Youth ViolenceEssay Preview: Youth ViolenceReport this essaySection I – AYouth violence, apparently a problem in todays modern society, reached its climax one sunnymorning in the month of April 1999. Two youngsters: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot andkilled 13 of their fellow students at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. Thegreat question that remains is: Why?According to William F. Jasper there are two main reasons for this tragedy and others like it. Firstof 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 noteasier, but more and more difficult.1 This has made the youth more curious about guns; to a numberyoung of people he feels it can extend to something as extreme as an obsession. A problem, whichhardly existed when he was younger, because people respected firearms. Secondly he believes thatpersons like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are the twisted products of the nihilist-hedonistnarcissistdeath cultureÐ2, which basically means that they are some seriously sick people. Andlater on: that their behavior was a result of todays entertainment industry. In addition to this he alsomakes quite a comeback at Marilyn Manson, who earlier had written an article in which hedefended 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 forwhat happened. If any, religion should be held responsible, according to Marilyn Manson, becausereligion is what has given us our view on death. On the other hand he is not trying to defend the twoyoung mens actions; in fact he is rather repulsed by them. Which leads on to another of themusicians arguments: he is quite convinced thatthey held the responsibility themselves. And so Manson feels that it is wrong to blame him andother musicians like him for what have happened.Some people felt (some maybe still feels) that Marilyn Manson was partly responsiblefor the shooting that took place at Columbine High school in 1999, because of his unusualappearances and music. Many have lingered on the fact that Mansons lyrics are centered on rage,alienation, death and despair3 . These people believe that performers like this inspire the youth tohave such feelings, and I guess all can agree that none of these are positive feelings. Manson hasseveral times been accused of making children feel like misfits that feel no other option availablethan to take as drastic actions as Harris and Klebold did. Manson himself is not exactly trying toavoid these attacks. I have assumed the role of Antichrist.4 – Another statement from the performermany have had difficulties accepting. And at the same time it is not exactly something that makesparents 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 greatdeal of the responsibility of the conduct of modern youth. And at the same time none of them cancome 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 naturallydefends the industry, because he makes a living of it, so it is pretty much expected and dr. CarlTaylor believes that this trade is the one big source of these tribulations, and yet I would be verymuch off road if I said that if we did away with the entertainment industry we would solve ourproblems.5 So Taylor, as the only one, directly claims that destroying the entertainment industrywould 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 violentworld, and if it was forbidden to make destructive music or games all one would have to do was toturn on the news or buy a newspaper instead. Because there is no way we can start censuringeverything. 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 unusualappearances and music. Many have lingered on the fact that Mansons lyrics are centered on rage,alienation, death and despair3 . These people believe that performers like this inspire the youth tohave such feelings, and I guess all can agree that none of these are positive feelings. Manson hasseveral times been accused of making children feel like misfits that feel no other option availablethan to take as drastic actions as Harris and Klebold did. Manson himself is not exactly trying toavoid these attacks. I have assumed the role of Antichrist.4 – Another statement from the performermany have had difficulties accepting.
Manson