Response To Elliot Rodger's Attack On Terrorism
A study by the FBI confirmed that most of these shooters don’t just one day “snap”. Elliot Rodger planned out his attack for a whole year before he committed it and he had a 137 page manifesto left behind for the world to see. This behavior isn’t his alone, it’s mirrored in other shooters. Most of these people know they are going to die, and so they plan out every part of it like a presentation. Their main goal isn’t the killings, but the message it sends and the aftermath displayed on TV. It’s calculated to generate fear and gain attention, attention which is then used to look into the individual or the issues that plagued them while they were alive. They have the attention of the nation and we willingly give it to them. Eric Harris knew this
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as he planned columbine, Eric Harris wrote about this in his journal. If this sounds familiar at all then that’s because it is. This strategy has been used effectively by people other than school shooters, it’s known as terrorism. Terrorists and School Shooters both use the coverage of mass media for attention and promotion. Terrorists do it for political and religious beliefs, while school shooters use it for glorification and to bring light to their personal issues.
When you take this connection into account our reactions towards school shootings look absolutely ridiculous. If someone stated that ISIS or Al Qaeda did what they did due to video games or heavy metal music they wouldn’t be taken seriously at all. It would be seen as complete nonsense. Now the interesting thing here is that although they seem to exist in totally separate worlds, we respond to these school shootings in the same way we respond to terrorism. We provide the big screen footage, we provide the news coverage and constant attention, we provide as mass showing of caught up in it we all are and how much fear it produces. Terrorism works because it produces a response of fear and panic, warfare through psychological reaction and by reacting we show that we have given away our power. Since school shootings work the same way it should be no surprise then that as the school shooting hysteria continues the number of shootings themselves will continue to rise. Not only are we playing into the hand of school shooters, but we are showing them that we will continuously give them what they
want.
When we picture a terrorist we think of a brown man with a beard and a turban who exists in some far away land. We can make a sense of disconnection and explain away their intentions. They are different, they live in a different country and follow a different religion, they are alien and unlike us. What makes school shootings so shocking is because they are indeed just like us. Eric Harris’s friends knew that he and Dylan would take fireworks and extract the gunpowder to make explosives up in the mountains. They heard him make jokes about killing students and blowing up the school. Now of course with all this being said since these are people just like us it leads to reason that there is a reason as to why they turned to such a dark side. We seem to forget that everyone around us experiences emotions just like we do, we are just so used to experiencing it alone due to cultural conditioning. You would be shocked at how many of the people around you have experienced or have depression and may have even had suicidal thoughts. I am not making the implication that signs of depression are signs that you will become a killer, but it obviously starts somewhere. These are people who have had friends and who have grown up interacting with people and being part of society. These are people whose life circumstances have led to them feeling so isolated and alone where the only way they can rationalize getting attention is through acts of violence and complete disregard to others lives. The fact of the matter is that it could be a family member, a neighbor, or even a friend. It is hard to determine because loneliness isn’t a reflection of being social but a reflection of feeling misunderstood, and so it really can be anyone. Our inability to accept this leads to shock and confusion every time there is a school shooting.
This takes us to the part of school shootings that often do not get talked about, loneliness and empathy. If the direct cause of these individuals to develop these patterns of thought it due to loneliness, then the solution is empathy. Being able and willing to listen to those around you and check in to see how their feeling (actually feeling, not just the autopilot response of “I’m good”). As mentioned before we as a nation have numbed emotions and our understanding of them. It’s what leads us to be so surprised that such seemingly “normal” people can commit such heinous acts, after which we automatically label them as evil and they lose all relatability. We forget that we often times have depressive periods and feel lonely and maybe even feel frustrated at the world due to our life situation. While again I am not suggesting that feeling these are signs that you will become a murderer, everyone started somewhere and I bet that having someone understand your emotions would have led to a better sense of connection. Ultimately it is a sense of disconnection that allows school shooters seek attention by killing innocent children in the first place.
as he planned columbine, Eric Harris wrote about this in his journal. If this sounds familiar at all then that’s because it is. This strategy has been used effectively by people other than school shooters, it’s known as terrorism. Terrorists and School Shooters both use the coverage of mass media for attention and promotion. Terrorists do it for political and religious beliefs, while school shooters use it for glorification and to bring light to their personal issues.
When you take this connection into account our reactions towards school shootings look absolutely ridiculous. If someone stated that ISIS or Al Qaeda did what they did due to video games or heavy metal music they wouldn’t be taken seriously at all. It would be seen as complete nonsense. Now the interesting thing here is that although they seem to exist in totally separate worlds, we respond to these school shootings in the same way we respond to terrorism. We provide the big screen footage, we provide the news coverage and constant attention, we provide as mass showing of caught up in it we all are and how much fear it produces. Terrorism works because it produces a response of fear and panic, warfare through psychological reaction and by reacting we show that we have given away our power. Since school shootings work the same way it should be no surprise then that as the school shooting hysteria continues the number of shootings themselves will continue to rise. Not only are we playing into the hand of school shooters, but we are showing them that we will continuously give them what they
want.
When we picture a terrorist we think of a brown man with a beard and a turban who exists in some far away land. We can make a sense of disconnection and explain away their intentions. They are different, they live in a different country and follow a different religion, they are alien and unlike us. What makes school shootings so shocking is because they are indeed just like us. Eric Harris’s friends knew that he and Dylan would take fireworks and extract the gunpowder to make explosives up in the mountains. They heard him make jokes about killing students and blowing up the school. Now of course with all this being said since these are people just like us it leads to reason that there is a reason as to why they turned to such a dark side. We seem to forget that everyone around us experiences emotions just like we do, we are just so used to experiencing it alone due to cultural conditioning. You would be shocked at how many of the people around you have experienced or have depression and may have even had suicidal thoughts. I am not making the implication that signs of depression are signs that you will become a killer, but it obviously starts somewhere. These are people who have had friends and who have grown up interacting with people and being part of society. These are people whose life circumstances have led to them feeling so isolated and alone where the only way they can rationalize getting attention is through acts of violence and complete disregard to others lives. The fact of the matter is that it could be a family member, a neighbor, or even a friend. It is hard to determine because loneliness isn’t a reflection of being social but a reflection of feeling misunderstood, and so it really can be anyone. Our inability to accept this leads to shock and confusion every time there is a school shooting.
This takes us to the part of school shootings that often do not get talked about, loneliness and empathy. If the direct cause of these individuals to develop these patterns of thought it due to loneliness, then the solution is empathy. Being able and willing to listen to those around you and check in to see how their feeling (actually feeling, not just the autopilot response of “I’m good”). As mentioned before we as a nation have numbed emotions and our understanding of them. It’s what leads us to be so surprised that such seemingly “normal” people can commit such heinous acts, after which we automatically label them as evil and they lose all relatability. We forget that we often times have depressive periods and feel lonely and maybe even feel frustrated at the world due to our life situation. While again I am not suggesting that feeling these are signs that you will become a murderer, everyone started somewhere and I bet that having someone understand your emotions would have led to a better sense of connection. Ultimately it is a sense of disconnection that allows school shooters seek attention by killing innocent children in the first place.