That thing about rage

That it's supposedly not helpful to let your anger out:

Quote :

Myth No.50

If you let your anger out, you’ll feel better

Researchers say that letting your anger out doesn’t work. In fact, it makes you more angry because the rush of anger that we let out becomes addicting, meaning that we are more likely to lash out as a mean of controlling our anger.

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I swear this cannot be the whole picture. Suppressing rage for too long also has negative effects. Eric would probably vehemently disagree with this theory too. Both Eric and Dylan cited lifelong repressed rage without sufficient outlets as part of their motive for shooting Columbine.

Though this is anecdotal, almost everyone I've talked to has said that letting their anger out does not turn them into "rageaholics," but makes them less angry at the world as time goes on.

Could chronic repressed rage be another potential cause of school shootings? Could an early intervention of anger-release strategies stop school shootings from happening?

from wikipedia; running amok wrote:

In their family life, in their submission to traditional and parental authority, in their communal duties, they are among the most obedient people on earth. But every now and then something very disturbing happens. A man who has behaved in this obliging manner all his life and who has always done his duty by the outside world to perfection, suddenly finds it impossible to keep doing so. Overnight he revolts against goodness and dutifulness.

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Eric expressed his anger often, but what I believe drove him to kill was his ideology and narcissism. His view that he was above others, that he was "Gott", would fuel his contempt and his justification for killing others. I think the fact that Eric thought so highly of himself, when other people like the jocks didn't, tore at his ego and finally led to him snapping.

Dylan, on the other hand, was always presenting a facade of shyness and normalcy. He held his anger in and when he let loose (such as his confrontations with kids), faced repercussions from the school that he felt weren't justified. He felt like a victim, but never voiced any of this to his parents. The punishments he received from Columbine showed him that he couldn't show his anger outright, and led to him to take action in a fatal retaliation against the school.

To answer your question, I think yes, repressed rage is a factor of school shootings. Look at Cho and other school shooters besides E&D.

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I don't know.I think Eric had an ego in some ways but he also had low self esteem as he even admitted himself.
He felt bad about himself when it came to his looks and with how girls perceived him/
I always thought his "I am Gott." persona was an overcompensation for his  actual low self esteem.

PaintItBlack wrote:

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I don't know.I think Eric had an ego in some ways but he also had low self esteem as he even admitted himself.
He felt bad about himself when it came to his looks and with how girls perceived him/
I always thought his "I am Gott." persona was an overcompensation for his  actual low self esteem.

I definitely think the whole godlike image was overcompensation for how much he hated himself. He still thought he was above other people though.

blackholesun wrote:

PaintItBlack wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
I don't know.I think Eric had an ego in some ways but he also had low self esteem as he even admitted himself.
He felt bad about himself when it came to his looks and with how girls perceived him/
I always thought his "I am Gott." persona was an overcompensation for his  actual low self esteem.

I definitely think the whole godlike image was overcompensation for how much he hated himself.  He still thought he was above other people though.

 He and Dylan both thought they were above others in ways but I'm not sure how much that had to do with what they did. Probably the majority of people think they are better than certain other groups of people.

PaintItBlack wrote:

blackholesun wrote:

PaintItBlack wrote:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
I don't know.I think Eric had an ego in some ways but he also had low self esteem as he even admitted himself.
He felt bad about himself when it came to his looks and with how girls perceived him/
I always thought his "I am Gott." persona was an overcompensation for his  actual low self esteem.

I definitely think the whole godlike image was overcompensation for how much he hated himself.  He still thought he was above other people though.

 He and Dylan both thought they were above others in ways but I'm not sure how much that had to do with what they did. Probably the majority of people think they are better than certain other groups of people.

Yes we as humans are self-centered, but not enough so that we feel that we should kill off the "robots" or the "zombies". Examples of his obvious narcissism from his own journal:

"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!"

"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. "

"how dare you think that I and you are part of the same species when we are sooooooo different. you arent human you are a Robot."

"I will kill who ever I deam unfit for anything at all. especially life. and i fyou pissed me off in the past, you will die if I see you. because you might be able to piss off others and have it eventually all blow over, but not me. I dont forget people who wronged me. like [Censored by J.C. Sheriff Office] he will never get a chance to read this because he will be dead by me before this is discovered"

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Yes,they took it to a great extreme,but you see variations of that kind of attitude everywhere.
Recently,I was reading an article about heroin overdoses in a small New England town and someone in the comments said"Who the hell cares about the deaths of drug addicts?" ,like their lives and their deaths were completely meaningless.
I really do think most people think they are better than certain other groups of people.