Posted

Sep 18th 2006

Mood

Disgusted

Music

White Unicorn - Wolfmother

So, the world has been shocked by a string of school shootings once more. The media circus is about to begin again, and the fingers are about to be pointed once more. But who's to blame... Is it the parents? Is it the media? Well, I have a theory, and I'm sure a lot of people aren't going to like it...

When people hear about the shootings, usually the first question is "How could this happen!" Well that's simple. Some kid who wasn't right in the head got a hold of a gun and shot people down. But when you think about it, surely someone this screwed up in the head would show signs of mental illness, and usually they do... obvious ones at that. In the case of the Montreal shooter, he posted on his Vampire Freaks blog about how everything "sucks", posed numerous times with the very gun he used in the school shooting, and repeatedly stated "life is a video game. You gotta die some time". Surely SOMETHING had to seem out of place to someone. So why did the shooting happen. If it was so obvious that he was not right in the head, how was he allowed to remain on our city streets, plotting his sick and twisted plan to go on a shooting rampage?

It's simple really. He dressed up as a Goth. People EXPECT Gothic people to be eerie and strange, so to most ill-informed socialites took his words and photos with a grain of salt and moved on, and those within the Goth culture are too eager to cover for him. And that's where the world is screwed. We're all so caught up in our own stereotypes and bias that we don't notice when something is blatantly wrong. People have become so used to just passing the buck, dodging the blame, and placing it wrongly on categorized stereotypes that we pass over basic signs, thinking they're perfectly normal for that "type of person", meanwhile if ANY other type of person started acting in the same manner, we'd have them put under lock and key, taking medications, and sharing a padded room with a man who thinks he's a banana...

While Vampire Freaks refuse to take any responsibilities for the actions of one of their members, they are also partly to blame, but not in the way they assume. While they may have not encouraged his actions, they didn't discourage them. They let him go about his sick ways and treated him with mere indifference. They seem too willing to cover for others who have black hair and claim Goth status. They're too comfortable in the idea that they're all good people with no intents to harm the outside world that they shrugged off the most obvious signs that this young man was not well, and then claim ignorance. But they are not the only ones to blame.

Surely someone outside of the internet would've noticed some signs. People said he was quiet, more or less a shut in, and more or less anti-social. But instead of thinking something was wrong, they though "Oh, it's just part of the Gothic culture," and moved on. Just like what happened when Darrel Abbot of "Pantera" was shot dead. His shooter showed obvious signs of mental instability, but society didn't seem to notice, and 2 weeks later showed up at a "Damage Plan" concert and shot Darrel in the face several times, shot Vinnie Paul Abbott (who was on drums) in the stomach, turned his fire storm unto the crowd, and was ultimately shot dead by police. The shooters friends stated they noticed things weren't right with the guy after Pantera broke up years ago, but they did what everyone seems to do. They did nothing. They did nothing, and people died as a result.

Now we have people like Jack Thompson placing the blame of such acts unto the video game industry. Who cares that the shooters have all been totally demented to begin with, they played video games. Obviously game developers are to blame for all the insane, violent, gun totting retards of the world. So on goes Jack, crusading against what he feels is the ultimate evil in search of money and fame, and in the process, putting gamers into the same problem as the Goths. He's gone about making it seem like we're all gibbering crazies ready to pull a gun and blast away the population, and as such Gamers are clinging together and defending each other in much the same way as the Goths of the Vampire Freaks website.

So now gamers are going to be too protective of people within their own "culture" to notice when someone is not well. This is just the beginning of the video game violence war, I can promise you this. As Jack Thompson and his legions of non-thinking left wingers fight to have gaming curbed, gamers will become more and more excluded from the social circle, and become more and more defensive of their own. Gamers will come to be just as comfortable in the idea, just like the Goths, that all gamers are good willed, even when someone within their own society is near stock raving mad... And people are going to come to expect Gamers to be a little bit crazy, and not notice when things are really, really wrong.

We've all got to come to the realization that a stereotype is not an excuse for the blatant signs that something is amiss. The world shouldn't be shocked by what's happened. It was a long time coming, and could be seen from miles away, but yet we passed by the signs pointing to tragedy without noticing, and drove headlong into this mess. We've got to start saying "hey, this person isn't right in the head" and get these people some help, instead of passing them by thinking "stupid crazy Gamer/Goth" and then acting shocked when they blow away random people in a shooting.

The games and the sub-cultures aren't to blame. It's the fact people fail to act when something is wrong simply because we think it's normal for that stereotype, even when it's not. This goes for all cultures and sub-cultures. From the rappers to the punks to the EMO kids to the prissy teeny pop boppers.