Very true, of course. I'd forgotten about Dylan and Eric's counseling and snickering. Minus ten points for me.
And yes, most of us do find a way to deal, and those are the people who deserve respect. To a healthy mind, violence doesn't solve anything. But I would argue that these kids certainly didn't have healthy minds, far beyond the normal teenage developmental angst. Of course, as all of them underwent counseling and didn't actively work to improve their situation, I lose even more respect for them (and I didn't think that was possible. We're in triple negative digits, here). The very act of therapy is extending a hand, and if they chose not to reach out themselves and take said hand, they chose to remain in their misery, and deserve their unhappiness. My general philosophy: you don't get to complain about a situation you don't at least attempt to solve.
And out of curiosity-- where did you read that the claims of Dylan and Eric's bullying were exaggerated? I'm only curious because I remember hearing "Lighten up! We're just having fun with you!" as I was locked up in the school's theatre's tech booth (I'm very clausterphobic, so that was really scary for me). The kids didn't see it as bullying. It was just fun for them. So if the students at Columbine who did the bullying were interviewed, I imagine they would truly believe that they weren't doing anything wrong. Picking on the weak is encouraged by their peers and society-- and in some ways, perversely beneficial. If you can handle it, it toughens you up. Of course, it doesn't seem like that when you're going through it, and I certainly didn't deal with it well at the time, but in hindsight, it prepared me for the general callousness of the world at large.
Again, I don't want to seem like I'm in any way defending violence and cold-blooded murder, but I do remember my own painful adolesence, and I'm grateful that I accepted all help offered. These punks didn't. They had opportunities to get help and make things better, and chose not to. That, to me, screams "CRAZY!"
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Date: 2007-04-19 04:11 pm (UTC)And yes, most of us do find a way to deal, and those are the people who deserve respect. To a healthy mind, violence doesn't solve anything. But I would argue that these kids certainly didn't have healthy minds, far beyond the normal teenage developmental angst. Of course, as all of them underwent counseling and didn't actively work to improve their situation, I lose even more respect for them (and I didn't think that was possible. We're in triple negative digits, here). The very act of therapy is extending a hand, and if they chose not to reach out themselves and take said hand, they chose to remain in their misery, and deserve their unhappiness. My general philosophy: you don't get to complain about a situation you don't at least attempt to solve.
And out of curiosity-- where did you read that the claims of Dylan and Eric's bullying were exaggerated? I'm only curious because I remember hearing "Lighten up! We're just having fun with you!" as I was locked up in the school's theatre's tech booth (I'm very clausterphobic, so that was really scary for me). The kids didn't see it as bullying. It was just fun for them. So if the students at Columbine who did the bullying were interviewed, I imagine they would truly believe that they weren't doing anything wrong. Picking on the weak is encouraged by their peers and society-- and in some ways, perversely beneficial. If you can handle it, it toughens you up. Of course, it doesn't seem like that when you're going through it, and I certainly didn't deal with it well at the time, but in hindsight, it prepared me for the general callousness of the world at large.
Again, I don't want to seem like I'm in any way defending violence and cold-blooded murder, but I do remember my own painful adolesence, and I'm grateful that I accepted all help offered. These punks didn't. They had opportunities to get help and make things better, and chose not to. That, to me, screams "CRAZY!"