An interesting thought on Eric I agree with

Not my work!

openthoseprettyeyes said:

“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become ‘one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the rebel, we now have a devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have …. Greatness.”
—

Aleister Crowley

This quote just made me think of REB and made me wonder what the world would look like now, had he chosen to lead rather than die…

Guest wrote:

Not my work!

openthoseprettyeyes said:

“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become ‘one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the rebel, we now have a devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have …. Greatness.”
—

Aleister Crowley

This quote just made me think of REB and made me wonder what the world would look like now, had he chosen to lead rather than die…

IMO, I don't anyone could see a future for them. It had to happen one way or another. As much as anyone could try and imagine their future, It saddened to say there was no future for them

Kerea2244 wrote:

Guest wrote:

Not my work!

openthoseprettyeyes said:

“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become ‘one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the rebel, we now have a devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have …. Greatness.”
—

Aleister Crowley

This quote just made me think of REB and made me wonder what the world would look like now, had he chosen to lead rather than die…

IMO, I don't anyone could see a future for them. It had to happen one way or another. As much as anyone could try and imagine their future, It saddened to say there was no future for them

Eric could have went to college and become a game developer. I think it's Dylan who was the greatest problem.

Emanation of Darkness wrote:

Kerea2244 wrote:

Guest wrote:

Not my work!

openthoseprettyeyes said:

“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become ‘one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the rebel, we now have a devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have …. Greatness.”
—

Aleister Crowley

This quote just made me think of REB and made me wonder what the world would look like now, had he chosen to lead rather than die…

IMO, I don't anyone could see a future for them. It had to happen one way or another. As much as anyone could try and imagine their future, It saddened to say there was no future for them

Eric could have went to college and become a game developer. I think it's Dylan who was the greatest problem.

I think so too. He would've snapped eventually if the shooting never happened.

Emanation of Darkness wrote:

Kerea2244 wrote:

Guest wrote:

Not my work!

openthoseprettyeyes said:

“Inevitably anyone with an independent mind must become ‘one who resists or opposes authority or established conventions: a rebel. If enough people come to agree with, and follow, the rebel, we now have a devil. Until, of course, still more people agree. And then, finally, we have …. Greatness.”
—

Aleister Crowley

This quote just made me think of REB and made me wonder what the world would look like now, had he chosen to lead rather than die…

IMO, I don't anyone could see a future for them. It had to happen one way or another. As much as anyone could try and imagine their future, It saddened to say there was no future for them

Eric could have went to college and become a game developer. I think it's Dylan who was the greatest problem.

I don't think either would've lasted too long to be entirely honest. I mean a big part of the reason they committed the massacre was because they figured whatever the future held, it would never be as good as getting to murder people. And it's not like they were looking at terrible futures had they decided to stay the course either - both of them were rather intelligent, could've easily gone to college, and had stable, cushy jobs working with computers.

QuestionMark wrote:

I don't think either would've lasted too long to be entirely honest. I mean a big part of the reason they committed the massacre was because they figured whatever the future held, it would never be as good as getting to murder people. And it's not like they were looking at terrible futures had they decided to stay the course either - both of them were rather intelligent, could've easily gone to college, and had stable, cushy jobs working with computers.

I don't know if Dylan was in mental state to get through CS college. Eric certainly did because he maintained good/very good grades until the end. I think he could be no longer able to put the amount of work needed to get through CS college and worse, amount of passion and dedication to learn enough to actually get a job after it. He was already doing badly on AP calculus.

Also, for Dylan, it's worth remembering that his primary motivation was to get to Halcyons.
I think that with all the stuff about bullying, etc. it's hard to keep in mind that Dylan was utterly convinced that when he'll commit suicide, he'll go to that magical world of pure happiness.

He wasn't like Eric or Pekka or similar shooters, he was like Randy Stair. He didn't want to be on this planet any more and at the same time he was utterly convinced that he won't die but will wake up in a better place.

He just didn't want to go alone and also wanted to do killing on the way out which is why he wanted to go on killing spree with someone, preferably a girlfriend.

TheDragonoid wrote:

Yaeh, it was kinda clear that Dylan were leaning more towards "psychotic traits", like Randy Stair, Cho and others. However, i don't think he actually believed in all that "after-life thinking"? I mean, i always interpreted the "spaceless, timeless paradise beyond all the hall of existence" as just his way of facing non-existence.

If existing in this world was so painful for him, maybe Dylan liked to see a "stated of being" (non-being, in this case) where he'd be utterly free of all that sorrow as something greater than what he consciously knew was just the void. Maybe his "paradise" was just how he named the poetic coping mechanism that he developed to face his ultimate demise.

Simply "word play."

It assumes that belief in afterlife is an unique psychotic trait, though.

Quote :

Existence is a great hall, life is one of the [scribble] rooms, death is passing thru the doors, & the ever-existant compulsion of everything is the curiosity to keep moving down the hall, thru the doors, exploring rooms, down this never-ending hall. Questions make answers, answers conceive questions, and at long last he is content.

The hall of existence suggests some kind of reincarnation or at least multiple life, perhaps in different worlds. Beyond existance could be some kind of a greater, more grandiose afterlife that doesn't feature suffering.

Because how could oblivion include learning, exploration, etc.

It reminds me of Randy Stair talking about dimensions upon dimensions out there.

I think both of them were into New Age stuff and drawn their beliefs from there.

Dylan writes about 5th dimension... There are multiple New Age books written before Dylan's death that talk about "5th dimension".

Randy Stair used to read about ghosts and paranormal stuff. His talk about "what you believe is what happens to you in afterlife" is the same idea that Terry Pratchett used in his Discworld series. Except that Randy never mentioned reading Discworld series. It's possible Terry Pratchett also had this idea from New Age stuff.

He didn't need to consciously know it's void. He didn't seem to be a hardcore materialist.

IDK I do tend to think that Dylan thought that after death there was another life where he could potentially be happy with the soulmate he wanted.

It has been my opinion for a while that if Dylan did not commit the shooting that he would have killed himself in college. I think the change of life and not having any support from close friends/relatives around would have been too much for him. Dylan was a book smart kid but he also was very weak minded.

Im not too sure about Eric. Sometimes i think he would have been ok for his life and just lived a reg life, but then again I don't see him as being too happy doing a mediocre job. I think his anger would have gone out of control