så fick finland sitt bowling for columbine. ännu återstår det att se vart skuldkänslorna deponeras. en 18-årig gymnasiekille sköt ihjäl rektorn i tusby gymnasium och 7 andra innan han – troligen själv – sköt sig i huvudet och senare avled på sjukhuset i tölö. innan dess hade han bland annat gjort och lagt upp på youtube en kort video med titeln “Jokela High School Massacre – 11/7/2007”. länkar till händelsen:peliplaneetta, mtv3, hbl, yle, svenska yle, aftonbladet
länkar till pekka-eric auvinen: profil på youtube (suspended sedan kl.16 samma dag) diskussion som han deltagit i under pseudonymen stormspirit, samt en text av honom under pseudonymen sturmgeist, ett slags testamente.
one good link, in english: the pekka-eric auvinen manifesto. also, the auvinen files.
so what could be said that, perhaps, hasn’t already come about?
i wonder whether more control, surveillance and censorship will be the reaction from schools, the police and the state. i’m more inclined to see the role of internet as something that even further emphasizes how the signs actually are available, if only there is someone listening.
news media companies (like yle, mtv3, helsingin sanomat) have a peculiar view of the internet. they seem to prefer to present internet as something that is controllable, ie, by implying that the videos by sturmgeist89 are now removed from the internet when the only fact so far is that youtube suspended his account. i foresaw this, so i kept a copy of his profiles and a few of his videos, just in case. so did many else. and the videos are still available on other sites. interestingly, yle – among others i guess – where quick to capture the material on the internet on film and showing it on the news, while at the same time making a point about its disappearance. clearly, the role as middleman and interpreter of reality is something the news media companies are very eager to uphold.
something like a localized version of digg is desperately needed. maybe there is already? please enlighten me.
it was kind of nice to notice that psychologists where given quite a prominent position in the yle & mtv3 news. although i guess it takes some time before the more valuable reflections come about.
there will probably be similiar signs and traces like the ones in this case, now the question is, what’s there to be done the next time? kill somebody pre-emptively? criminalize the expression of these kind of thoughts? criminalize the thoughts themselves? punish by death, prison, forced medication or what?
i’m also wondering whether this kind of tragedy never would’ve happened 20 years ago when finland still maintained some kind of social democratic wellfare state. perhaps this is part of the price to pay for maintaining the increasingly wider income gaps between people in a society increasingly advanced and developed. i can see two alternatives: either tax money are channeled to a larger extent to wellfare of all citizens, or security and wellbeing is further privatized and thus more selective – meaning some schools will become even more prone to killings because of the gradual abandonment in both financial and human resources terms.
a worrying scenario is that the mindset of pekka-eric auvinen will find its equivalence in those affected by his actions. i mean, if, for example, the police, school and teachers will move towards viewing him as something dirty, faulty, dangerous and evil that, if encountered in the future, has to be removed or eliminated, they will have internalized the same mindset as pekka-eric himself: the ugly and evil is outside myself and has to be obliterated. also, it will make teachers – among others – the enemy of students rather than someone trustworthy. nobody will trust a thought police who might punish you for verbally expressing certain thoughts or feelings.
