Section I - a

Section I - A
Youth violence, apparently a problem in today's modern society, reached its climax one sunny
morning in the month of April 1999. Two youngsters: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and
killed 13 of their fellow students at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado. The
great question that remains is: Why?
According to William F. Jasper there are two main reasons for this tragedy and others like it. First
of all he feels that young people today are not as respectful as earlier when it comes to firearms.
Jasper starts his article of by claiming that access to all types of firearms has been getting not
easier, but more and more difficult.1 This has made the youth more curious about guns; to a number
young of people he feels it can extend to something as extreme as an obsession. A problem, which
hardly existed when he was younger, because people respected firearms. Secondly he believes that
persons like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are the twisted products of the nihilist-hedonistnarcissist
death culture…2, which basically means that they are some seriously sick people. And
later on: that their behavior was a result of today's entertainment industry. In addition to this he also
makes quite a comeback at Marilyn Manson, who earlier had written an article in which he
defended himself against the accusations that had been rising against him shortly after the incident.
Manson has the exact opposite opinion. He feels that the entertainment of today is not to blame for
what happened. If any, religion should be held responsible, according to Marilyn Manson, because
religion is what has given us our view on death. On the other hand he is not trying to defend the two
young men's actions; in fact he is rather repulsed by them. Which leads on to another of the
musician's arguments: he is quite convinced that
they held the responsibility themselves. And so Manson feels that it is wrong to blame him and
other musicians like him for what... [continues]

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