The Hindu : Rampage killer again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 03, 2002

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Rampage killer again

AS THE SLEEPY eastern German city of Erfurt comes to terms with last Friday's school shootout tragedy, there must be increasing concern in Western society that a wretched phenomenon that everyone believed was confined to the United States is spreading to Europe. The rampage killer had repeatedly horrified the U.S. in the past but had not extended his gaze across the Atlantic into Europe. After the U.S. went through two such horrendous killings in the past five years, including the one at Columbine three years ago, investigating authorities drew up part of a credible profile of the killer: "He gives lots of warning and even tells people explicitly what he plans to do. In the end, he half turns the gun on himself. He not only wants to kill, he also wants to die." He is an unremarkable individual, exhibiting no odd behaviour. His arrival in the heart of Europe has just been marked. France, Britain and Austria have had instances in the recent past when gunmen had gone berserk and enacted tragedies of a horrifying nature. But conservative Germany and its campuses had remained relatively uninfected, retaining their precision and promise. The shootout at Erfurt involving a disgruntled teenager has shaken the country and sounded the alarm. Germany has no clues yet.

What could have driven the 19-year-old former student, recently expelled from school, to kill 13 of his teachers in such cold blood in Germany's worst classroom massacre? Cults, gun clubs and computer games are all being blamed for the demented action of the teenager. In an ancient, deeply religious land, cults and sects have thrived for centuries. Weird ceremonies such as devil worship are not uncommon, much like in India and the U.S. But neither the satan nor the computer can offer any enduring relief to rulers battling against such deviations. The Erfurt teenager's demonstration of chilling perfection during his macabre deed has brought the focus on the third villain, the easy availability of guns to teenagers. Germany has a gun culture that is unknown to the rest of the world. In fact, it is being revealed, gun clubs and shooting associations have proliferated in Germany, forcing the Federal Government in Berlin to tighten laws. On the continent, gun control is the toughest in Germany but the measures apparently are not sufficient or foolproof.

In Germany as in the rest of the world, the roots of the problem of adolescent rage may in fact lie elsewhere. Technology and change at mind-boggling acceleration have made youth a rising power. The txt (or sms?) generation knows that the computer has presented it with unbounded opportunities, and simultaneously, posed challenges of maddening uncertainty. It is a prescription for anarchy as much as achievement. In the ultimate analysis, adolescent rage is reflective of the failure of society to provide the balm. The shootouts, whether they happen on the campuses or at work places or parks and open spaces, must be traceable to society's own problems with its values, the gun culture being one of them. A hundred years ago, Russian and German youth resorted to acts of anarchy in response to the enveloping clouds of war that their adults were unable to ward off. Today, with society unable to offer any solutions to the peculiar problems of the computer age, the youth find themselves again at the crossroads. That the majority take the right turn should help save the small minority that is intent on acts of self-destruct like the one witnessed in the east German city.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

Stories in this Section

Exiting the bourses

Rampage killer again

Beyond Parliament

Waiting for foreign investment

Too little too late?

Political compulsions

Right sizing I-T dept.

Foodgrain export

Unkind jawans