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WSWS : News & Analysis : North America : The Brutal Society

Regarding "Columbine High School Massacre: American Pastoral...American Berserk"

28 April 1999

Dear editors,

This article is without doubt the best, most insightful, most profound analysis I have read in many, many years on the condition of American society. The gap between this extraordinary synthesis of scientific approach and passionate care for the state of humanity, on the one hand, and Friedman's vicious militaristic outpourings in the NYT, on the other, is gigantic, unbridgeable. For anyone who still doubts it: These are the alternatives we are faced with, these are the choices we must make. We will never have a decent society if we don't take it into our own hands. I commend the work of wsws.org and the ICFI.

Yours sincerely, R. Slater

Dear Editors of WSWS,

As with other reports generated by your site, I find David North's article "The Columbine High School massacre: American Pastoral ... American Berserk" most insightful and sincere. While dwelling on a subject as delicate and significant as a nation's youth, Mr. North has managed to do the exact opposite of what other press and media have done, insulting the reader's intelligence. Such mainstream mass numbing and misrepresentation of information should in itself explain a lot on the cause and effect of this tragic incident, tragic in a sense that it's the subject of youth and hope which touches human beings everywhere, and incident, well, this is definitely no accident.

LC

To the editor,

I have yet to see an analysis of this latest shooting from the mainstream media that is even half as logical as yours. All I seem to see from them is this self-serving circular 'criminals commit crimes, let's build more prisons and declare martial law in our schools' logic. Some people act so surprised that this could happen, it makes perfect sense taken in it's social context. And the mass media can blame every splinter and fringe cultural group except the widespread degenerative and desensitizing forces that are lining their pockets with gold. It's like watching a boa constrictor eating itself.

In perpetual disgust with the forces who define this culture, LM

To the editor,

Your points are well taken. Also, little or nothing is said in the media about the spreading neo-nazi network in this nation, which focuses attention on youth. Youth are treated as consumers of advertiser-paid information products, with no concern about the social worth of the content. The name of the game is profit. Where was the media agony when our schools were cleansed of leftists and socialists in the 40's and 50's?

SMF

See Also:
The Columbine High School massacre: American Pastoral ... American Berserk
[27 April 1999]
School violence in the US and related subjects
[Complete list of WSWS articles]