VIEW FROM THE STREET:On Boys,Culture and Violence by RTI/KLAE and Marshall Barnes
   
This is a special report from the RTI/KLAE think tank and research firm. It was prepared in response to the recent high school mass murder in Littleton, Colorado. Marshall Barnes served as the report's investigator.
 
Amid the media blitz of victim interviews, footage from the crime scene, replays of the events as they happened, and the obligatory psychobabble of the "experts", something has been missing from the overall picture. Clarity. A clear insight into why particular boys of this background would do what they did, how they did it, and the degree in which all the "outside" influences (video games, movies, guns, peer pressure, parents, etc)contributed to this total collapse of humanity. An insight that kids like the Trench Coat Mafia couldn't accurately express because they lack the ability to see outside themselves and communicate what they see. If they could, they wouldn't do the things that they do. When we at RTI/KLAE heard the descriptions of these boys and the extent of their activities, in many ways we saw ourselves as we would have been if we had been allowed to make drastically wrong descisions over and over again, without any guidence or instruction.

Over the years, the decline of the psychological fitness of America's youth has not escaped our notice, although we have not professionally addressed it. Mr. Barnes has, to some extent, in the mid 1980s. That is one reason why he was chosen to write this report. He is uniquely qualified, not only because he, as a youth in the 70's was a kind of "outsider", but because he has stayed in touch with the youth culture via his former involvement with the entertainment industry. Since three of his favorite groups are New Order, Front 242, and The Cocteau Twins, he can speak with some authority on the influence of the Gothic subculture, in a way that none of the media pundits can. He even had an opportunity to meet KMFDM, the German industrial band that was a favorite of the Trench Coat Mafia. Unlike the instant "experts" who are talking about video game and movie violence, Mr. Barnes not only plays violent video games but has studied the effect that they have on the player including the altered state of consciousness that can occur. Even more interesting is his comments on what "violent" video games and movies he stays away from and why. As a professional investigator who has been involved with law enforcement and the military, his observations on gun violence are not original but the reasons that it happens are. Most importantly, unlike a clinical, detatched perspective, Mr. Barnes' commentary is highly personal, but relevant, offering the opportunity to see inside the male psyche that is shared by so many disenfranchised youth around the country, but has grown-up without falling off the edge.




 
There has been too much noise and not enough signal in our culture. Too much heat without any light.
For the almost two decades, we have watched while America has slid into a reactionary abyss of confusion, ignorance and neglict, driven at ever increasing speeds by the media in all forms. All the while few have spoken to this crisis without the knee-jerk, preconcieved rhetoric that falls short of any real solutions. In our opinion, this has led to the current situation which now borders on being a national security issue. People have expressed shock that Harris and Klebold were planning on killing 500 people, hijacking an airplane and then crashing it into New York City. Our response is surprise that it's taken this long for it to nearly be carries out. The rash of copy cat threats, shootings, and bombing attempts from junior and senior high school kids in the wake of Littleton only confirms our suspicions:that there are hundreds of little time bombs out there just waiting to go off. Even the latest initiatives that President Clinton has proposed would do nothing to stop these kids. Once again, the knee-jerks and the head is thoughtless. The Littleton assailants didn't buy bombs, they made them. You can make bombs without gun powder. And for intelligent, introverted teen-agers, it wouldn't be impossible to fashion and build their own guns, even if they aren't of the conventional type. There are also a whole new class of weapons that are easily within their reach and not regulated - psychotronics, laser, EM pulse, and more. If a couple of teen-agers wanted to wreck havoc on an entire city, they could do it without violating a single one of the President's latest proposals. We know because we live in the same environment that they do and are attracted in many ways to the same things. In fact, it's our business to be "out there" even beyond where they are, and we understand all the potentials since oft times these are the same potentials currently being exploited by terrorists. Interestingly enough, today the executive director of Ribbon of Promise referred to the latest wave of teen violence as "teen terrorism" on the "Leeza" TV talk show. Terrorism, information warfare, psychological operations, uncoventional weapons, hyper-strategies for fluid battle spaces, are just some of the things that we deal with and study. At times we pass what we think or have learned to the US military. Over the years the military has been the target of a number of "cyber attacks" by teen-hackers. At the current rate, one can't help but to wonder how long before one of our military amories is raided by youthful Rambos executing their own replay of the VX gas heist from the movie, "The Rock". Today it was just released that Littleton's Harris had applied unsuccessfully to the Marines but was turned down due to his mood altering medication needs.
 
It's time to speak out.
So with this web site we hope to reduce the noise and turn up the light. If we do, perhaps enough of the right people will listen and take action. The right kind of action. Not more laws and regulations which those that want to maim and kill will ignore anyway, but the actions that will make a true difference and prevent more Littletons and Joneboros from happening again. After all, they didn't use to. There's no good reason that they have to.
 
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