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So you do not believe in evil. I do and that describes many in this society who are all into only themselves. Lookig at history its easy to see what man is capable of.
It is a real loss to society and psychologist for law enforcement not to have gotten the journals. They could have shown a progression of sorts of this kind of thinking and behavior.
Yes. Apparently Klebold wrote an essay in an English class, the content of which alarmed his teacher. She left a phone message for his parents about a possible conference but according to Klebold's mother, they never met with the teacher. There were a lot of things fell through the cracks; maybe they didn't appear to be red flags before the shootings.
Both boys' journals are available to read on the Internet. The Basement Tapes are not, since the concern is fear of copycat crimes.
I think being a psychopath is on a continuum--from 1 being a mild case to a full blown 10. The number 1 might just have a little lack of ethics/morality, a lot of everyday people can fit into this, or you can continue down the line to the worst offenses/case scenarios.
I feel that it's got to be closely connected to early childhood lacks--a coldness of emotion or lack of true emotion/caring toward the child that closes in on the kid and the kid becomes emotionally numb. Then the "numbness" allows one to do things that others wouldn't dare dream.
There's probably some who have an organic brain cause, but I still wonder about those brain theories, maybe the behavior causes the brain to change and not the other way around...
I wonder how you can not see that your child has some serious issues early on--maybe not wanting to see.
Phoenix...your post is very perceptive. I,too, have wondered about the Columbine disaster...I lived in Denver at the time.
So you do not believe in evil. I do and that describes many in this society who are all into only themselves.
I don't think Eric Harris was evil. I think he had a predisposition to insensitivity and whatever hardwiring goes with having little conscience. In addition, he learned to get away with bad behavior as he grew up. He never seemed to suffer the consequences of his actions. E.g. his father was so concerned that Eric's break-in of a van as a 16-year-old would be on his record permanently that he hired an attorney to get it wiped off when Eric became 18. Later, his father told him he needed to apologize to his classmate Brooks Brown's family for threatening them. Brooks' mother listened to Eric's apology--and apparently saw through it--and she told him that he might be able to fool his father but he couldn't fool her. The Harrises never contacted the Browns about Eric's behavior after that; it's as if they just didn't want to believe their son was capable of doing the things he did.
Not the same case, but as horrific, the defendant in the Virginia Tech shooting was on Prozac [was this person also taking Prozac, does anyone know] AND I remember reading, on several occasions, that there is a very high percentage of very bad reactions [psychotic reactions] to many people taking Prozac AND that the drug company does know this is one of the "potential" side effects and the percentage has increasee and the drug company has not recalled the drug. There was a lawyer in Connecticut who won a case [I think it was the first case in the country] --a murder case because the defendant was on Prozac. If in fact there was a strong link to the horrible crimes at Columbine and Virginia Tech and Prozac, perhaps the drug company{ies} need to re-examine the benefits, or lack thereof, of Prozac.
How is that far fetched? There's lots of killer kids, malignant sociopathic kids outthere. Almost all of them will reach the criminal justice system @ one point in their lives. This is just one out of millions of cases except this gets the most publicity. You should visit your local juvenile correctional center to see people like these. They do exist. You've been living under a rock.
It is a real loss to society and psychologist for law enforcement not to have gotten the journals. They could have shown a progression of sorts of this kind of thinking and behavior.
To answer the OP, I personally think someone HAS to have mental problems to be able to murder someone else. It isn't normal to want to take a life in a premeditated way.
Off topic, however, absolutely not. ANYONE can be a murderer, given the right set of circumstances. And, understand I mean cold blooded, pre calculated murder. If someone killed one of my children, I would and could murder them; however, I have no mental problems at all.
Many people have been driven to murder, based upon what has occurred too them. Like it or not, there are just certain people on this earth, that should not be breathing oxygen.
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