NORMAL LIFE: Jokela Shooting

Yesterday afternoon, when I heard that three pupils had been shot by a fellow pupil at Jokela High School, I somewhat disregarded it. Meanwhile, my colleagues were gossiping incessantly, the shockwaves spreading throughout the population like a virus on the rampage.

The gunman was 18 year-old Pekka-Eric Auvinen. He proceeded to kill eight fellow students before killing himself. In the frenzy, many students sustained injuries. From a 'very normal family', there seems to be no motive for the 18 year-old's actions. He did, however, consider himself a 'social Darwinist' who would 'eliminate all who I see unfit', according to a chilling clip he posted on YouTube shortly before the attack.

On another website, we had claimed that "death and killing is not a tragedy... not all human lives are important or worth saving." He claimed that he was acting alone and that this was 'his war, one man's war against humanity, governments and weak-minded masses of the world."

Doesn't this just wreak of all the events that have unfolded since September 11th? It seems that the youth of society are slowly taking on the view that, in the fast and hectic and not-so-bloody fantastic 21st Century, life isn't as valuable as it once was. Before all the Islam-related publicity, this just didn't happen. At least not as often. And isn't it the Muslim radicals that preach that taking your own life is an honourable thing to do?

One of my female colleagues, the mother of two young boys, rushed to my desk yesterday and expressed her dismay as the events unfolded. In a rather stern manner, I told her that any kid born since the early 80's is damaged goods; the internet and all it's inaccurate and inappropriate content, the concept of online gaming giving you a license to kill in cyberspace (and for fun, too, apparently) and the depletion of family values have created these kids. I sensed that she didn't quite agree with me, but isn't it clear? I felt like knocking her on the head and shouting "Hello, is anyone home?"

Finns are naive, and I hope this event will bring them to their senses. Just a few years ago, another Finnish youth went into a shopping centre with a bomb and detonated it, killing several people including himself. Around about the same time, a member of parliament in Sweden - another peaceful country - was killed in a vicious stabbing as she shopped. What amazed me was that she was alone, with no security. Hello, this is the 21st Century!

To further illustrate my point about the depletion of family values, when I was a kid, we always ate dinner together. Whenever sexually explicit footage came on TV or any graphic violence, my Father would change the channel. I wasn't even allowed to watch Grange Hill, probably one of the most popular programs for children of my time because of it's obsession with - and frequent depiction of - school bullying. In short, my parents did what they felt they should do to limit my exposure to the negative elements of society.

When I was a kid, we played board games like Connect 4 and Guess Who. We played computer games such as Tetris and Pacman. Nowadays, kids watch porn online and computer games with names like Resident Evil and Modern Warfare. I feel sorry for the parents of today because their job has been made especially challenging. The children have never had a taste of something 'normal', and they refuse to partake in anything that might be healthy or actually good for them.

Kids don't have what I called 'the filter' anymore, a responsible guardian providing only what they need and not what their children claim they need. You have thirteen year-olds looking for sexual images or bomb-making instructions on the internet. They are sending text messages to eachother of a graphic or violent nature, and they show no respect to anyone over the age of 25.

Parents can change this if they want to, but it has to be done with a united front in every family the land over. The sad thing is, it isn't over. This is just the beginning, the starting block of a generation whose heads have been messed with more than we could have ever imagined.

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