A Teenage Philosophy Of Awareness And Existence: Analysis Of The Columbine Shooters’ Worldview

A Teenage Philosophy of Awareness and Existence Mathijs Koenraadt A Teenage Philosophy of Awareness and Existence Analysis of the Columbine Shooters’ Worldview Second edition 2015 First published in The Netherlands 2014 Copyright © 2014, 2015 by Mathijs Koenraadt Published by Morningtime www.koenraadt.info All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. Paperback ISBN 978-1511520003 E-book ISBN 978-0463373781 Cover photography © 2011 by Steven Bratman / CC BY 2.0 Contents Preface vii Part I 1 Eric Harris on Awareness 2 Dylan Klebold on Existence 3 23 Part II 3 Transcript of Eric Harris’s Journal 4 Transcript of Dylan Klebold’s Journal 41 77 Notes Further Reading 105 109 Preface O n April 20th, 1999, several hundreds of students flooded the Columbine High School cafeteria to have lunch. Two high school seniors waited outside near their cars, wearing black leather coats. Moments earlier they had visited the cafeteria and left behind two duffel bags that each contained a propane bomb with a detonator. While the bombs sizzled, the teenage men geared up and walked towards the school entrance. They intended to kill any fleeing victims running towards them. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold would leave thirteen dead before taking their own lives. Without anyone noticing, they had planned the attack for nearly a year. After the attacks, officers of the Jefferson County Police Office found a number of video tapes at the Harris residence. Dubbed the Basement Tapes, named after where they were recorded, the videos show how the teenagers explained their motives and bragged about how they had successfully hidden their elaborate preparations from both their peers and their parents.1 I wrote this short book in defense of rebel ideas that either force us to think about the way that we organize our society, or that question our understanding of reality. In their writings, the Columbine High School shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, showed their ability to have intelligent and original thoughts, highly critical of society and the world viii awareness and existence around them. If we as members of civilized societies wish to better understand the mind and motives of teenage mass murderers, we must begin by taking their ideas seriously. We should attempt to understand the world from their point view in order to see why they felt so left out in the first place. However, I did not write this book to solicit compassion for the Columbine shooters and their actions. The horrific events shattered many lives. If Eric and Dylan had not taken their own lives, then they deserved long-term imprisonment. But I have always believed th