To Hans' Anti-Hero... Post

As a fellow metalhead (ya I know I look more like a classical puss... I am too. Cannot ah lol), I agree with the views Hans has expressed. It is disappointing to know that in this age where we highly value scientific credibility and reason, the media and other experts would be so quick to falsely induce the cause of socially fatal psychosis and mental warping.

I'm very glad that guns are not available in Singapore. And I'm glad I was brought up in this nation. Many condemn Singapore's relative conservativeness and traditionalism, but one of the better points of these two double-edged swords is that we know better where to toe the line. Thank God I've never experienced school violence, as Hans mentioned, but I get teased alot. And if I'm one who lets myself get tipped over the edge easily, even if there aren't any guns, I truly believe I would still commit cold-blooded murder with knives.

Or preferably swords. Long swords. Long Japanese swords. Long sharp Japanese swords. That can disintegrate at my command into hundreds of thousands of razor thin metal shards and kill my target 10 feet away.

ANYHOO~.

I scare myself sometimes. When I don't check myself, and when my imagination takes off while I'm pissed about something, I would start trembling. I can almost feel and evil aura envelope, consume, surround me. Or for those who know what it means, and can read it - 殺氣. And it scares me so much that I never fail at this point to get back down-to-earth. I will not kill. I cannot kill.

America, in their quest for freedom of speech and society, have neglected to draw the lines where these issues are concerned. Then again, we can't place all the blame on them, since such values, which we label Asian for a reason, aren't one of their primary concerns. Now I'm not criticizing America. They, like I believe, most of us, have as many good points as bad points. And I also don't think much can be done in the immediate future to curb this problem. But a major problem it is, nevertheless.

Many of us use the I-listen-to-metal-why-am-I-not-killing line of reasoning and argument. But really after so many years of debate, it's come to mean little now, if not nothing. It's just not convincing anymore. It's just like saying 'I listen to Swan Lake, why don't I prance around in a tutu?'

Because lor. Then?

People don't know how to respond not because your reasoning is better than theirs, but because your line of logic allows for little more thought.

My uncle married a woman. I don't know the details, but where we came into the picture she was mad. Not mentally retarded or challenged. Crazy. And she either forgot or neglected to take her suppressant medication, and had a severe lapse. She refused to let my uncle into the house, calling him bad and evil. She yelled all sorts of accusations at him. And most painful of all, she brainwashed his two early teenage daughters into thinking he was bad, and left strict instructions before she was taken to Woodbridge (mental hospital, if anyone foreign is reading) not to let my uncle into the house under any circumstances.

Now here, two things can be seen. The first is rather obvious if you think about it, but some experts' comments on Columbine have left me wondering whether someone should explain this slowly and clearly to them. My aunt did not listen to metal music. She wasn't even driven mad, she just was mad. Now my uncle on the other hand, was dealt major bonecracking blows - his wife barred him and was bitter to him, and his daughters were resentful of him. I'm sure he was more than just sad, I won't even hold back on saying he might well have been shattered. But he's still fine. He simply moved in with another uncle of mine at his kind invitation, and whenever I meet him and greet him he always manages a smile, however slight.

You see, people simply have different thresholds. Different pain thresholds, sanity thresholds, and so on. I don't think it would even be fair to call the two killers 'weak' or 'sissypusses'. Because some people naturally are low on their level of emotional control.

For all his pseudoness, Marilyn Manson gave the best response when Michael Moore interviewed him for Bowling for Columbine. 'I won't say anything to them,' he said when Michael Moore asked him if given a chance what would he choose to say to the two killers, 'I would sit down and listen to what they have to say.'

You want to prevent that from every happening again? Hear this! This is what is to be done, not aimlessly blaming all the things the killers were associated with. You chose to turn away from the bullying going on behind locker doors. You chose to look the other direction when Harris and Klebold were sniggered at and mocked by arrogant inflated jocks and cheerleaders. You chose for many other jocks, cheerleaders, Christians, people with a good heart and who would have embraced Harris and Klebold if only to make them feel 'in the group' - you chose for these people to die for nothing. You chose for the Columbine High School Massacre to happen.

When all is condemned and lashed out at, all I see a very, very, very unfortunate string of events. Fate took its worst possible course, and this was the result. Lives can never be reclaimed, not even if the two killers were caught alive and cruficied. But lessons can be learnt.

Stop studiously ignoring such a dangerous problem. Turn around and take the bull by the horns. It's a scary thing to do, but if you don't do that, sooner or later, the bull will only run you through.