Youth Violence

Section I - A

Youth violence, apparently a problem in today's modern society, reached its climax one sunny

morning in the month of April 1999. Two youngsters: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and

killed 13 of their fellow students at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. The

great question that remains is: Why?

According to William F. Jasper there are two main reasons for this tragedy and others like it. First

of all he feels that young people today are not as respectful as earlier when it comes to firearms.

Jasper starts his article of by claiming that access to all types of firearms has been getting not

easier, but more and more difficult.1 This has made the youth more curious about guns; to a number

young of people he feels it can extend to something as extreme as an obsession. A problem, which

hardly existed when he was younger, because people respected firearms. Secondly he believes that

persons like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are the twisted products of the nihilist-hedonistnarcissist

death cultureÐ'...2, which basically means that they are some seriously sick people. And

later on: that their behavior was a result of today's entertainment industry. In addition to this he also

makes quite a comeback at Marilyn Manson, who earlier had written an article in which he

defended himself against the accusations that had been rising against him shortly after the incident.

Manson has the exact opposite opinion. He feels that the entertainment of today is not to blame for

what happened. If any, religion should be held responsible, according to Marilyn Manson, because

religion is what has given us our view on death. On the other hand he is not trying to defend the two

young men's actions; in fact he is rather repulsed by them. Which leads on to another of the

musician's arguments: he is quite convinced that

they held the responsibility themselves. And so Manson feels that it is wrong to blame him and

other musicians like him for what have happened.

Some people felt (some maybe still feels) that Marilyn Manson was partly responsible

for the shooting that took place at Columbine High school in 1999, because of his unusual

appearances and music. Many have lingered on the fact that Manson's lyrics are centered on rage,

alienation, death and despair3 . These people believe that performers like this inspire the youth to

have such feelings, and I guess all can agree that none of these are positive feelings. Manson has

several times been accused of making children feel like misfits that feel no other option available

than to take as drastic actions as Harris and Klebold did. Manson himself is not exactly trying to

avoid these attacks. I have assumed the role of Antichrist.4 - Another statement from the performer

many have had difficulties accepting. And at the same time it is not exactly something that makes

parents shout approval when their children bring home a record with M. Manson.

All of the articles and lectures here agree that the entertainment industry bears a great

deal of the responsibility of the conduct of modern youth. And at the same time none of them can

come up a way to solve the problems. William F. Jasper accuses the entertainment of a lot of things,

including being the reason these boys attacked their schoolmates, Marilyn Manson naturally

defends the industry, because he makes a living of it, so it is pretty much expected and dr. Carl

Taylor believes that this trade is the one big source of these tribulations, and yet I would be very

much off road if I said that if we did away with the entertainment industry we would solve our

problems.5 So Taylor, as the only one, directly claims that destroying the entertainment industry

would solve nothing. In my opinion that is the smartest any of these three have said in these texts.

Of course television, music and video games are violent nowadays. After all we live in a violent

world, and if it was forbidden to make destructive music or games all one would have to do was to

turn on the news or buy a newspaper instead. Because there is no way we can start censuring

everything. That would be a violation of the freedom of speech. We will always be surrounded by Some people felt (some maybe still feels) that Marilyn Manson was partly responsible

for the shooting that took place at Columbine High school in 1999, because of his unusual

appearances and music. Many have lingered on the fact that Manson's lyrics are centered on rage,

alienation, death and despair3 . These people believe that performers like this inspire the youth to

have such feelings, and I guess all can agree that none of these are positive feelings. Manson has

several times been accused of making children feel like misfits that feel no other option available

than to take as drastic actions as Harris and Klebold did. Manson himself is not exactly trying to

avoid these attacks. I have assumed the role of Antichrist.4 - Another statement from the performer

many have had difficulties accepting.