After watching the documentary on the Columbine shooting, something that the narrator said. He said that Dylan and Eric were being bullied in high school. He also mentioned something about being used to it every day, but they never said anything about the parents knowing what they go through at school. Could it be that they were doing the shooting because of the fact that they got tired of getting bullied every day over and over again. Another possibility is that they were just "meant" to be this way meaning that there's nothing they could do to change them. The only person that really could have changed for the better was Dylan. He seemed to be a follower, not a leader. He would listen to what Eric would tell him to do. He was being manipulated in a way by Eric. This can be seen when Eric wrote the letter of apology to his school when they hacked the school's computers. This is when Dylan kind of told Eric to not mention him in the letter of apology. If Eric listened to him in this small case, this means that he would be the easiest person to trick. You could have him do anything for you. Steal stuff for you, give you the answers to a test, or even lie for you if he really needed to.
This could mean that there was something wrong with his frontal lobe and limbic system.You can see there is something wrong with the two of those because he doesn't really feel any sense of fear for the future or anything related. His decision making skills are also no the best, which is why he can easily be manipulated to do what ever the other person wants. The thing that really surprises me is that there weren't many people that noticed a change in them, especially there parents.
I think a large part of the reason that nobody noticed a change in Dylan was that he expressed his issues in ways that appeared to just be part of angst from growing up. One article describes his behavior as "typical high school angst" (http://www.businessinsider.com/columbine-mother-susan-klebolds-story-2014-4). The article says that he spent a lot of time in his room, which his parents thought was just a manifestation of the stress that comes with growing up.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you can fully blame the bullies nor their brains. It was a mixture of many things lining up that lead to the school shooting. Yes, the bullies played a part, yes they didn't think in a normal way, but their parents, school, and lack of friends also played a big role.
ReplyDeleteI think you have to blame the brains rather than the bullies. We saw bullying taking place in the documentary, but it didn't seem very excessive like they were singling out Eric. Also when Eric wrote online about his hates, he said that he hated everyone and everything. He didn't talk about some specific bullies he hated.
ReplyDeleteI think that your idea of Dylan and Eric being "destined" to shoot up the school is a little far-fetched. I think that everything just lined up perfectly which lead to the massacre. From Eric have an unstable home to Dylan being depressed and easily manipulated and to them knowing someone who could get them the firearms.
ReplyDeleteWhile the bullies didn't help in this situation, it is mostly the fault of their ways of thinking through difficult situations. While there were many other factors, such as parents, even if they had stepped in, the boys could have easily disregarded their opinions and continued with their plans. If any one thing were to blame, it would most likely be Eric's home life, because he had been without an authoritative figure for the majority of his life. Due to his personality and way of thinking, that ended up being detrimental.
ReplyDeleteI think that the blame cannot really be pinned on the bullies themselves or their brains. There were a lot of factors that led up to the shooting, such as the mental factors of depression and pent up anger, and the outside factors of the bullying. Those two things put together played a huge role in Eric and Dylan's decisions.
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