Thoughts From Boston 4: Accelerants

Catcher in the Rye. Metallica. Marilyn Manson.  Video Games. These are some of the things that have been blamed for heinous acts in my lifetime.

I have consistently argued that the fact that millions of people enjoy these things without ever doing anything incredibly heinous is pretty convincing evidence that they don't "cause" bad behavior.

But Stephen King withdrew his school shooting book, Rage, from publication after a few school shooters were found to have it in their posession.  Here's what he said: I don’t think that any kid was driven to an act of violence by a Metallica record, or by a Mariliyn Manson CD, or by a Stephen King novel, but I do think those things can act as accelerants.

It struck me that the elder brother's interest in religious extremism was just that: an accelerant.  It's just a fact that most of the poeple who are exposed to even the most virulent religious-based hatred don't ultimately end up becoming terrorists as a result.  

Perhaps that's because most people see through the obvious cynicism and deception of the (usually) old men who preach martyrdom: they're not doing it themselves.  The leaders of religious hate groups seek out vulnerable and/or disturbed young people to risk or sacrifice their lives because it's better to die for your beliefs than to live in a corrupt world, but the leaders keep living in this corrupt world.  Because they like being alive.  Because whatever the torments of living in a world where gays can get married, where abortion is legal, where porn is just a mouse click away, or whatever offends their version of God, the leaders of these religious sects always prefer the real and quantifiable perks of living in this world to the theoretical perks of dying for a cause. 

So I think we have to look at the elder brother's flirtation with religious-based hatred not as the cause of his actions, but as an accelarant: they gave a sick and violent young man a direction for his violence.