What Drove the School Shooter in Finland to Kill? (Updated)
John on November 8, 2007 at 12:51 am
From the AFP:
A teenager at a school in Finland went on the rampage Wednesday, shooting dead seven classmates and the headmistress, having first signalled his intentions in a video posted on the YouTube Internet site.
Police identified the killer as 18-year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen, who died from his injuries late Wednesday after shooting himself in the head following the massacre at Jokela High School in the small town of Tuusula.
Witnesses described chaos and panic as Auvinen killed his headmistress, five boys, two girls, and wounded a dozen others as they tried to flee the carnage.
Whenever this happens the first thing I think we all ask is why? While I don’t think a complete answer is ever possible, there are certainly clues to the general direction in which we should look.
For starters, it appears the young man was a fan of Harris and Klebold. He posted several You Tube video lionizing their massacre at Columbine. The videos themselves have been removed, but the summaries are still available. One tribute to the killers is titled “Natural Selection and Wrath – Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold” and is described as follows:
If you have made some research and read Harris’s journal, you will propably [sic] notice why the song and it’s lyrics are perfect for this video.
The song he chose to set the video to is Assault the Weak by Impaled Nazarene:
Blood sprays the landscapes again
As we lauch full-scale attack
This has been going on too long
Your existence is a jokeAssault and destroy all the weak
Crush them with an iron fist
My world doesn’t need scum like you
Finally it’s the payback time
The new dawn soon will rise
You will pay with your fucking lifeScreams of pain fill the skies
As you watch your breed to die
Your prayers are said in vain
As Satan’s generation leads the wayShoot to kill Crush to destroy
What will be left of your world
Is just a hole in the ground
We will change the history
Set new standards for a human beingShoot to kill Crush to destroy
Pretty disturbing stuff and clearly coming from an extreme anti-religious point of view similar to that of Eric Harris. If that’s not clear enough, two weeks ago he posted another video titled “Criticism & Irrationalities of Abrahamic Religions.” [View here]
Another tribute to Harris is titled “3 Revolutionaries 3 Wisdoms – 3 Revolutionary Acts.” Here’s the description:
Three great men with intelligent minds and message. Rest in peace martyrs Eric Harris and Timothy McVeigh. Strength for political prisoner Theodore Kaczynski. You will never be forgotten.
There are also numerous videos of Adolph Hitler and the Unabomber, all of them added over the last two weeks. Pekka-Eric claims not to be a fan of the Nazis, but we know Eric Harris was. If he had read Harris’ journals, it’s possible his fascination with Hitler stemmed or was tied to his fascination with Harris.
In the days leading up to the shooting, Pekka-Eric posted a two-part manifesto titled “Natural Selector’s Manifesto.” Part one’s description begins as follows: [One of Pekka-Eric's video's on his philosophy is here.]
How Did Natural Selection Turn Into Idiocratic Selection?
Though his profile and account has been suspended, some blogs did get a look at it before it disappeared. This blog appears to have either cut and paste his profile or, possibly, to have transcribed several of the videos. Consider a few samples:
What do I love / what do I like?
Existentialism, self-awareness, freedom, justice, truth, moral & political philosophy, personal & social psychology, evolution science, political incorrectness, guns, shooting, BDSM, computers, internet, aggressive electronic and industrial rock & metal music, violent movies, , FPS –computer games, sarcasm, irony, black humour, macabre artm mass & serial killer cases, natural disasters, eugenics
All of this tracks pretty closely with the words of Eric Harris who said in his journal:
I have something only ?? and V have, SELF AWARENESS.
call it existentialism or whatever the fuck u
want. we know what we are to this world
and what everyone else is.
Here’s another telling bit from Pekka-Eric:
Humans are just a species among other animals and world does not exist only for humans. Death and killing is not a tragedy, it happens in nature all the time between all species. Not all human lives are important or worth saving. Only superior (intelligent, self-aware, strong-minded) individuals should survive while inferior (stupid, retarded, weak-minded masses) should perish.
This is reminiscent of Hitler obviously, but also of Nietzsche. Again, it is also reminiscent of Harris, who said:
just because your mommy and daddy tell you blood and violence is bad, you think it’s a fucking law of nature? wrong, only science and math are true,everything, and I mean every fucking thing else is man made.
How did an 18 year old arrive at such a dark view of life. He describes the process:
Total War Against Humanity
Hate, Im so full of it and I love it. That is one thing I really love. Some time ago, I used to believe in humanity and I wanted to live a long and happy life… but then I woke up. I started to think deeper and realized things. But it was not easy to become existential… knowing as much as I know has made me unhappy, frustrated and angry. I just can’t be happy in the society or the reality I live. Due to long process of existential thinking, observing the society I live and some other things happened in my life… I have come to the point where I feel nothing but hate against humanity and human race.
Life is just a meaningless coincidence… result of long process of evolution and many several factors, causes and effects. However, life is also something that an individual wants and determines it to be. And I’m the dictator and god of my own life. And me, I have chosen my way. I am prepared to fight and die for my cause. I, as a natural selector, will eliminate all who I see unfit, disgraces of human race and failures of natural selection.
[...]
And remember that this is my war, my ideas and my plans. Don’t blame anyone else for my actions than myself. Don’t blame my parents or my friends. I told nobody about my plans and I always kept them inside my mind only. Don’t blame the movies I see, the music I hear, the games I play or the books I read. No, they had nothing to do with this. This is my war: one man war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world! No mercy for the scum of the earth! HUMANITY IS OVERRATED! It’s time to put NATURAL SELECTION & SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST back on tracks!
Clearly the shooter was unbalanced. There are mentions of anti-depressants in his videos. But that only begs the question. Was his unbalanced mental state the cause of his extreme views or were his extreme views the cause of his unbalanced mental state?
Finally, it’s striking to me how similar this boy’s perspective is to that of Eric Harris. Both had a naturalistic worldview which led them to hold other people in complete contempt. And tragically, both Eric Harris and Pekka-Eric Auvinen were seemingly driven by that contempt to do things which are simply too horrible for most of us to contemplate.
Update: An article in the Sydney Morning Herald notes that Pekka-Eric’s girlfriend had dumped him recently. Apparently people are blaming her for the shooting. In response she says, “He did what he did because he was who he is.”
The article also notes “According to media reports, he had repeatedly expressed admiration for Hitler and Stalin and he names Nietzsche as a favourite author on his YouTube account.” Eric Harris was also a big fan of Nietzsche.
Update 11-08: New press account today that, as with Cho Seung-Hui, Pekka-Eric was a bit of an outcast and may have been bullied. Add that to the list of possible motivations.
Also, someone made a mirror of Pekka-Eric’s You Tube profile page. What’s amazing to me is that the Belfast Telegraph article which linked to the page says this:
Sturmgeist89, whose web page was last updated just before midnight on Tuesday, gave a hint as to why the Jokela killings had happened. “[They are] political and much much deeper and therefore I don’t want this to be called only as ‘school shooting’,” he said.
I would have thought the first line of his online profile was an even bigger hint:
I am a cynical existentialist, antihuman humanist, antisocial socialdarwinist, realistic idealist and godlike atheist.
Again, I can’t help making the comparison to Eric Harris who said in his journal:
I feel like God and wish I was having everyone being OFFICIALLY lower than me I already know that I am higher than almost anyone in the fucking welt
I’d call that more than a hint.
Update 11-09: Here’s the final video posted just before the shooting.
Category: Atheism, Crime & the Law |
Secular humanism strikes again.
What I find odd is how few of these evil killers we see, considering the accuracy of his thought processes following the natural conclusions of a naturalistic, evolutionary and humanistic worldview.
Evolution strips all purpose besides self-determination from life, and even removes reasons for positive self-determination.
Humanism puts man as the final arbiter, and because all men are equal, we are each our own final arbiter. If through evil thought or insanity we find in ourselves a greater cause than what we perceive in others around us, we can easily and logically find ourselves as being responsible for such atrocities as this Pekka-Eric committed.
November 8, 2007 @ 8:34 amI think it’s cyclical John. As I read it, I couldn’t help but see Schizophrenia, which basically just feeds upon itself. As Auvinen said, “…Some time ago, I used to believe in humanity and I wanted to live a long and happy life… but then I woke up…Due to long process of existential thinking, observing the society I live and some other things happened in my life… I have come to the point where I feel nothing but hate against humanity and human race.”
He used to be happy, then something occurs triggering delusional thoughts, which catapults him up the ranks to deity status…
Classic.
November 8, 2007 @ 9:48 amEric Harris was called a “sociopath” and I guess he was one almost by definition. I don’t know that anyone has labeled him schizo. There certainly is a “delusion of grandeur” going on with this boy though. Maybe you’re onto something, but I still wonder if delusions of grandeur aren’t a particular foible of existentialists. Nietzsche, his favorite author, certainly fits that bill.
November 8, 2007 @ 10:17 amAgain, I think it is cyclical. Schizophrenics, I would think, find existentialism attractive because of their cognitive delusions of grandeur. From what I know of Nietzsche, he was considered “mentally ill” in his later years and died under the care of his mother and sister. I would presuppose that his philosophical thoughts were born from this “mental illness” (schizophrenia) that he had all along, but that didn’t manifest itself fully until he was older.
November 8, 2007 @ 11:10 amNietzsche, unless I’m mistaken, died of tertiary stage syphilis. There is debate as to how much of his work was affected by the disease (which literally eats the brain of the sufferer). I don’t know of any diagnosis of schizophrenia in his case.
My understanding is that there is no hard and fast test for schizophrenia yet. It is a disorder that must be diagnosed from behavior. If that’s so (and I’m not even sure it is honestly) then there is no way to ever determine if he had the disease.
This boy seems to have lost it rather suddenly. Two weeks ago he started posting on You Tube culminating in the shooting. Several articles have noted that his friends sensed a change in him recently. I don’t know enough about schizophrenia to know if this sort of sudden change is consistent.
In any case, I think what’s striking is how sane he sounds right up to the end. He’s not hearing voices. At least he doesn’t admit to doing so. He’s angry and alienated, exactly as existentialists are supposed to be. He’s choosing murder as the logical outcome of his beliefs. I guess what I’m suggesting is that the real problem may have been a sickness of soul not of mind. But I think your “cyclical” argument also make a lot of sense. After all, very few existentialists go off the rail like this.
November 8, 2007 @ 2:13 pmI am by no means a person to turn to for expertise with Schizophrenia, but since it is my family, I have spent a lot of time over the past 25 years reading about it, and trying to understand it better. I have noticed that it takes on many shapes and sizes, and that it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all disease, yet many commonalities can be found among those suffering from it. There are tests that can be done, MRI’s and MRA’s of the brain to look at brain activity and levels of dopamine and serotonin being secreted, which have become tools for diagnosis. Haldol is an effective medication used to block the dopamine receptors, responsible for the psychotic episodes. The delusions of grandeur, the fantasies with death, and the bleak outlook on life are some of the behavioral/cognitive aspects I think you are talking of. Not all Schizophrenics hear voices, it is a possible malady, but not something all experience. My brother spent a years hearing them, and then about a decade or more, not.
During my German studies, I was taught that Nietzsche had not died of syphilis, although some had charged so. The Germans labeled it as “a madness”, “psychosis”, “mania”, or a “mind gone insane”, which they taught was brought on by his philosophical notions. Basically, I was taught that he had driven himself mad.
I agree with your concept of “sickness of the soul”.
So, I guess my thought is that sickness of the soul and mind probably feed off each other, and both just get exponentially worse with time.
November 8, 2007 @ 4:33 pmI don’t think that this kid just had a similar perspective to Harris, based on the fact that most of his rantings are little more than rehashed bits of Harris’ journal he was a pretty unimaginative imitator. Of course that still begs the question: how would someone ever get to the point of wanting to imitate something like ‘Reb’?
The ranting doesn’t (to me at least) look like the writings of someone who’s actually psychotic, stuff written by people with full-on schizophrenia is often…distinctive, a mass of non-sequiturs, bizarre linkages etc. Based on what’s been published thus far I’d guess that Auvinen was bad & sad as opposed to mad and that it was the usual school shooter’s combination of desire for revenge (‘people made fun of me – waaah!’), notoriety & ‘significance’ (as his ‘hero’ put it: ‘I want to leave a lasting impression on the world’) that motivated him. Maybe as more background info emerges we might get some idea of why he wanted revenge & infamy so badly, then again I think some people just come out vicious & twisted.
On the subject of Nietzsche, was Harris that much of a fan? There’s one line in the journal where he burbles about Hobbes & Nietzsche but AFAIK nothing else, certainly nothing comparable to the obsessive references to Doom, KMFDM, Hitler & killing that litter Harris’ journal, yearbook, notebooks etc?
November 8, 2007 @ 4:48 pmFrench Press Agency: Evangelical beliefs might turn you into a murderer…
I generally refrain from posting on issues relating to politics or the media on this blog, but some stories are just too odious to ignore. Breitbart ran this piece from the Agence France-Presse. The story portrays itself as an objective report about …
February 14, 2008 @ 5:16 pmActually, I agree with the guy completely and I love Neitzsche’s work as well as 1984 being my beloved novel (although this guy misses out on dear Oscar Wilde ;).
His ideas are just simply right-wing and cynical as he recognises. In fact eugenics and such theories based on ‘men are not born equal’ were rather popular until the Nazis took them to extremes. With works by Herbert Spencer and Darwin being a driving force behind them.
People thought many great scientists were mad until others were able to prove and understand their theories. In fact, a quote you should consider: ‘The difference between a genius and a mad-man is success’. Not sure if it’s one of Wilde’s?
I think the pressure of thinking his political and social views are solitary put together with the pressures of school and growing up in a rather boring and left-wing country got to him. ‘Sickness of soul’ is very eloquently put for this case.
It’s a shame he couldn’t take it: It doesn’t really prove his point of being superior if he killed himself. Unlike me who sees the world as imperfect and primitive (in relation to what it can) be and plans to capitalize on it being so. ;) Survival of the fittest!
I wish somebody could show him London’s West End or something, to show him that he’s not alone.
RIP blonde dude.
June 2, 2010 @ 4:16 pm