Reality Check (Score 1)

I didn't quite get to that level myself, but I did survive by filtering out most contact. As a rule, most of my friends from high school were either (a) friends of my more popular one-year-younger brother who got along with me, and (b) kids I knew from non-school areas.

I certainly do not think there's any excuse for what those boys did. Reasons, yes...but no excuse. Nevertheless, I do feel empathy for them, knowing what it's like to sit perpetually on the outside looking in and facing persecution all the while. Life, too many times, is defined by humans at our moments of weakness. Those boys faced theirs, and nobody was there to help. They had no good input in making their tragically flawed decision. But it was their decision.

The reason for scapegoat-hunting is simple. We want solutions, easy solutions, now. Or more accurately, we want action. We also want to find a way to blame someone other than ourselves, and targets like "the Internet" and "violent games" that can't fight back are easily chosen, especially in the face of the (self-)righteous fury that always springs up in the face of these things.

Why? Because we as humans always want to believe that if we change this one thing, or do that one thing, we'll be happy. The "in crowd" figured if they could torment some geeks, they'd be happy. The TCM boys figured that if they could get their revenge, they'd be happy. Their parents figured that if they just let their kids do whatever, they'd be happy. The school administrators figure if they tighten the chains a few more notches, they'll be happy. The news media figures that if they exploit the sensationalism for a few bucks, they'll be happy. The politicians figure that if they can take the excuse to cram a few more rules down our throats to improve their own power, they'll be happy.

The blame for this starts with those boys, to be sure. But there's more than enough to go around, including for those who're taking the excuse to bathe in it for their own gain.

The reality is that none of them are going to be happy, at least not so easily. And some of them, and some innocents, ended up dead because of poor judgement by a whole lot of people. And a lot of the rest of us are going to be hurt as a by-product.