So I started listening to the Lights Out podcast and I will state I really like it. I mentioned it before an they still are in my top pods, so I don't want this to come off as an attack. Also it ties in perfectly with something I had been thinking recently, the 90s was the last great decade... Ill tie those together in a bit but Ill start with what I didn't like or don't agree with and that was some comments on the Columbine Massacre episode of Lights Out.
Also this is total filler, I do have a series of blogs I want to get done but they do take sometime and some thinking. I am currently wrapping up my last of school and work trips, then I am going to work hard on them but this kind of just popped into my mind driving and listening to pods...
I think the hosts are a bit younger than me, I was in grade 12 in 1999 when it happened. Literally being the grad class that year was insane because of what happened there and I don't think people younger truly understand how much that changed the world. First I completely agree with lights out that the cops should have done more and faster!! Yes you would think the trained school officer for starters could have done something. While I do understand the polices hesitation to run in, it is their job. I understand the thought process, will they injure more students? What are they running into? Of course that matters but they did fail on a timely response. However it was brought up a search warrant was made out after the killers broke into a van but it was never served. I get how that looks like a failure on the cops but I am not sure I agree. First think of how that would go today (keep in mind it isn't today but...) social media and the regular media would be up in arms! Peoples rights being violated and all that. Plus IF they failed to find anything the blow back on the police would have been insane. Sure for this time I will say it but white privledge prevailed. These kids were white middle class boys. Even when they did commit a crime, they "showed" remorse to the point Harris was thought would be a success in life. You can't just break down doors... Also I hate to say it but they were smart. They put this whole thing together, I highly doubt they just had weapons laying around. Like ooops forgot about my illegal sawed off shotgun just chilling in my bedroom closet. So even had they served the warrant I doubt the outcome changes. This is one of those times it is just hard to look back and say what should have been done. There is a possibility a lot might have been stopped, I think there is just as big a chance nothing changes and the cops look bad (Up until the massacre, then they look less awful). Also the parents get shit on. I guess yes they deserve some of that. There is NO WAY there isn't some sort of signs with these 2 something is going wrong. Or so we would think... I mean some serial killers have family lives for years and no one notices, but for 2 teenage boys to be able to do that seems unlikely. It is possible I guess, but unlikely. Also the thing to keep in mind is pre 1999, no parents ever dreamt their angels could do this! We have school shooter drills now. The day after this happened we had an assembly at my school to go over how we all felt and also safety..... Something like this had never been seen before. Honestly I can see the parents saying, its a phase. They will grow out of it. We all did, or in general we did and even if we didn't nothing led to something like this. Goth kids exist to this day and nerds and stoners and bullies. In general people grow and change and parents to teen boys probably did assume they would change as well, not make history. I keep repeating that because it did make history. No one in middle America thought this could happen, it was unheard of. Thats why people still talk about it and not the dozen of copycats afterwards. Also video games were mentioned and I have always stated video games and music don't make people bad. As a personal belief. Then in my first year psychology course this topic came up. Many different studies (I am not writing them all out, sorry) using different methods have proven a correlation between violent video games, movies, music and TV and people acting violent. There is something scientifically there HOWEVER what it is, is the problem. Is the violence caused by video games or are more violent people attracted to violent games? On top of that it is also true, millions of us play violent games and NEVER act out. What about where the violent people come from? Do they not have strong role models explaining sure in GTA you are a criminal and your a "good person" but in reality crime is wrong?? There is a ton of different thoughts on violence in media (movies, games, music) and I personally think it needs looked into deeply, but I am not willing to write it off as a NON factor. Maybe it is my old man side but as the gaming world has gotten more violent and graphic I would bet reality has also seen a spike in violence... Again not saying playing violent games will make you bad but there is something there. Also bullying was brought up. This one is hard to say. It seems like a lot of people say they were bullied and others say it never happened. Let me say this, as the smallest male in high school. IT FUCKING HAPPENED. How bad it was, that I can't speak to but it happened. I would say almost every single person in school has been bullied. Even the jocks or popular kids get it from their own cliques. Lights Out said they couldn't believe these two would let bullying slide. They didn't, clearly. Just because they didn't act out all the time doesn't mean they weren't wanting to. So that was a bit of a ramble but I guess my point is for all the "fails" that day and leading up to it, I understand most. This was something the world hadn't really seen, it was learning on the fly.... That isn't forgiving anyone just saying I get it.
What I was thinking before this was the 90s was the last great decade and a couple events afterwards really changed / ruined the world. See we had better music back then but besides that we didn't have cell phones and people weren't slaves to them. We didn't have social media, which I am starting to view as a cancer. It is great when it is for friends and such but now it is just becoming a place to attack to spread lies and hate. Also it is being used for bullying. I used to say get thicker skin or parents that teach you how to deal with it. I still believe that BUT now kids can't escape it. They go home and can still be bullied online. Social Justice was just coming around, back then if someone was "woke" it actually meant they were a good person not just cramming their agenda down your throat. We were actually working towards things such as equality and gay rights. Blockbuster video still existed. So we win by default right there. Maybe it was the world was less interconnected by social media BUT it honestly seemed like way less horrible things happened. I mean maybe the world was just as bad and we didn't get it force fed to us on social media but it seemed better, safer. Maybe it is nostalgia but I do feel things were better. Like you hear people say oh the 50s was the best time but not really. So many people had shitty lives and white middle America had it great. In the 90s it seemed like we were trying to balance the scales. The truth is even politics were better. Sure they wanted to get Bill Clinton BUT it didnt break down like it does now. People still kind of handled politics with some class. I don't know where it all went wrong and I didnt go into as much detail as I planned but I honestly think the 90s was the last great decade and possibly these events play into that.
Anyways the 2 big things that change the world were columbine and 9/11...
I have talked my take on Columbine but not what it did. Like I said I was graduating that year so this was a big deal to us. People even thought they might cancel our grad. The day after, we had a school wide assembly to talk about what had happened. Then in each class we had a smaller more open discussion on it. People were asked how they felt, if they needed to reach out. We also had our first shooter drill, ever. What people don't get that came in later years and decades is how big this actually was. The fact it was almost brand new was why people originally thought it was paintball guns or toys. This just didn't happen... I don't want to say we have become accustomed to it but now we do see school shooting way too often. The world changed that day. For most school seemed like a safe place. I mean yes there was bullying and it could be very bad but no one ever expected to get shot. The world got colder, scarier that day. I feel bad for the kids that have gone to school since then. However it wasn't just school, it was everywhere. White middle class people never before felt fear like lower income people in ghettos where crime and violence happens more often. It came to us though, in a shocking fashion and it came where people didnt expect it. A school where kids were supposed to feel safe. I can't say this was the exact moment we started to see a massive push for gun control and I am not getting into that issue but this was a great example of why it is needed. I realize I am not eloquently putting it out here but that was a day that changed middle America forever. For me I would say it was the day that white picket fenced house, 2.5 kids, a cat and a dog ideal died. I could be overstating it, maybe it is because I was just about done school and about to leap into "real life" but it was a very dark day for all of north America. Things changed forever that day.
9/11 changed the WORLD forever. The night before I was working late. I stayed after work and had drinks and went to class late on 9/11. Soon as I walked in I knew something was up, no one was in class and TVs were all on the news. I asked someone what was going on and they told me the States was under attack. I didn't know what to say to that, I almost wanted to laugh. Who would attack the states?! I assumed this was a mix up, incorrect info, then I watched the planes hit the towers over and over. The 100% honest truth was I felt a racist rage. Lets be honest, bad shit has happened. The Columbine massacre, the Oklahoma bombing, Waco and on and on. We had seen death and terror at our door. Done by our hands, however we lived in a bubble where war and terror was not on our soil from enemies. That happened oceans away. The mighty USA was the last super power, no one would be dumb enough to attack them. The crazy thing was I had just learned in class a couple weeks earlier who Bin Laden was. I knew it had to be someone like him who did it, wasn't another nation. I was filled with hate. Honestly in reality it didn't affect me directly but to see "our people" killed like that made me rage. Of course I did get over it in a couple days and the fact is stuff like that sadly does bring people together. The effects of that attack though are felt to this day. Airports are way tighter security. I will be honest, it didn't help cultural divides. I moved on, but to this day people still hate people from the middle east. Be honest 100%, I know some holier than thou people will disagree but there is a built in distrust of what is different. This attack made it 1000x worse. Also that peaceful misplaced invincibility disappeared. Like middle America with Columbine and thinking nothing bad can happen here, well now all of America had fear. We could be hurt. Over time the fear dissipated BUT it was still always there in the back on the mind. It never truly left, fully. If this was a movie the coloured scene would be slightly dimmer, rainbows gone. For some, IDK if I would say luck or not who were too young to remember OR born after 9/11 the world didn't change. It has always been a greyer shade since then and that is sad. Also it wasn't just us affected. We destroyed the Taliban!! Only to let them reform years later and left arms for them. We invaded Iraq. These things led to the formation of ISIS which murdered and destroyed across the middle east. Not sure what Bin Laden was thinking, that his actions would not blow back on "his people"
Oh and last, honorable mention to Y2K. Do youngins even remember that? When we were worried the entire world was going to stop at 11:59 for new years of 2000?? We really believed that every computer was going to crash and the world might come to a screaming end. Clearly it didnt but we all watched as the clock ticked down that New Year. Honestly people thought it would be a post apocalyptic waste land, planes might fall from the sky... The 90s were crazy, we had some crazy ideas...
Anyways I know kinda rambling all over the place. Still love Lights Out pod. Just don't think they kinda get how crazy Columbine was. IMO the 90s was the last great decade, as I watch things just get worse and worse. I know EVERYONE says that as the get older but I am watching crime sky rocket, drug addiction, violence, poverty all go thru the roof. Seeing people more divided than every and addicted to the internet and social media. Honestly maybe Y2K was the birth of a new world and maybe not a better one.
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