Tom's Column

“You can't transform the destructiveness, corruption, or evil in any individual, group or institution -- especially political institutions -- until you first discover and transform the destructiveness and evil in yourself.” --- Tom Laughlin

     It is time for those who could have prevented the tragedy at Columbine High School, directly or indirectly, to take responsibility and their share of the blame in order to make sure we understand how this tragedy occurred as the only way of preventing it from happening again. Do not forget two years earlier just down the road two boys massacred four students and an adult in Aurora, another suburb of Denver, and because there was no exhaustive examination of conscience to see who was responsible in order to learn how to prevent such a massacre from happening again, thereby setting an example for other schools, the Columbine massacre, and all the other school killings, took place.
     There is only one way to honor those who lost their lives at Columbine HS, only one way to guarantee that the Columbine tragedy does not happen again -- and that is for everyone involved to have the courage to see who is responsible for what happened here, who is to blame, directly or indirectly, for the terrible violence that erupted here. Who, among those involved, could have -- or should have -- prevented this senseless massacre?
     Though it is a time of unbelievable pain and suffering for those who lost loved ones at Columbine High School, and a grieving process that must be carefully nurtured and surrounded by all the love we can provide, the only way to turn the anguish of grief into substantive long-term healing is to make certain that these students and faculty member will not have died in vain, because, from their deaths, all of us emerge with a firm determination to discover the root cause of the rage, hate and murder that rose up from some unknown place in the unconscious of these two mentally ill mass murderers, and we look for that root cause of who – and what -- is responsible for the sole purpose of making sure it doesn’t happen again. (In the final analysis, the grieving period for the parents and family of the teacher will never end. They will think of their loss every day from now until the end of their lives.)
     Evil when it emerges from the unconscious, either in an individual or in a group, if it is merely pushed back down, repressed, and covered over is not going to go away or disappear, especially when it is covered over with a sincere, but terribly misguided attitude of forgiveness. That evil, that hate, rage and violence, will simply come back in a thousand different ways. The only way to prevent such evil and violence from happening again – and happening again soon – whether it be in the home, the school, or the community – is to discover what is the root cause of that violence, meet it head on, and transform it. Evil comes in many forms, and when evil comes in the form of negligence, over permissiveness, and ignorance of the unconscious and how the dark side of everyone of us operates in the unconscious, and even in the form of the failure to use simple common sense ignorance that screamed out to even the most unsophisticated observer that there was going to be a bloodbath in this school unless those who had the power to intervene also had the knowledge, courage and wisdom to do so.
     And there were plenty of people who not only could have – but should have – prevented this tragedy, for never in the history of these kind of mass murders was the event so unmistakably telegraphed in advance as this one. The signs of mental illness, the unmistakable signs of bloody violence were so explicitly – and repeatedly -- shouted out at the school and the police, it was as if these murderers were giving to the police a blueprint of the heinous crime they were to commit long before they committed it. Which is in fact exactly what they did. Not only did they give a blueprint of their plans on the website for all to see, they even showed everyone in a “Coming Attraction” video of exactly how they would commit this slaughter and showed it for all the school to see, including the school playing parts from it on their morning address system.
     In addition to the website, the videos et al giving us an x-ray into the unconscious psyche of these boys clearly showing the gathering homicidal momentum that was taking place and would absolutely – without any question whatsoever – be soon consciously acted out unless it was prevented, this website and videos were also a clarion call for help, a public suicide note for the whole world to see in hopes someone would save them from killing themselves and everyone around them. Tragically for everyone, no one heard their cry for help or this plea for someone to save them from the overpowering destructive force that had taken over their unconscious, as well as their conscious personalities.
     Not only should the deaths at Columbine never have happened, to anyone with the slightest knowledge of the unconscious, or even common sense, it is impossible to believe that it did happen and was not prevented by all of those who were repeatedly given the opportunity to exercise their authority, intervene, and save all those children who were murdered so senselessly because of the unconsciousness or negligence of the people responsible.
     It is time to place the blame for the terrible tragedy that happened at Columbine on those who are responsible, directly or indirectly, because they could have prevented the actual killings or the culture that encouraged it, but did not. Though many of them may have been responsible out of ignorance, if we do not identify the root causes of this tragedy, who’s responsible and who is to blame, and accept that responsibility not only to understand it and transform it, but to teach others how to identify it, understand it, and transform it as the only way to prevent this horror from happening again.
     Columbine, and the community of Littleton, is at the crossroads. They can either face up to their shame, take the blame and responsibility, understand what happened, and thereby become an unbelievable force for change and prevention in American schools, like the mother whose child was killed by a drunk driver who formed MADD, or they can continue to, out of fear and the pain that a courageous examination of conscience will produce, continue to sugarcoat and repress what happened, turn their eyes to all the people who are responsible, and thereby guarantee that another Columbine massacre will happen again – and very soon.
     The unconscious is a factor that probably no one involved knew about. The real shame is not so much what happened because the people involved lacked knowledge of the unconscious and the dynamics of evil and violence, and therefore were not equipped to see what was so clearly being presented to them, that screamed out for corrective action, but the real shame will come if those who either helped cause it, or could have prevented it, but didn’t know enough to do so, fail to learn from this horror by taking responsibility for their part in it as the only way to make sure it never happens again. Failure to make every effort to learn what they could have done to save those lives, that will be a shame that a just God will clearly hold them accountable for.
     The unconscious is an independent, autonomous entity that acts totally independent of our conscious personality, our ego, our morals, our ethics and our will. And unless we come to first discover its existence, and then learn what’s down there, we’ll continually be at the mercy of the negative forces in the unconscious when they erupt as they have with all of these school shootings, post office and business killings, the Oklahoma bombing, the Unibomber, and much more.
     Every time these destructive forces invade our life from the unconscious, we are simply astonished and can’t believe it. Almost always people who knew the violent predator, from a serial murderer to an OJ Simpson who beheaded his wife with his children sleeping just a few feet away, from the Ramsey’s and Jon Bennet, from the honor student eagle scout who shot 17 people from the tower at the University of Texas, will insist that the person they knew was so charming and nice a human being they couldn’t possibly have committed that crime. (Was there anyone more charming and beloved than “The Juice”?) But everyone of us if our own Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde, everyone of us has a shining Persona and our hidden dark Shadow side – and in some dim way we know it.
     We intuit that there is this unconscious part of our personality that we know not of, and are continually fascinated every time the Hyde in us or in our neighbor erupts into violence. Not only are the tabloid television shows and newspapers immensely popular because they continuously show us the shadow side of not only the rich and famous, but the weird and bizarre destructiveness of the average person as well. We are transfixed with this destructive Shadow side of others (because it exists in ourselves), which is why every night every local news show leads off their program with five or six murders, rapes, assaults, child kidnappings, and the like.
     The truly sad part is that though we all know there is this unknown part of our personality from which all this violence emerges, we do absolutely nothing to learn about it ourselves and to teach it to our children. Only when a Columbine tragedy happens do we fill the print and TV media with pundits trying to explain how can something like this happen, and who is to blame.
     Let us now look at those who clearly could have prevented this tragedy, as well as those who indirectly caused or contributed to it.

Our program to understand what happened at Columbine High School by identifying those responsible, directly or indirectly, in order to prevent it from happening again at another school, is divided into two parts:

Because there already exists thousands of psychotics, psychopaths, and even homicidal maniacs already among us, the first part of the program is designed to protect the innocent from these predators by the development of intervention and prevention techniques.
The second part of the program is devoted to understanding how this kind of homicidal personality develops and the development of intervention programs to help these children before its too late.

Part I: Prevention of Future Attacks
by Existing mentally Ill Murderers

The best way to teach prevention is by carefully examining what went wrong at every level at Columbine, and how with the knowledge and techniques provided by this program it could be prevented. It is important we discover who failed to act when they could have acted to either prevent or help prevent this sorrowful event.
The only way a successful program can be developed is by having everyone involved make the courageous commitment required to face their own personal Shadow, their faults, defects, weaknesses and deficiencies, and see how some component in their Shadow caused them to fail to act in time to prevent it. In addition to each individual facing their Shadow, because every group or institution from the faculty and police department, to the parents, bullying students, the NRA, the media and the entertainment industry – all of these also have a Shadow, and instead of spending all their energy on defending themselves, it is imperative that every individual and every group intensely pursue learning how each -- without being aware of it –played a part, small or large, in allowing this tragedy to happen. Only by discovering one’s own shadow can one develop the knowledge of the Shadow personality and how it functions in ourselves and then in others, and only with this knowledge will these future tragedies be prevented.

Here are various individuals and groups whose unawareness of their Shadow behavior contributed to this massacre, and had they been conscious of their Shadow and acted differently, they could have prevented it.
     1. The Police – not only could this tragedy have been prevented, it absolutely should have been prevented. There never has been a crime that was so widely and explicitly publicized in advance as this massacre. Among the overt unmistakable sirens warning of this massacre that the police did nothing about were:
     b. The website which everyone now knows about, and which contained the exact blueprint for the crime that was carried out, including a specific threat to kill an individual which is actionable. Though this threat was reported several times, and though one of the youths threatened specifically had his windshield smashed in, the police did nothing – and the excuses the sheriff and the police have given on television as to why they did nothing are not only inadequate, they are absurd. What is going on in the unconscious Shadow of the police who were involved that they failed to intervene in any way, and justify their failure with such ludicrous rationalizations?
     c. A video that the boys made for their economics class portraying the exact crime they were about to commit and had unequivocally said they were going to commit on their website. This was only one of several videos giving us a sneak preview of their murderous intent. Any knowledge of the unconscious and the Shadow would have seen the incredible danger this video posed. Combined with the website, and the slightest knowledge of how the unconscious acts as an independent entity, this video was an unmistakable sign that these boys would act out this fantasy, and the police should have known it.
     However, whenever authorities from the police department are asked about this incredible failure, they become defensive and put forward all the clichés protecting their Persona image instead of taking responsibility for it, and at least saying, “Well, if we knew then what we know today we would have acted Ö”, now is the time for them and policemen everywhere to learn what to do when the murderous/suicidal Shadow expresses itself in this way.
     1. The School: There are many people in the school who bear a responsibility, small or large, direct or indirect, for not preventing this tragedy, starting with the principal and the faculty.
     B. The Principal: In his Persona he is a warm, wonderful, friendly man. In his shadow he is a weak, ingratiating accommodator, who made statements so out of touch with reality that they raised serious questions. First, he said he walks the halls all the time and never saw anyone wearing a trench coat. Second, he said he never heard of the Trench Coat Mafia, though their picture was in the school yearbook. Third, though it is easy to take candy from a baby, it is easier to give candy to a baby, and his way of being accepted by the students was to be very permissive, including giving them incredible leeway such as even providing a smoking lounge for these teenage kids at a time the health dangers from second hand smoke are so serious and widely known that businesses, restaurants, etc., do not allow smoking anywhere in their building. (40% of 16,000 school children surveyed are afraid to use the restrooms in their schools.)
     More important, he not only created a school atmosphere under his leadership that allowed the extreme harassment and bullying of “weirdos” like Klebold and Harris which went on for years, he allowed Klebold and Harris to not only make extremely violent videos, but to use the school to create a specific video in which Klebold and Harris came in like DiCaprio in Basketball Diaries slaughtering students with a sawed off shotgun and blowing up the school, but he allowed parts of it to be played every morning during the opening school announcements. In addition, he allowed students, in this case, Klebold and Harris, to create the school website and promulgate their psychotic beliefs on the official school website, as well as spend time playing Doom and other blood and gore video games. That the Principal never saw this as an extremely dangerous thing to do, and absolutely wrong in an educational institution, is beyond belief, and points to a very serious unconsciousness not only on the part of the Principal, but the parents and the school board who are responsible for what goes on in their schools.
     C. The Faculty Members who were in charge of the computer program, and the economics class for which Klebold and Harris made such sick videos. That a responsible adult, let alone a trained educator, in charge of a computer program would allow that kind of material on a website is mindboggling, not to mention allowing Klebold and Harris, among other students, to use the school website to play these video games designed for no other purpose but to appeal to the reptile brain and stimulate the violence and lust to annihilate operating in far too many of today’s disturbed and angry teenagers. Again, this teacher’s shocking permissiveness makes us wonder what was going on in the unconscious Shadow part of that teacher’s personality.
     The same can be said for the Economics teacher who would allow that video of mass murder to be accepted as if it were a legitimate homework assignment in Economics. It is self evident it had absolutely no value as a piece of schoolwork and was terrifying on its face to any normal teacher who did not have some equally serious problem in their Shadow.
     D. The Jocks: For four years the jocks, always major role models in high school, harassed, tormented, threatened, and perpetrated acts of violence towards these emotionally disturbed young men, posting notes in their lockers and even throwing glass bottles at them from their cars as the “weirdos” were in the parking lot. The end result was the continuous buildup of a rage and a hatred and desire to get even that caused Klebold and Harris, two psychotic episodes waiting to happen, to erupt in their murderous rampage. Again, where was the principal, the faculty and the police during these four long years of bullying threats? Why did they not powerfully intervene?
     (Nothing is more important than every school at every level, starting in kindergarten, developing a swift, decisive, and effective program for handling the bully the very first time bullying takes place. See below.)
     E. The elite girls who also harassed, ridiculed and put down Klebold and Harris, including openly mocking them about being gay, and asking why they don’t just get married to each other. This incident took place in the library, the very place the most number of children were murdered.
     F. Parents: Nothing is more real than the absolute skism that exists today between a school and the parents whose children the school serves. It is as if they live on two different planets, and Columbine High school is obviously no exception. It is impossible to believe that none of the parents had any idea of the extremely laid back, “cool” permissiveness of Columbine that would allow the above events, and undoubtedly hundreds more like it. Once, in the early 90’s, Columbine taught a class on Death, even going so far as to ask developing teenage psyches to imagine how they would look in their coffin, causing one girl to become suicidal. The fear of death is an extraordinarily powerful terror for everyone when they are faced with the reality of it, such as being diagnosed with having a cancer. The fear of death can even become so powerful as to create an almost untreatable phobia, and certainly forcing children to confront the fear of death prematurely has no place in an educational institution. How could all these events go on in Columbine High without vigorous, organized parental protest? The fact that it did and the parents turned a deaf ear to all of it, makes these parents bear a responsibility for their irresponsibility in not knowing what was going on in the school. (Of special interest is why, when the Brown family downloaded the murderous website, took it to the police, and were ignored, why weren’t other parents either notified or involved?)