I was the sort of kid who, if I’d had access to guns, quite possibly would’ve shot up my school. There were certainly a lot of people there that I would’ve happily seen dead. But I didn’t, so I just carried a hunting knife for a few years, and refrained from stabbing anyone with it.
I was exposed to all of this media during my school years; I don’t like Mondays, Jeremy, Rage/Getting it on, etc.
Although it’s not the sort of thing I can prove, my feeling is very much that the exposure to those stories helped me to avoid violence. Partly from a reduction in feelings of isolation, partly as a cathartic fantasy thing, partly because it is pretty obvious in those narratives that the violence doesn’t actually make anything better.
Jeremy may get a moment of relief, but that’s all. After that moment is done, all the shit comes back, worse than ever.
