Heart of darkness

There are no simple lessons in the Colorado massacre

EDITORIAL

In the days and weeks ahead, we may learn more about what drove two young men in Littleton, Colorado, to go on a shooting rampage that left -- as reported at press time -- 15 or 16 dead and more than 20 wounded. The details of this tragedy are horrifying. But striking, too, is society's compulsive need -- even when the facts are sketchy -- to figure out what it all means.

The easy availability of guns, the suspects' apparent admiration for Marilyn Manson and other goth rockers, even the birthday of Adolf Hitler were all cited as possible explanations for a tragedy that may, in the end, yield no neat, understandable explanation. Internet journalist and media scold Matt Drudge accurately, if tastelessly, lampooned this futile quest for meaning with a mock headline: GAY, JOCK-HATING, CONFEDERATE FLAG-WAVING, GOTH ROCK & MARILYN MANSON LOVING, WHITE SUPREMACIST, FINGERNAIL POLISH WEARING, HITLER BIRTHDAY CELEBRATING OUTCASTS.

It is ironic that the Littleton killings took place just as the editors of the Phoenix were preparing to publish this week's cover story. In "Rebels with a Cause," Jason Gay argues persuasively that the new generation of teenagers -- the "echo boomers" -- is more thoughtful and responsible than pop-culture icons such as Dawson's Creek and Britney Spears would suggest. In fact, that was borne out by the seriousness with which Columbine High School students discussed what had happened to them and their classmates with the likes of Larry King, Katie Couric, and Ted Koppel. But though the state of Teenage America may be largely good, it is chillingly clear that those who don't fit in are capable of sustaining, and acting upon, a horrific rage.

Alienation has been a consistent theme of adolescence at least since the 1950s, when the film Rebel Without a Cause gave a voice to simmering, inchoate feelings of teenage angst. In that sense, Marilyn Manson can be seen as this generation's James Dean. Tragically, in a culture that celebrates violence, youth rebellion in recent years has all too often turned deadly.

The Littleton shootings were the eighth time since 1997 that kids have opened fire at school. The United States may not be unique in this regard -- witness the shootings in Scotland several years ago -- but it certainly leads the world in this type of random violence.

More than anything, the dead suspects, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, may have suffered from a failure of the imagination. The Trenchcoat Mafia, the loosely organized goth gang to which they allegedly belonged, may have been a relatively harmless diversion for most, but for Harris and Klebold it apparently became the full extent of their existence. Their inability to see beyond the walls of Columbine High School, to understand that whatever humiliations they suffered at the hands of their peers wouldn't matter in a few years, is perhaps the closest we're going to get to an explanation of what went wrong. A girl who narrowly escaped told CNN that one of the suspects "just put the gun in my face and started laughing and saying it was all because people were mean to him last year."

Which suggests that, even though there may be no sure way of preventing such tragedies in the future, there are steps that can be taken. The first, of course, is to curb ready access to guns. This will be difficult in a political environment in which some view even the semi-toothless waiting period mandated by the Brady Law as a breach of the Second Amendment, but surely there must be some way to prevent kids from getting their hands on semi-automatic weapons and bringing them to school.

The second, and far more important, step is to identify troubled youths before they lash out. It was no secret inside the corridors of Columbine High School that at least some members of the Trenchcoat Mafia were potentially dangerous. "They really were dark people. There were a lot of jokes that one day they might snap or something," a classmate told ABC News. In Massachusetts, progressive public officials have shown that there are preventive steps available. As Middlesex district attorney, for instance, Tom Reilly pioneered a program known as Community Based Justice, in which teachers, police, prosecutors, and social workers meet regularly to discuss troubled students and consider ways to reach out to them. Now, as attorney general, Reilly has proposed to expand this innovative approach statewide.

It's also important to consider the role parents play. The young adults who commit crimes such as these are clearly moving out from under familial thumbs. But that is not to say parents don't share a responsibility, at least in some cases, for their actions. The kids who did this didn't just wake up one day and decide to shoot their schoolmates. Unlike Richard Speck, they weren't Eagle Scouts.

Ultimately, though, the Littleton shootings can yield no sweeping meaning or explanation. In that spirit, it may be useful to draw an analogy with Kosovo. Although there is obviously no direct link, both demonstrate humankind's capacity to hate intensely and recklessly. A particularly frightening legacy of this century is the ability, through modern weaponry and communications technology, to translate such hate into action. What happened in Littleton on Tuesday, and what continues to happen in Kosovo, is evil -- a judgmental word that does not fit neatly with our need to understand, because the essence of evil is a mystery. That mystery, though, may be useful to contemplate as we consider the fate of our species.

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