Sasha
26th December 2010, 15:42
ran into this article and thought it was wortwhile to read.
dont know wheter this article was ever discussed here, hence why i post it.
Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?
by Marilyn Manson
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded
murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human
disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be,
Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead
man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol
of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint
for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.
A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and
hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time
magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the
media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they
plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if
every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.
We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our
president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more
televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they
would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di.
Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a
gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.
When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit
someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune
in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if
it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't
really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I
watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the
funerals. Then came the witch hunt.
Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their
actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold
were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were
dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the
world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle
America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked
something they thought was similar.
Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that
they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to
blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy
McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or
should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What
inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just
killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the
right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old
enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone
else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?
America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the
Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or
immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive
enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old
arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a
song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used
as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous
weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's
because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I
was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the
name of being "pro-life."
The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting
the very things I am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do
you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a
burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first
and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but
you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that
they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and
start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the
technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books
are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or
better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why
can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?
I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in
existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or
to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first
real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone
will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political
form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves,
because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball
Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a
controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's
ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried
to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the
world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.
MARILYN MANSON
(May 28, 1999)
source: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:i7RnpGSY2a8J:www.angelfire.com/ex/hollyville/marilyn_manson.doc+Marilyn+Manson,+%22Columbine:+W hose+Fault+Is+It%3F%22&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShCDfxwIwuM9p0zeBL4gBArc3xtya5tAMfnbbn3 jNB_eSdzLff8R3KwFiY3SkxQ8Tlw_tUhK_dLZNNjXtgnHUzXIc _57ZjScdsUff7B5ZVyBWoMjO_9xFqEX7WZni5YLIoVfEC5&sig=AHIEtbRjrni72Vgf9raQzNVdDiSLEzxogg
dont know wheter this article was ever discussed here, hence why i post it.
Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?
by Marilyn Manson
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded
murder. The day that Cain bashed his brother Abel's brains in, the only motivation he needed was his own human
disposition to violence. Whether you interpret the Bible as literature or as the final word of whatever God may be,
Christianity has given us an image of death and sexuality that we have based our culture around. A half-naked dead
man hangs in most homes and around our necks, and we have just taken that for granted all our lives. Is it a symbol
of hope or hopelessness? The world's most famous murder-suicide was also the birth of the death icon -- the blueprint
for celebrity. Unfortunately, for all of their inspiring morality, nowhere in the Gospels is intelligence praised as a virtue.
A lot of people forget or never realize that I started my band as a criticism of these very issues of despair and
hypocrisy. The name Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad fact that America puts killers on the cover of Time
magazine, giving them as much notoriety as our favorite movie stars. From Jesse James to Charles Manson, the
media, since their inception, have turned criminals into folk heroes. They just created two new ones when they
plastered those dipshits Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris' pictures on the front of every newspaper. Don't be surprised if
every kid who gets pushed around has two new idols.
We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole purpose is to destroy all of mankind, and we grow up watching our
president's brains splattered all over Texas. Times have not become more violent. They have just become more
televised. Does anyone think the Civil War was the least bit civil? If television had existed, you could be sure they
would have been there to cover it, or maybe even participate in it, like their violent car chase of Princess Di.
Disgusting vultures looking for corpses, exploiting, fucking, filming and serving it up for our hungry appetites in a
gluttonous display of endless human stupidity.
When it comes down to who's to blame for the high school murders in Littleton, Colorado, throw a rock and you'll hit
someone who's guilty. We're the people who sit back and tolerate children owning guns, and we're the ones who tune
in and watch the up-to-the-minute details of what they do with them. I think it's terrible when anyone dies, especially if
it is someone you know and love. But what is more offensive is that when these tragedies happen, most people don't
really care any more than they would about the season finale of Friends or The Real World. I was dumbfounded as I
watched the media snake right in, not missing a teardrop, interviewing the parents of dead children, televising the
funerals. Then came the witch hunt.
Man's greatest fear is chaos. It was unthinkable that these kids did not have a simple black-and-white reason for their
actions. And so a scapegoat was needed. I remember hearing the initial reports from Littleton, that Harris and Klebold
were wearing makeup and were dressed like Marilyn Manson, whom they obviously must worship, since they were
dressed in black. Of course, speculation snowballed into making me the poster boy for everything that is bad in the
world. These two idiots weren't wearing makeup, and they weren't dressed like me or like goths. Since Middle
America has not heard of the music they did listen to (KMFDM and Rammstein, among others), the media picked
something they thought was similar.
Responsible journalists have reported with less publicity that Harris and Klebold were not Marilyn Manson fans -- that
they even disliked my music. Even if they were fans, that gives them no excuse, nor does it mean that music is to
blame. Did we look for James Huberty's inspiration when he gunned down people at McDonald's? What did Timothy
McVeigh like to watch? What about David Koresh, Jim Jones? Do you think entertainment inspired Kip Kinkel, or
should we blame the fact that his father bought him the guns he used in the Springfield, Oregon, murders? What
inspires Bill Clinton to blow people up in Kosovo? Was it something that Monica Lewinsky said to him? Isn't killing just
killing, regardless if it's in Vietnam or Jonesboro, Arkansas? Why do we justify one, just because it seems to be for the
right reasons? Should there ever be a right reason? If a kid is old enough to drive a car or buy a gun, isn't he old
enough to be held personally responsible for what he does with his car or gun? Or if he's a teenager, should someone
else be blamed because he isn't as enlightened as an eighteen-year-old?
America loves to find an icon to hang its guilt on. But, admittedly, I have assumed the role of Antichrist; I am the
Nineties voice of individuality, and people tend to associate anyone who looks and behaves differently with illegal or
immoral activity. Deep down, most adults hate people who go against the grain. It's comical that people are naive
enough to have forgotten Elvis, Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly. All of them were subjected to the same age-old
arguments, scrutiny and prejudice. I wrote a song called "Lunchbox," and some journalists have interpreted it as a
song about guns. Ironically, the song is about being picked on and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box, which I used
as a weapon on the playground. In 1979, metal lunch boxes were banned because they were considered dangerous
weapons in the hands of delinquents. I also wrote a song called "Get Your Gunn." The title is spelled with two n's
because the song was a reaction to the murder of Dr. David Gunn, who was killed in Florida by pro-life activists while I
was living there. That was the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the
name of being "pro-life."
The somewhat positive messages of these songs are usually the ones that sensationalists misinterpret as promoting
the very things I am decrying. Right now, everyone is thinking of how they can prevent things like Littleton. How do
you prevent AIDS, world war, depression, car crashes? We live in a free country, but with that freedom there is a
burden of personal responsibility. Rather than teaching a child what is moral and immoral, right and wrong, we first
and foremost can establish what the laws that govern us are. You can always escape hell by not believing in it, but
you cannot escape death and you cannot escape prison.
It is no wonder that kids are growing up more cynical; they have a lot of information in front of them. They can see that
they are living in a world that's made of bullshit. In the past, there was always the idea that you could turn and run and
start something better. But now America has become one big mall, and because of the Internet and all of the
technology we have, there's nowhere to run. People are the same everywhere. Sometimes music, movies and books
are the only things that let us feel like someone else feels like we do. I've always tried to let people know it's OK, or
better, if you don't fit into the program. Use your imagination -- if some geek from Ohio can become something, why
can't anyone else with the willpower and creativity?
I chose not to jump into the media frenzy and defend myself, though I was begged to be on every single TV show in
existence. I didn't want to contribute to these fame-seeking journalists and opportunists looking to fill their churches or
to get elected because of their self-righteous finger-pointing. They want to blame entertainment? Isn't religion the first
real entertainment? People dress up in costumes, sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal fandom. Everyone
will agree that nothing was more entertaining than Clinton shooting off his prick and then his bombs in true political
form. And the news -- that's obvious. So is entertainment to blame? I'd like media commentators to ask themselves,
because their coverage of the event was some of the most gruesome entertainment any of us have seen.
I think that the National Rifle Association is far too powerful to take on, so most people choose Doom, The Basketball
Diaries or yours truly. This kind of controversy does not help me sell records or tickets, and I wouldn't want it to. I'm a
controversial artist, one who dares to have an opinion and bothers to create music and videos that challenge people's
ideas in a world that is watered-down and hollow. In my work I examine the America we live in, and I've always tried
to show people that the devil we blame our atrocities on is really just each one of us. So don't expect the end of the
world to come one day out of the blue -- it's been happening every day for a long time.
MARILYN MANSON
(May 28, 1999)
source: http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:i7RnpGSY2a8J:www.angelfire.com/ex/hollyville/marilyn_manson.doc+Marilyn+Manson,+%22Columbine:+W hose+Fault+Is+It%3F%22&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShCDfxwIwuM9p0zeBL4gBArc3xtya5tAMfnbbn3 jNB_eSdzLff8R3KwFiY3SkxQ8Tlw_tUhK_dLZNNjXtgnHUzXIc _57ZjScdsUff7B5ZVyBWoMjO_9xFqEX7WZni5YLIoVfEC5&sig=AHIEtbRjrni72Vgf9raQzNVdDiSLEzxogg