superior.

I didnt want to
be a jock... i hated
The hapiness
that they
have - & I will
have something
infinitely
better...

(By the way, some zombies are smarter than others,
some manipulate... like my parents.)
I am God. [edited] is God.
& zombies will pay for
their arrogance, hate, fear, abandonment, &
distrust.

...reveals that its author had a drastically different worldview from the person who wrote this quote:

Eric Harris wrote:

as I said before, self awareness is a wonderful thing. I know what all you fuckers are thinking and what to do to piss you off and make you feel bad. I always try to be different, but I always end up copying someone else. I try to be a mixture of different things and styles but when I step out of myself I end up looking like others or others THINK I am copying. One big fucking problem Is people telling me what to fuckin do, think, say, act, and everything else. Ill do what you say IF I feel like it. But people (I.E. parents, cops, God, teachers) telling me what to [arrow points to do, think, say, act, and everything else] just makes me not want to fucking do it! thats why my fucking name is REB!!! no one is worthy of shit unless I say they are, I feel like GOD and I wish I was, having everyone being OFFICIALLY lower than me. I already know that I am higher than almost anymore in the fucking welt in terms of universal Intelligence and where we stand in the universe compared to the rest of the UNIV. and if you think I dont know what Im talking about then you can just "ßUCK DICH" and saugen mein Hund! Isnt america supposed to be the land of the free? how come, If im free, I cant deprive a stupid fucking dumbshit from his possessions If he leaves then sitting in the front seat of his fucking van out in plain sight and in the middle fucking nowhere on a Fri fucking day night. NATURAL SELECTION. fucker should be shot. same thing with all those rich snotty toadies at my school. fuckers think they are higher than me and everyone else with all their $ just because they were born into it? Ich denk NEIN. BTW, "sorry" is just a word. it doesnt mean SHIT to me. everyone should be put to a test. an ULTIMATE DOOM test, see who can survive in an environtment using only smarts and military skills. put them in a doom world. no authority, no refuge, no BS copout excuses. If you cant figure out the area of a triangle or what "cation" means, you die! if you cant take down a demon w/ a chainsaw or kill a hell prince w/ a shotgun, you die! fucking snotty rich fuckheads [Censored by J.C.Sheriff Office] who rely on others or on sympathy or $ to get them through life should be put to this challenge. plus it would get rid of all the fat, retarded, crippled, stupid, dumb, ignorant, worthless people of this world. no one is worthy of this planet only me and who ever I choose. there is just no respect for anything higher than your fucking boss or parent. everyone should be shot out into space and only the people I saw should be left behind. 4/12/98

To my mind, the thought processes that produced those two quotes are highly similar:

a) There are two categories of people - the worthy (an infinitesimal fraction of the population) and the unworthy.
b) I belong to the former category.
c) The unworthy oppress the worthy.
d) The unworthy shall suffer for having dared to oppress me.

Dylan whispers his proclamation of superiority; Eric shouts it. But the sentiment is the same.

...

Do boys whose balls are not blue feel the need to write such things? Do their thoughts veer into such dark realms?

I doubt it.

LPorter101 wrote:

Dylan whispers his proclamation of superiority; Eric shouts it. But the sentiment is the same.

Your entire post is wonderful, but this summarizes everything about them and their "union" no matter which motivation(s) is/are being discussed.

And interestingly, the "roles" were reversed when the plan was actually put into motion.

They were both metaphorically shouting by shooting guns, igniting bombs (and attempting to ignite larger ones), but the "quiet" one was whooping and quite talkative, and the "loud" one was noted for being incredibly reserved, considering.

Interesting thread. It's good to see you posting about Columbine again.

I don't believe that typical high school issues like status, girls, or bullying are the explanation for Columbine.

The reason is that lots of kids have faced those same issues, but they don't respond like Eric and Dylan.

If you want to know the cause of Columbine, you have to explain that X factor that shows why Eric and Dylan had a drastically different response to a common circumstances.