RKCoon
09-16-2006, 05:09 AM
(Note - i realise this isnt directly tied into vampirism, however, i feel it is strongly related, so it goes here unless the powers that be feel it better elsewhere.)
OK Folks. I’m RKCoon, and for those that don’t know me, I have been a member of the "Goth" and "Occult" culture for going on 5 years. I am a 25 year old male, "Goth" in action and appearance, have multiple piercings, blue hair, quite antisocial, and am one that is both familiar with and a fan of various weaponry -- in other words, at a glance, someone very much like the shooter in Montreal, at least, what is being described by the media as of late. I am familiar with, but not a regular member, of VampireFreaks.com, and I am aware of the mass amounts of people, varying beliefs cultures etc that flow thru there. First, I feel it necessary to state for the record that the actions of this one individual responsible for the shooting at Montreal does, by NO means, represent the Goth culture or anyone else here, or elsewhere within various related communities. The actions this adult male took were done, by his own choice, and not under direction of any force, groups or so forth, in short, an independent action. These actions, while tragic, are not the result of the culture, or of people telling him he had to do this -- but rather, his own choice.
Now this being said, I have noticed, as expected, the Media as a whole VERY quick to jump on the "blame the culture", "Blame the games", and "blame the easy access to guns". I am going to attack each of these in detail, just in an attempt to see if I can clear the air in regards to this tragedy, and possibly to assist in preventing such in the future.
'Blame the culture" -This by itself is a vast topic so ill try to be concise as possible here. I have seen the media "stereotype" Gill as a Goth, and while I did not know this individual, judging by the immediate reports and claims put out shortly after the shootings, I have to say that it was very apparent to me that both the eyewitnesses and the media were quick to blame the stereotype, and the recent revelations that Gill was a member of VampireFreaks and played a game known as "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" has only served to heighten such stereotyping AND the blaming of the culture. While I am the first to admit that those of us in this culture are quite "strange" by what would be called normal people's since of beliefs, the notion that we are time bombs waiting to happen is nonsense. Further, this underlying urge to use stereotyping to address this issue, i.e., if someone wears a trench coat, is antisocial, and likes weaponry; to find and identify people with issues is problematic, at BEST. In my personal experience, MUCH of those in the culture, while having interests in such things, are not by nature aggressive - indeed, most are the quiet, intelligent type, preferring to expand their mind than to commit rampant acts of violence. However, by being who and what we are, i.e., people who don’t generally like being near other people (usually for varying personal reasons), wear dark clothes, occasionally nocturnal, have religious and moral beliefs usually very much different from the "society norm" (i.e., Wiccan, Pagan, Satanist, etc), we by our nature draw more than curiosity from "outsiders" or "normal" people - normally, what we get is harassment, chastising, assaults on numerous levels from verbal to physical, shunning and out casting. Why? Because we, as Goths, have the balls to be who we want to be, to experiment with our appearance and what we do and say, and generally don’t buckle near as much under peer pressure as would other people.
This isn’t to say we are not immune to such things, however. Quite the contrary - we are all human, and we all have emotions -- emotions that are quite readily attacked and ripped apart by others who do not like how we may act or believe. In a number of ways, the Goth culture is similar to that of the gay/lesbian community - by being who we are and want to be, we get attacked by those unwilling to accept who and what we are. The media would have us believe that anyone who wears a long black coat, has more than one piercing, and listens to alternative music must be a depressed psycho waiting in the wings -- which to be blunt is utter bullshit. Often, what we do, what we listen to, how we behave does come in response to the stress placed upon us by others, by listening to aggressive/depressive music, we are feeling our emotions, by playing aggressive games (video or otherwise) we vent frustrations. Normally, most of us find peaceful -- or at the very least, minimally destructive -- ways to deal with the flack we take on a daily basis, from other people, from school/work, from family. However, just like anyone else, there are those who break under the pressure of life, lose whatever since of morality they had, and do much what happened in Montreal. This is not something that happens solely to Goths either; how many suicides/shootings do se see from those of the redneck persuasion, or of the average citizen? Many more than the media would like to admit in such a comparison.
"Blame the games" - Now here is something I find to be one of the bigger crocs of sh!t, this notion that "aggressive games cause aggressive emotions, which cause these tragedies". Me, I play a number of games, specializing in Real Time Strategy - in essence building up armies to wipe out the opposing army. Does this make me a megalomaniac, or a warmonger? If people say yes for me on this, I ask, how so? My point here is these games tend to be one of the VERY few ways that people, Goth or otherwise, can vent off the anger and frustration they feel and get from life as a whole. I’ve heard the argument before, "They saw it in such and so a game so they decided to try it in real life" - my questions are, if they are children, where the HELL are the parents, school officials and people that are supposed to be guiding these young people thru the psychotic ness that is today’s world? Where are the role models, the decent people that are supposed to be saying, hey, you cant be doing that? In the case of adults, the question changes slightly, to, why are they WANTING to do such things? Are there things in their lives that could be improved, by their own actions and/or by the actions of the local and overall governments that can be taken to improve life as a whole?
"Blame the easy access to the guns" oh yeah, this is one that irks me easily. The "overzealous overprotective mothers of North America" would have us believe that guns are evil, and that guns do not belong in anyone’s hands other than those of law enforcement. I find this an incredibly daft thought, from multiple aspects - to start with, I grew up in the Yukon, Canada's northern wonderland, where firearms are more than a part of life, they are a WAY of life, for those of us that don’t live near the one city in the Yukon. Because of our very close proximity to the wildlife of the northern country, most families both own firearms, and raise their families in their use care and knowledge to firearms. (In the words of my dad, "The only thing that is going to stop a grizzly from eating you, your sister, and your mother when I’m not home is this gun I’m teaching you to use.") Most people up there have a VERY healthy respect for firearms, and, for the most part, the only times you hear of crimes involving firearms is when other factors are involved, i.e., drugs, booze, poaching or so on. Now, this argument, while holding well for the outlying communities, obviously doesn’t apply as much to the urban or city setting, however, having now spent 6 months in the outer Toronto area, I’ve found myself feeling both quite naked without any firearms, and seeing that "only criminals have firearms" is far more true - and dangerous - than the media or the general public likes to admit to. While I haven’t been involved in any incidents since I’ve been here, I’m VERY well aware of the fact that "the bad guys" DO have guns - and I don’t. However, more to the point in regards to this case however - having guns does NOT make one evil, nor does it make one more inclined to do violent actions, nor does it make it any easier to do such things. A firearm is a purely inanimate object, that cannot do anything until someONE makes the choice to use it -- and what it’s used for. Too much I have seen this desire to strip people of firearms, in the mistaken belief that it decreases firearms crime -- on the contrary. Crime to both ascertain and keep firearms has risen dramatically (particularly by otherwise law abiding citizens who refuse to relinquish what they’ve had handed down to them, or by those seeing no reason to forfeit their way of life)- while the justice system has severely faltered in the prosecution of law. You want to put a lid on crimes with guns? Make the law have some power to deal with crimes when committed -- and allow the police do what needs done to catch REAL criminals. And, having learned more about what happened in this case, its funny - this guy legally acquired all the firearms and ammunition he used in this event - which only goes to prove the point that gun control is a joke. Combine this with the events in Alberta I believe it was, where the four RCMP officers lost their lives (to another classic fuckup on the part of the justice system), and you have classic proof that not only is gun control faulty, trying to strip people of them simply will not work. The answer, then, is simple -- provide training, IN SCHOOL, in both self defense and firearms use - since they ARE an integral part of society, and will NOT be removed from our lives, make people aware of what they are, how they work, how to use them -- and some decent ethics behind them. To make a very apt comparison here – millions of people buy, own and operate vehicles every day, which is as inanimate an object as a firearm in every way – but its only when someone CHOOSES to use it to kill does it become lethal. Hell, more people are killed in accidents with vehicles than have ever been killed in “accidental” shootings (by this I mean people not keeping their firearms locked up and/or in proper care).
Something else I need to touch on here -- there is now a drive on to control, monitor, if not totally shut down sites such as VampireFreaks.com - on the grounds that they are dangerous and encourage such behavior. I went thru and read this guys posts on his journal on VampireFreaks - I may as well been reading about my time in high school. The simple fact is, these places do NOT encourage such things-- on the contrary, these groups encourage discussion and communication for people who feel they have no other place to go. As a friend of mine worded it so well, "The reason he was part of a dark, death-based subculture was because he felt pushed there by the same culture his final act rebelled against", in this case, the society as a whole. Further, often these boards are very effective in both defusing such explosive situations before they come to a head, and, as a last ditch, have proved to provide advance warning in some cases of people essentially losing their self-control. Further still, this notion of removing such boards proves both the desire by the masses - or perhaps more accurately, the vocal few – to remove anything not following their guidelines of “normality”; As well, it flies in the face of one of the most basic freedoms, one that many of our forefathers gave their lives for in a number of wars – freedom of speech, self expression and being ourselves, free of dictator-like rule and free of the demand of all being the same. (I seem to recall a number of incidents in history where those of different beliefs were sought and wiped out, solely for believing different from another group. Some of the terms for these have been crusades, holocausts, jihads, etc. And, while on that note – do we not have honored men and women from our own armed forces fighting and dying against these??) Have these people become so paranoid as to seek to shut down and silence anyone who may be trying to sort out their feelings in these forms and places?
In Conclusion, while the events of Sept 13 are tragic, society, as a whole, needs to pause and determine why this, and other incidents, happened, before being so quick to lay blame. As many people like me have said, “we have our own fucking problems, we do NOT need society sh!tting more on us with their paranoia, fear, out casting, and retribution for the actions of a few.” Further, next time you see someone walking down the street with a long trench coat, before you automatically think he or she is a depressed psycho to be, perhaps you might consider that, for one, we are all human, and for two, maybe they just need to be understood? Also, it wouldn’t hurt to remember, especially if you’re a parent – you ARE needed to do your damned job. You chose to bring us here – taking responsibility for this and teaching us about life, ALL of it; is what works to avoid these bloodlettings. If your not a parent, but a part of the “adult” society, take a damned leading role and assist with this, rather than turning a blind eye – or worse, jumping to conclusions about things you really don’t know anything about.
OK Folks. I’m RKCoon, and for those that don’t know me, I have been a member of the "Goth" and "Occult" culture for going on 5 years. I am a 25 year old male, "Goth" in action and appearance, have multiple piercings, blue hair, quite antisocial, and am one that is both familiar with and a fan of various weaponry -- in other words, at a glance, someone very much like the shooter in Montreal, at least, what is being described by the media as of late. I am familiar with, but not a regular member, of VampireFreaks.com, and I am aware of the mass amounts of people, varying beliefs cultures etc that flow thru there. First, I feel it necessary to state for the record that the actions of this one individual responsible for the shooting at Montreal does, by NO means, represent the Goth culture or anyone else here, or elsewhere within various related communities. The actions this adult male took were done, by his own choice, and not under direction of any force, groups or so forth, in short, an independent action. These actions, while tragic, are not the result of the culture, or of people telling him he had to do this -- but rather, his own choice.
Now this being said, I have noticed, as expected, the Media as a whole VERY quick to jump on the "blame the culture", "Blame the games", and "blame the easy access to guns". I am going to attack each of these in detail, just in an attempt to see if I can clear the air in regards to this tragedy, and possibly to assist in preventing such in the future.
'Blame the culture" -This by itself is a vast topic so ill try to be concise as possible here. I have seen the media "stereotype" Gill as a Goth, and while I did not know this individual, judging by the immediate reports and claims put out shortly after the shootings, I have to say that it was very apparent to me that both the eyewitnesses and the media were quick to blame the stereotype, and the recent revelations that Gill was a member of VampireFreaks and played a game known as "Super Columbine Massacre RPG" has only served to heighten such stereotyping AND the blaming of the culture. While I am the first to admit that those of us in this culture are quite "strange" by what would be called normal people's since of beliefs, the notion that we are time bombs waiting to happen is nonsense. Further, this underlying urge to use stereotyping to address this issue, i.e., if someone wears a trench coat, is antisocial, and likes weaponry; to find and identify people with issues is problematic, at BEST. In my personal experience, MUCH of those in the culture, while having interests in such things, are not by nature aggressive - indeed, most are the quiet, intelligent type, preferring to expand their mind than to commit rampant acts of violence. However, by being who and what we are, i.e., people who don’t generally like being near other people (usually for varying personal reasons), wear dark clothes, occasionally nocturnal, have religious and moral beliefs usually very much different from the "society norm" (i.e., Wiccan, Pagan, Satanist, etc), we by our nature draw more than curiosity from "outsiders" or "normal" people - normally, what we get is harassment, chastising, assaults on numerous levels from verbal to physical, shunning and out casting. Why? Because we, as Goths, have the balls to be who we want to be, to experiment with our appearance and what we do and say, and generally don’t buckle near as much under peer pressure as would other people.
This isn’t to say we are not immune to such things, however. Quite the contrary - we are all human, and we all have emotions -- emotions that are quite readily attacked and ripped apart by others who do not like how we may act or believe. In a number of ways, the Goth culture is similar to that of the gay/lesbian community - by being who we are and want to be, we get attacked by those unwilling to accept who and what we are. The media would have us believe that anyone who wears a long black coat, has more than one piercing, and listens to alternative music must be a depressed psycho waiting in the wings -- which to be blunt is utter bullshit. Often, what we do, what we listen to, how we behave does come in response to the stress placed upon us by others, by listening to aggressive/depressive music, we are feeling our emotions, by playing aggressive games (video or otherwise) we vent frustrations. Normally, most of us find peaceful -- or at the very least, minimally destructive -- ways to deal with the flack we take on a daily basis, from other people, from school/work, from family. However, just like anyone else, there are those who break under the pressure of life, lose whatever since of morality they had, and do much what happened in Montreal. This is not something that happens solely to Goths either; how many suicides/shootings do se see from those of the redneck persuasion, or of the average citizen? Many more than the media would like to admit in such a comparison.
"Blame the games" - Now here is something I find to be one of the bigger crocs of sh!t, this notion that "aggressive games cause aggressive emotions, which cause these tragedies". Me, I play a number of games, specializing in Real Time Strategy - in essence building up armies to wipe out the opposing army. Does this make me a megalomaniac, or a warmonger? If people say yes for me on this, I ask, how so? My point here is these games tend to be one of the VERY few ways that people, Goth or otherwise, can vent off the anger and frustration they feel and get from life as a whole. I’ve heard the argument before, "They saw it in such and so a game so they decided to try it in real life" - my questions are, if they are children, where the HELL are the parents, school officials and people that are supposed to be guiding these young people thru the psychotic ness that is today’s world? Where are the role models, the decent people that are supposed to be saying, hey, you cant be doing that? In the case of adults, the question changes slightly, to, why are they WANTING to do such things? Are there things in their lives that could be improved, by their own actions and/or by the actions of the local and overall governments that can be taken to improve life as a whole?
"Blame the easy access to the guns" oh yeah, this is one that irks me easily. The "overzealous overprotective mothers of North America" would have us believe that guns are evil, and that guns do not belong in anyone’s hands other than those of law enforcement. I find this an incredibly daft thought, from multiple aspects - to start with, I grew up in the Yukon, Canada's northern wonderland, where firearms are more than a part of life, they are a WAY of life, for those of us that don’t live near the one city in the Yukon. Because of our very close proximity to the wildlife of the northern country, most families both own firearms, and raise their families in their use care and knowledge to firearms. (In the words of my dad, "The only thing that is going to stop a grizzly from eating you, your sister, and your mother when I’m not home is this gun I’m teaching you to use.") Most people up there have a VERY healthy respect for firearms, and, for the most part, the only times you hear of crimes involving firearms is when other factors are involved, i.e., drugs, booze, poaching or so on. Now, this argument, while holding well for the outlying communities, obviously doesn’t apply as much to the urban or city setting, however, having now spent 6 months in the outer Toronto area, I’ve found myself feeling both quite naked without any firearms, and seeing that "only criminals have firearms" is far more true - and dangerous - than the media or the general public likes to admit to. While I haven’t been involved in any incidents since I’ve been here, I’m VERY well aware of the fact that "the bad guys" DO have guns - and I don’t. However, more to the point in regards to this case however - having guns does NOT make one evil, nor does it make one more inclined to do violent actions, nor does it make it any easier to do such things. A firearm is a purely inanimate object, that cannot do anything until someONE makes the choice to use it -- and what it’s used for. Too much I have seen this desire to strip people of firearms, in the mistaken belief that it decreases firearms crime -- on the contrary. Crime to both ascertain and keep firearms has risen dramatically (particularly by otherwise law abiding citizens who refuse to relinquish what they’ve had handed down to them, or by those seeing no reason to forfeit their way of life)- while the justice system has severely faltered in the prosecution of law. You want to put a lid on crimes with guns? Make the law have some power to deal with crimes when committed -- and allow the police do what needs done to catch REAL criminals. And, having learned more about what happened in this case, its funny - this guy legally acquired all the firearms and ammunition he used in this event - which only goes to prove the point that gun control is a joke. Combine this with the events in Alberta I believe it was, where the four RCMP officers lost their lives (to another classic fuckup on the part of the justice system), and you have classic proof that not only is gun control faulty, trying to strip people of them simply will not work. The answer, then, is simple -- provide training, IN SCHOOL, in both self defense and firearms use - since they ARE an integral part of society, and will NOT be removed from our lives, make people aware of what they are, how they work, how to use them -- and some decent ethics behind them. To make a very apt comparison here – millions of people buy, own and operate vehicles every day, which is as inanimate an object as a firearm in every way – but its only when someone CHOOSES to use it to kill does it become lethal. Hell, more people are killed in accidents with vehicles than have ever been killed in “accidental” shootings (by this I mean people not keeping their firearms locked up and/or in proper care).
Something else I need to touch on here -- there is now a drive on to control, monitor, if not totally shut down sites such as VampireFreaks.com - on the grounds that they are dangerous and encourage such behavior. I went thru and read this guys posts on his journal on VampireFreaks - I may as well been reading about my time in high school. The simple fact is, these places do NOT encourage such things-- on the contrary, these groups encourage discussion and communication for people who feel they have no other place to go. As a friend of mine worded it so well, "The reason he was part of a dark, death-based subculture was because he felt pushed there by the same culture his final act rebelled against", in this case, the society as a whole. Further, often these boards are very effective in both defusing such explosive situations before they come to a head, and, as a last ditch, have proved to provide advance warning in some cases of people essentially losing their self-control. Further still, this notion of removing such boards proves both the desire by the masses - or perhaps more accurately, the vocal few – to remove anything not following their guidelines of “normality”; As well, it flies in the face of one of the most basic freedoms, one that many of our forefathers gave their lives for in a number of wars – freedom of speech, self expression and being ourselves, free of dictator-like rule and free of the demand of all being the same. (I seem to recall a number of incidents in history where those of different beliefs were sought and wiped out, solely for believing different from another group. Some of the terms for these have been crusades, holocausts, jihads, etc. And, while on that note – do we not have honored men and women from our own armed forces fighting and dying against these??) Have these people become so paranoid as to seek to shut down and silence anyone who may be trying to sort out their feelings in these forms and places?
In Conclusion, while the events of Sept 13 are tragic, society, as a whole, needs to pause and determine why this, and other incidents, happened, before being so quick to lay blame. As many people like me have said, “we have our own fucking problems, we do NOT need society sh!tting more on us with their paranoia, fear, out casting, and retribution for the actions of a few.” Further, next time you see someone walking down the street with a long trench coat, before you automatically think he or she is a depressed psycho to be, perhaps you might consider that, for one, we are all human, and for two, maybe they just need to be understood? Also, it wouldn’t hurt to remember, especially if you’re a parent – you ARE needed to do your damned job. You chose to bring us here – taking responsibility for this and teaching us about life, ALL of it; is what works to avoid these bloodlettings. If your not a parent, but a part of the “adult” society, take a damned leading role and assist with this, rather than turning a blind eye – or worse, jumping to conclusions about things you really don’t know anything about.