I pay a visit to the middle school that I graduated from way back in 1974 and stage a media worthy act of terrorism that results in the death of several students, teachers, bystanders, etc., and the only evidence of my involvement is a note left at the scene that says, "Hockey hip checks and wood lathes mix poorly." In other words, I don't hang around waiting for the police to arrest me and I don't shoot myself at the scene.
Your homework question for today is:
How much time would pass before the law enforcement community had my name as a suspect or person of interest?
I was a runt in middle school and therefore an attractive target for bullies. One of them bravely hip checked me into a running wood lathe while I was busy carving a large salad bowl. Needless to say I could have been badly injured or killed if the cutting tool I was holding had hit me in the eye or the throat instead of being knocked to the side. When I shut the machine off and turned around, the bully was slowly walking away and looking over his shoulder with a smug expression on his face. There were several other students watching and most of them were also smiling.
This attack occurred almost 40 years ago. In all that time I've told no one about it and I've never heard a word about the attack from anyone else. In spite of this, I'm fairly certain that everyone in the room would quickly recall what they saw and unhesitatingly drop a dime on me if I actually carried out the above described act of terrorism and avoided becoming a suspect. I'm equally certain that none of them would utter a word if I were arrested or killed at the scene.
You're wondering what this has to do with Adam Lanza.
Here's your second homework question for today:
How many of Adam Lanza's classmates, upon learning of his attack on an elementary school immediately recalled witnessing Lanza being bullied and are living with a fair amount of apprehension that some other witness will actually become willing to publicly admit to what they saw and possibly naming other witnesses?
The point here is simple and quite familiar to most of us. Adam Lanza was smart enough to deprive the public of an easy scapegoat. He killed himself, killed the owner of the weapons he used, and damaged his hard drive to the point where it would become difficult, if not impossible for the public to blame a convenient blogger or chat room participant. No one who witnessed Adam Lanza being bullied wants to admit that they might have possibly short circuited the development of his homicidal rage by interfering with the bully's sadistic amusement. On the other hand...if Adam Lanza had avoided becoming a suspect, all those who witnessed the bullying would be tripping over each other to be the first person to drop a dime on the little twerp and bring the evil, cowardly terrorist to justice.
The witnesses in question know who they are, who the bullies are, and they probably know each other.
So here's a suggestion for all of you.
Hang the pictures of all those 6 and 7 year olds in the middle of your bathroom mirror and try not to feel too guilty. Adam Lanza probably didn't feel guilty about what he did. Why should you feel guilty about filling him with such a terrible resolve?
Sleep soundly assholes.
Where is the evidence that he carried out this massacre because he was bullied?
ReplyDeleteBill Dobsy
I assume you've attended our school system.
ReplyDeleteTake a good, long look at almost any publicly available photograph of Adam Lanza and with a straight face and a steady voice say:
"Adam Lanza was not bullied."
I took a look at Adam Lanza just as you said. He looks like a few kids I knew in high school. They didn't talk very much and weren't bullied very much. They just kind of kept to themselves.
ReplyDeleteBill Dobsy
When you are routinely given reason to fear others, you tend to "keep to yourself and don't talk very much." Being bullied on a regular basis and then ostracized by a much larger number of your peers, all of whom want to avoid appearing to be critical of the bully is a textbook method of conditioning you to live inside your head and to develop fantasies of revenge. The fact that this has its greatest effect upon subjects who already suffer from Asperger's or something similar should be no surprise to anyone.
ReplyDeleteCommunity sanctioned cruelty is a well known precursor to adult criminal behavior. If people don't like criminals, why do they knowingly fill other people's children with so much hatred? Is the public crazy, or stupid, or something else?
No, I think that they didn't talk very much because they were shy. I knew plenty of teenagers like them. They were the respected loners.
ReplyDeleteNow, Adam Lanza might have been bullied. I don't know. I am curious as to what you mean by community sanctioned cruelty.
Bill Dobsy
Community Sanctioned Cruelty:
ReplyDeleteWhen you are the victim of cruelty and you notice that the prevailing opinion in your community is that lots of people know about what's being done to you and either no one has any objection to it or they actually support it. This is especially galling when the bully is also a local athlete or other high status individual who can do no wrong. You learn that every act of cruelty perpetrated by the bully is looked upon by your community as clever, charming, and riotously funny. Think of Mitt Romney's youthful "hijinks" here. I'm really disturbed by the fact that tens of millions of American voters were either unable to recognize a charming sociopath when they saw one or simply didn't care. Misogynistic serial killers and one time mass murderers like George Sodini tend to have a similar background. They often spent their youth being bullied and watching many of the most attractive females on campus competing with each other for the attention of the bully. You learn to hate everyone, and you learn to conceal your hatred behind the bland smile of a cowed, cooperative child.
Is that definition extensive enough?
Again, I knew kids like Adam Lanza who very rarely talked and were almost never bullied. If one of them committed a massacre I would say that bullying was probably not a factor since they were very rarely bullied.
ReplyDeleteBill Dobsy
Most victims of bullying do not turn into killers for the same reason that most drunk drivers don't crash into anything. Being bullied and being intoxicated increase the probability of tragedy, but there's no way of determining ahead of time which individuals will cause harm.
ReplyDeleteEveryone can remember a few students like Adam Lanza.
How do you know that any of these killers killed because of bullying? Where are you getting this information? You can't just say that you know for certain that Adam Lanza killed because he was bullied. We know barely anything at all about him.
ReplyDeleteBill Dobsy
When you read or hear about a motorist who drove while intoxicated and ended up killing someone, how do you know that alcohol was the most important contributor?
ReplyDeleteDon't people who drive completely sober crash into things?
Hey Bill, in America "respected loner" is an oxymoron. You either conform or be cast out.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about "respected loner." More like "ignored loner." Nobody has anything to say about them because they just don't stand out.
ReplyDeleteBill Dobsy