The Nature of Violence based on "Bowling for Columbine"

            In the documentary of “Bowling for Columbine”, Michael Moore explores what he suggests were the triggers and causes for the massacre at Columbine High School and other acts of violence, especially with guns.

            To give a brief history lesson, the massacre at Columbine High School was a school shooting on April 20, 1999, at Jefferson County in the State of Colorado. Two senior students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered a total of 12 students and one teacher. They injured 21 additional students, with three other people being injured while attempting to escape the school. The pair then committed suicide. The Columbine High School massacre is the deadliest mass murder committed on an American high school campus. The shooting resulted in an increased emphasis on school security, and a moral panic aimed at goth culture, social outcasts, gun culture, the use of pharmaceutical anti-depressants by teenagers, teenage Internet use and violent video games.

 The director focuses on the environment in which the massacre occurred, common public opinions, and assumptions on the nature of violence in the United States. Moore discusses these issues with various people including the co-creator of South Park, Matt Stone, and the then-president of the National Rifle Association, Charlton Heston.

“They had turned into little monsters, but who was to blame? All the experts had an answer.” – Michael Moore

            All the experts did have an answer. Entertainment, television, violent movies, video games, cartoons, toy guns, bad influential figures, bullying, high school cliques, subcultures, South Park, society, drugs, and even Satan were mentioned among the reasons to blame. But within the wide range, Marilyn Manson was repeated an infinitesimal amount. Marilyn Manson was also among the people in which Michael Moore discussed the issues on the nature of violence in the United States.

             An important issue that the musician brought up was that he was the “poster boy for fear”. This point was quite obvious to the public and also Marilyn Manson himself; the lyrics of his songs, the music videos, and his external appearance all proved to be different. One expert even commented that Marilyn Manson was “the sickest group ever promoted by a mainstream record company.”

            The experts said that the main reason that the Columbine High School massacre occurred was because the shooters had listened to Marilyn Manson. In the song of “The Nobodies”, we hear lyrics that encourage the listeners to take action, and be remembered.

"We're the nobodies
Wanted to be somebodies
When we're dead
They'll know just who we are"

In different scenarios, different people interpret the lyrics differently. For example, some people may take this as an encouragement to be remembered as a person who stood up for their rights and beliefs, politically, spiritually or religiously, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. Others may take that the lyrics had a much different meaning: being remembered for being violent, for ruining many lives, and for being depression to many people. People like the citizens in Columbine, Colorado, and the families of Connecticut. But strangely enough, the survivors and targets aren’t the people remembered; the ones remembered are the people who committed these crimes, people such as Adam Lanza, Eric Harris, and Dylan Klebold.

            This video doesn’t necessarily concern just the massacre in Columbine, Colorado, but all the tragedies that were similar in characteristics. We need to learn the true causes of these problems and how to prevent them.