any direct effects of the music. Implications for intervention and for future research are discussed. (Scheel)
Again, did the heavy metal music cause the mental illness that caused suicide or did the mental illness cause the suicide? Te fact remains that before Rock and Roll ever existed there were “natural born killers” and mentally ill people who did not have the skills to cope with life. Earlier in the essay I mentioned that we should hear the artist out who so much murder and suicide has been blamed for. Keep in mind that Brian Warner (A.K.A. Marilyn Manson) is no expert on sociology, nor is he known to be a psychologist. In fact, he, to some people, may be the anti-Christ. But, there is no proof that he or any other Rock and Roll artist is directly or indirectly responsible for the murders or suicides committed by their fans. In Rolling Stone Magazine, Manson writes:
It is sad to think that the first few people on earth needed no books, movies, games or music to inspire cold-blooded murder. Te 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? Te 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. (Manson)
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He continues stating that:
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? (Manson)
Even though Warner commits the rhetorical fallacy of asking way too many questions to prove his point, he makes a good point. Te fact is that Harris and Klebold thought Marilyn Manson sucked. Tat was a large oversight by the journalists and media of the time. Murderers and those that self-harm existed long before Rock and Roll did and that is another reason that Rock and Roll musicians are not responsible for the murders and suicides carried out by their fans.
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