Was Eric "human"?

The above video portrays a young boy who fell victim to society. We're going to dig deeper into his mind and better understand why he and another student committed such an act of tragedy. From researching this incident for long periods of time and going through document after document on the events that led up to the Columbine massacre. It is a fact that both Eric and Dylan planned the attack and prepared for it an entire year before it even happened, so we ask ourselves how could anyone plan a mass murder/suicide for an entire year? What kind of mind must one have to carry out such an act?

Let us begin by looking at Eric before high school, he is saddened by the fact that he has moved away from some of his closest friends. He and his family moved from place to place about six times, making good friends and having to always say goodbye. His dad was in the Air Force so his family was constantly moving. He misses his friends extremely and he knows that he will never see them ever again. This gives him a sense that his childhood that he once had with all of his friends is gone forever. He meets Dylan in the seventh or eighth grade as it is not known which grade exactly and they quickly become friends. From much research Eric was happy in middle school except from the part of missing all of his friends he left behind when moving to Colorado .

Now let's take a look at Columbine High School before the massacre happened. Everyone has been to high school we know all about it, we understand that it isn't the happiest of places and I am sure that every one of us has been bullied, picked on, and teased in one way or another. How actually worse of a school could Columbine have been to actually have such a thing happen to it? I have asked students who attend or have attended the school their opinion on how they feel about the school, their response shocked me. A couple of students were describing the school as extremely racist being that the majority of the school is all white. The students described how teachers would let fights go on, and not intervene what so ever in student conflicts with other students when they actually needed help.

Columbine has been described as having two groups of students the high and the low. The high students pick on the lows in many ways a very common way is blocking a student's way of going to class and making them take the long way around and well the low students would just have to put up with it as well as being shoved into lockers and such. It was noted that in the bathroom there was a little war where someone wrote on the wall or mirror “Jocks rule” then crossed out and read “Jocks suck!.” The Columbine school is a very well clean cut school, the floors are polished the library is beautiful and it is just an overall very well kept school. So all in all we can conclude that this school is not that much different from other high schools.

Did Eric just get picked on more than anyone else when he went to Columbine? Or was it not only him being picked on but something else that helped his decision of planning a mass murder/suicide? Eric has been diagnosed to be a psychopath, but what is a psychopath exactly? Well it is a person who really does not share emotions such as they do not show or really care about empathy or sympathy or even love and they are extreme pathological liars. A psychopath perceives reality clearly except for his or her own social or moral obligations and seeks instant gratification in criminal or otherwise abnormal behavior. They have an extreme high ego about themselves making them feel superior to others.

We find that Eric is not a one hundred percent psychopath, but shows many symptoms of being one. He is confirmed to be an extreme pathological liar; he shows no sympathy what so ever toward anyone as well as no empathy. He shows signs in his journal of understanding that what he has planned is indeed wrong. He has a self awareness about him that convinces him that he is by far more superior than anyone. He shows many signs of being superior towards his friends as well as his teachers. Eric shares another symptom that psychopaths share which is seeking instant gratification and he does this clearly, explaining it in his journal. Eric sneaks out of his house on a regular basis to go around the neighborhood doing what he calls “missions” these missions entail causing mischief such as toilet papering houses or setting fireworks off, damaging property, and blowing things up such as mailboxes.

Now the only signs that Eric shows from keeping him to be a full throttle psychopath is he wanted love and to be loved by others. He wanted friends even though he is known to be extremely anti social, he has a few handful of friends but deep down he wishes he had more. We verify him wanting friends in his journal where he states “I hate you people for leaving me out of so many fun things and no fucking don't say well that's your fault because it isn't you people had my phone number and I asked and all but no don't let the weird Eric kid come along oh fucking no.” Now we have looked at Eric having strong characteristics of being a psychopath other than him wanting love and to be loved. Let it be known that psychopaths are extremely common, it is a mere personality disorder found in physiatrist believe one in every twenty five people.

The people who actually knew Eric described him as a sweet guy, not really talkative but he cared a lot about his friends. He believed strongly that women should be respected, so all of this information was gathered from his actual friends and that he was an all around “normal” nice guy. The thing is he really was those things his writings explain it all in his journal and love letters. He wanted love and just to be happy, but somewhere in Columbine High School something drastic happened. It is well known that many people can not detect if someone has the personality disorder of a psychopath many psychopaths do not even realize that they have this mental disorder, but they can see that they are very different from others. Hostage negotiators actually are taught to distinguish first if the suspect holding hostages is a psychopath or not and if the suspect is found to be one then the hostage negotiator switches his tactics completely. This is how different these people are with this mental disorder and it is very serious.

The human mind is so amazing, but can it be manipulated? In many foreign countries “brain washing” children at a young age is a far too common practice. Children are taught to hate many things such as America , and they actually learn this information through music and television even in children cartoons. These children are later handed a gun and turned into a soldier. If you have seen the movie Blood Diamond you witness how rebels run through the villages of Africa, taking the young boys and “brain washing” them into being killers. With this knowledge of taboo practice we can say well that's there and not in America obviously, but is it really only there and not in American culture? When researching Eric we know what his most favorite movie was of all time and what his favorite band was among others.

Eric extremely loved the band KMFDM, so trying to get inside his head I listened to all of the songs he adored as if it was his bible. He was a big fan of this band having posters on the wall and even many shirts of the band. Eric had a website and he posted many lyrics to KMFDM songs on the pages. It would seem as if this music was playing in his head at points in the day. I find it extremely important to follow in Eric's footsteps to better understand his thought process. I ask the reader to listen to what he listened to and possibly to understand what went on in his head. Along with KMFDM being his favorite band of all time there are a few other bands he liked too such as Rammstein, The Prodigy, and Orbital. Music is known as an escape but is it possible that it can shape or warp our minds? I would say to some extent depending on how serious you take the lyrics. It is a fact that music does effect an emotional change within our bodies such as a sad song will make you sad and a wild song will get you hyped up and pumped possibly ready to fight. Many stressed out people throw on a music disc that presents sounds of nature to ease their stress away.

So if music can take away stress and manipulate emotions is it possible it can shape a mind into giving a more hatred outlook towards others? Yes it is actually very likely but only depending on the person. The games Eric played he took to heart just as with his music, he began an obsession with the game Doom and as we know the game Doom is an intense game where you try to kill and kill some more trying to get the highest body count. Doom seems to be one of those odd games but none the less like any other game it is fun in a creepy kind of way. I ask the reader to take a look at this game and possibly play it to better understand if in some way a game like this could have an effect on a person's mind. The game is obviously brutal in nature and gained a high liking with Eric. Eric actually would imagine killing people he hated while playing the game this is a known fact.

So now we have hard harsh type music and a real brutal killing game. With the regular user in playing such games and listening to such music a person would just shrug it off as just entertainment, but in this case we have an eighteen year old boy who has an actual pretty serious mental disorder, so we can all say that hate music and an imagination inspiring game cant really inspire such a boy to better his life and others around him. This all leads us now to Eric's favorite movie being Natural Born Killers, I recommend the reader to actually watch this movie , but be alarmed it is for mature audiences. This movie which I must admit seeing probably a dozen times is an intense movie about a story of two mass murderers named Mickey and Mallory. Eric writes in his journal “NBK came quick everything I see and hear relates to NBK somehow” NBK which he always referred to it as meaning Natural Born Killers.

Eric has become fixated on this movie, it is not documented but the sunglasses both Eric and Dylan wear are the same as worn by the killers in the movie. Eric is pretty much treating his hard music, brutal gaming, and his intense favorite movie as his way of life. He shows many signs of fixation on all three so we must ask ourselves is it possible that a person having a mental disorder with these three things combined in some way helped push his decision for a mass murder/suicide? I would say it is possible, but is it actually the main reason why? With all of these three things that Eric was fixated on it all came together while in Columbine High School .

In Columbine High School is when he started to take more shape in his sophomore year which is actually the same year he and Dylan purchased the TEC DC-9 gun from Mark Manes in 1997. Now we have this young boy having a mental disorder possibly serious and listening to his music, playing his game, and relating to his favorite movie begin to feel alienated. He does not know why but he cannot seem to make many friends as he just does not fit in to regular cliques. This is an obvious sign of his mental disorder feeling as if he is too different to fit in. He finds that he is a continuous target to be made fun of and picked on by more than likely the upper classmen. He then chooses to alienate himself more and more by showing it in the way that he dresses along with his own group of close friends, dressing in long black trench coats. It is a fact that Eric had been picked on much more than Dylan and people who knew them claimed it was because Eric was only like 5'6 about one hundred and thirty seven pounds, when Dylan stood 6'2 one hundred and forty three pounds.

The alienation frustrated Eric he now sees how the entire school is in a way segregated from others and thus causing him to see them as just sheep hurdled in different packs. He knew he was different because he despised that people were like consumers and all of the commercials which he feels are a waste of time. He believed strongly that so many people did not appreciate life as he did. Then in January 30, 1998 Eric and Dylan both were arrested from stealing electronic equipment out of a van. This really outraged Eric giving him a hatred now not only to his classmates but to authority as well. He now hates people with a passion that is so strong, he begins to act out on his website and stand up for himself more. The hate for society is already established to a point of no return. Eric began writing in his journal only after his threatening content on his website alerted authorities of him threatening to kill Brooks Brown a student who was actually very close to Dylan but had a fallout with Eric. Almost coincidental Eric began writing in this journal in early April of 1998 the month exactly a year before the massacre, he states “sometime in April next year me and V will get revenge and kick natural selection up a few notches” This is the oldest evidence documented that it describes when they decided to actually do the event.

The incident in January really was a kicking point with all the community service having been done, it really did outrage Eric as well as Dylan rather than push him away from criminal actions. In the statement of getting revenge, Eric is referring to revenge on authority and his school, so pretty much a strong hatred for the world he lives in. Now we have Eric planning this mass murder/suicide which started to evolve in early April 1998, an entire year of preparing for massive death you can only ask what kind of mind must one have to be so cold to plan for an entire year to commit suicide and murder. This brings us back to the missions that Eric loved to create he loved planning destruction it was how he reached gratification among other things such as lying and blowing people away in his game Doom.

Now we have the date set, so they start to build an arsenal and testing out pipe bombs and trying to learn the art of time bombs to detonate in the cafeteria and throughout the school. This is what he loved to do he loved weapons and war and explosions, he stated that he wanted to be on the front lines in the military and actually applied to go into the army after high school, of which five days before the massacre happened the military denied him for having been on the drug Luvox and explained for him to apply in six more months when he is completely off it. Many believe that if the army had accepted him then this massacre would have been aborted but Eric's mind was made up and we are really not sure if much of anything could have aborted his “mission”.

We have now analyzed and have a much better understanding on how Eric's mind works. Let's take a look at Dylan's mind which is actually a much greater mystery. Dylan was pretty much your every day teen, he had no such mental disorder and was really loved by many friends. His friends would always come over to his house instead of Eric's because as they stated “it was just more fun and more things to do.” Dylan's friends loved his parents because they were extremely nice and whenever friends were over they always had something making in the kitchen to feed the guests. His family was a strong Jewish family having gone to many church sessions. Even though Dylan had many friends and a wonderful caring family we ask well why pull off such a horrific act? We must look at what possibilities might have shaped him. When he was in elementary school he was enrolled into a program called CHIPS which stands for Challenging High Intellectual Potential Students. This program pretty much focuses on kid's imagination more than actually hard studying of books. Students are free to do as they want and are inspired to learn on their own. This means students can just get up and use the bathroom whenever they please without gaining permission from a teacher.

What effects could such a program have on a child at such a young age? It has been known that children who grew up with this program tend to be extremely shy when graduating it and actually when going to a “normal” school with less privileges than before. Students who graduated this program have been known to be too shy to raise their hand to ask to go to the bathroom and instead they urinate on themselves. It is not known if such incidences occurred with Dylan but he was actually less talkative than Eric when around people he was not close to. Dylan pretty much felt very comfortable where he stood at having many good friends and having a very caring family. It was not until attending high school with his best friend Eric that things took a turn. Dylan was extremely kind to the people around him he would go out of his way just to make them laugh and smile. He has been described by friends as a sweet guy waiting for the perfect girl to be with. Dylan also loved the Boston Red Sox; he played baseball, T-ball, and soccer.

Dylan was very active in fantasy baseball and many of his friends were also into it and stated that they had heard Dylan talk about upcoming plays that would happen during the week of April twentieth, so he showed no signs what so ever to anyone that he was about to commit such a tragedy. Dylan has been analyzed to be the type of person who is very easily manipulated which brings us to him meeting Eric. All throughout high school Eric was the one having the hard times, Dylan had many confrontations but not as many as Eric. It is believed that Eric introduced Dylan to his harsh music as well as his gaming of Doom. Dylan would listen to Eric and was actually known to help comfort him. Dylan was strongly there for Eric in any way he could have been and with his weak minded personality, Eric took advantage of him in such a way to help offer ideas about the world and the people in it. This psychology that Eric put on Dylan on a daily basis would make Dylan stop and just think on Eric's ideas and views. Dylan was so close to Eric that it seemed as if they were actually thinking alike, but in reality it was just Dylan agreeing on Eric's thinking.

Eric put ideas in Dylan's head that they both were superior than others on so many levels That it actually further helped Dylan slip in a more greater depression. Dylan thought so deeply about everything as stated in his journal. His thinking is pretty much common amongst depressed people to some extent of why are we here such as what is the point of existence. He began to take to heart many of the things Eric preached to him as well as the music he listened to. It is known that both Eric and Dylan shared so many similar likings yet they were actually very opposite from each-other. They shared the same music, game, and favorite movie. So what pushed Dylan to commit this act? It was more difficult for Dylan to take to heart Eric's music but he grew into loving it with Eric pushing his hated views of the world on him. Friends of Dylan stated that he could get really angry real fast like having a flash of anger on something as small as getting a gutter ball in bowling where he was witnessed punching the area where balls are retrieved so hard that it almost broke.

The anger grew as his depression did also where he is now following Eric into dressing just like him in a long black trench coat and also wearing the same sunglasses as him. They both found a fondness in shooting guns and causing explosions as actually many people do for example everyone loves fireworks. Both loved to shock people around them by shouting "hail Hitler" during their bowling class and wearing many controversial symbols. Many people believed they loved the Nazis but the truth is that Eric just loved Hitler's idea of natural selection and the hate that was involved. They were both from a jewish background and hated racist ideas. Dylan's parents see no signs at all to be really alarmed, except two which are Dylan being arrested with Eric on stolen property and the essay that Dylan wrote which was so brutal and graphic not long before the attack happened. The parents thought nothing of it really because this is pretty common and you must put yourself in their position, would you actually be very alarmed by such writing from your child with all the violence on television? I am sure anyone would brush it off the first time and it only occurred once with Dylan. Eric is an extreme influence on Dylan and we have diagnosed Dylan's personality to be very vulnerable, it would have been very much different if Dylan's best friend turned out to be someone who wanted to be president of the United States .

Dylan wanted to go to the University of Arizona after high school and he actually picked out the dorm room and his parents even paid for it. Why would Dylan even have bothered to pick out a dorm room if he was planning on a suicide attack? We ask ourselves if his mind was actually made up in the decision of attacking the school or if it was just a possibility in his head. We stated earlier how Dylan talked about fantasy baseball plays on the week of April twentieth. So did he know for sure that this plan was actually going to happen or was he convinced that it was going to happen but wanted to not show any signs of giving away the attack? Many people have been driven to suicide without even thinking twice for example we find that there are actually mass suicide cults who kill themselves all at the same time. Dylan just had this mind that was so manipulated by Eric that Dylan actually was excited about the date of attack and really could not wait as stated in his journal. So we now know that Dylan shows no fear of the attack but he states it will be “the most nerve-wrecking fifteen minutes of his life.” This showing no fear confirms that he actually did not care and so he went ahead and went with his parents to pick out a dorm room so they would not feel suspicious of his actions at all. While talking with his friends of fantasy baseball he was just having fun.

This brings us to what actually went on in both Eric's and Dylan's heads during the attack. At first heading to school Dylan shows an excitement where as Eric is calm and ready. Dylan feels as if he is very confident in them becoming famous and having followers because he feels as stated by him “god like”. Eric has a lot of anger built in and really all he wants to do is hurt people, he does in a sense want fame but not as much as Dylan instead Eric just wants to put a lasting impression on the world as stated in his journal. Pertaining to the shooting we ask ourselves is it random or are people actually targeted? The shooting is completely random except possibly the very first victim having been Rachel Scott. Tapes are recorded of both Dylan and Eric discussing about how they hate two girls named Rachel and Jennifer. This might have been a coincidence but a girl named Rachel was the very first one shot then the person next to her was shot and then Rachel was shot once more to be sure she was killed. After that the shooting was completely random, they both had set two huge propane bombs which were timed to go off at 11:17 in the morning, proving that they really just wanted to kill as many people as they possibly could.

The actual plan of attack was the bombs were to explode in the cafeteria killing hundreds then the survivors were to run out into the parking lot where both of their cars were booby trapped with time bombs and would explode killing as many survivors as possible while they stand and pick students off one by one. When the bombs did not detonate they still believed that they would real soon, but went ahead and started anyways. Dylan's car actually exploded at around 11:17 pm and no one was injured. Their plan having been failed they just went ahead and tried to shoot and kill as many students as possible as well as trading shots at the first cop on the scene. In the library where the most deaths occurred, witnesses stated that both attackers handled the shooting in very different ways. Dylan would shoot someone and then yell “OH YEAH” in excitement as well as teasing and frightening kids before he shot them. Eric on the other hand would calmly pull the trigger he was witnessed saying “I can't believe I just did that… cool” after killing a student shooting him point blank in the head. Eric would say few things if any before he shot someone such as knocking on the desk saying “peek a boo” then opening fire, or asking his victims if they believed in god and pretty much the answer really didn't matter because he shot them anyways.

The incident happened in the library for about seven minutes and after many deaths and injured people in the library they sort of stopped for a moment and started to leave as if they were satisfied now. Before leaving Dylan spotted a student who was actually a well known jock and Dylan called him out by name but he only teased him and scared him asking why he should let him live where as the boy replied “I don't want to get in trouble” frightened the boy rephrased his sentence “I don't want trouble”. The boy's name was Evan Todd and Dylan did most of the teasing then backed off and said something like “I'm through with him you can have him if you want” whereas Eric not seeming to listen to Dylan as if he was in a daze say “lets go to the commons” which is what the students all call the cafeteria.

At this time they started to walk back down to the cafeteria where Eric tried to explode the propane bombs and failed to do so. Then later they began their walk back up the cafeteria stairs passing many class rooms full of hundreds of students reloading their weapons. It has been reported that Eric and Dylan would look in the classrooms while passing by and actually making eye contact with frightened students, but not even attempt to get into the classroom. I believe that after the incident in the library both students were in a way in a shock, they both were in a state of knowing it was really wrong what they had done, but did not show it to other students as they made eye contact. Instead students said both shooters looked as calm as ever. Students were hiding all over the school and Eric and Dylan knew this as they walked passed the bathrooms they yelled in it “lets kill everyone in here!” but they were only scaring students now. They both were now satisfied but in a sense upset that their main plan did not go as they hoped. This is when they decided that they had done what they set off to do and it was over by turning the guns on themselves.

After the massacre happened you can be sure schools handle students differently, but even so some students say nothing has changed except the new look of the school. Now I believe that after columbine happened people stopped and everyone were asking why? The first response was that entertainment was the reason as we have noted music and such had an impact on Eric and Dylan but it was not the push they needed to actually commit the act. Today we mention the post columbine era, well what are we actually saying? More security in school or people actually treating others with more respect than they use to? Has this incident actually created good? The answer is yes many good things have evolved from this event. We realize that there still is violence in school but this event actually brought students and families closer. Rachel's Challenge is the best thing that has been created because of the attack, it is an organization which goes from school to school helping educate students on treating others with respect and helping others better themselves.

We all have learned from this event and this actually proves that other people can actually have a major influence on others, so parents might want to be more cautious about who their children are actually with. Eric's mindset was so off that if this incident had never occurred he might have caused far much more damage possibly being another bomber as he was obsessed with the bombing in Oklahoma or serial killer. I thank everyone for taking the time and trying to find out the reason why such a tragedy came to be the Columbine Massacre.

Please feel free to comment or counter argue on the mind set of both Eric and Dylan in the Your Say section.