Sleeping to escape reality.

I had my hair cut today.  For the first time in years, my hair is above my shoulders.  I donated over a foot to Locks of Love.  Someone else can fight with that mess; I’m done.

I was reading a book about school violence today.  “Kids Killing Kids” or something.  It was written by a very Christian man, which was not in itself offensive.  I was offended, however, by how he insulted me by almost every method.  In fact, reading that book made me want to go shoot someone, simply to fulfill the stereotype he had set up for me.  

My favorite part, though, was when he said that parents should make sure their children only befriend children from Christian, 2 parent homes.  Because kids from broken homes are apparently inferior.  And non-Christians have no morals and will shoot people.  The man contradicted himself several times in the few chapters I muddled through, and I eventually became so offended (and amused)  that I had to leave the book for fear of an unladylike display.

The man blamed the media and the parents for turning children into killers.  Trying to blame the media, I think, is absurd.  But I can agree it is partially the fault of the parents.  If my child was building explosives in his room, I’d be a bit perturbed.  Also, if the parents are abusive in any way, that can seriously fuck a kid up.  But a lot of abused kids, from what I’ve read, usually have low self esteem, blame themselves for the abuse, and are therefore unlikely to cause harm to others. 

Somewhere, kids become angry at others.  Frankly, I think the people most to blame for school violence are the students.  The kids who ridicule and belittle the “loner.”  Think of it this way:  the kid gets shit on at home.  Then he goes to school, where teachers and counsellors are preaching self-esteem and equality, but the kid gets shit on there, too.  He gets annoyed.  He starts to view his teachers and classmates as hypocrites.  Probably as shallow and stupid for believing the shit they’re spewing out.  At the same time, he’s growing more angry for always being laughed at.  Finally, he wants to teach them a lesson.

Of course, I’m not a psychologist. 

Is it possible that media is making kids more violent?  Sure.  But it must be taken into consideration why someone would WANT to shoot someone else to begin with.  If “teasing” was taken more seriously, would there be so many angry teenagers?  Kids who are teased are told to ignore it.  Perpetrators are never punished.  What does this say to a kid?  Easy.  It says that some people are better and more important than others.  That some people don’t have to follow rules and others should just let people walk over them.  And it’s unfair.  Any half-intelligent person can see that.

Hell, sometimes to me it even seems like people deserve to be shot for what they do to other people.  Sure, it’s harsh, but maybe someday people will learn that everyone has a breaking point, and it’s best not even to attempt to find it.