In the wake of so many recent public shootings I find myself wondering if my kid is going to snap one day and go on a killing spree. I have 3 kids, all boys, and each has very different behaviors. None seem to be outwardly murderous, but neither did Dahmer. In fact, I’ve been studying Derf Backderf’s graphic novel on Dahmer and thinking about what signs I myself could be missing as early as age 8.
It is natural to want to blame the parents, especially in situations where the killer takes his own life. We need to push guilt upon the living as a form of catharsis. I do not aim to be that guilt sponge in any way. Moreover, the idea of actually being responsible for the making of a monster troubles me greatly. We are supposed to leave the world better than we found it. Making killers does not, IMHO, meet that goal. On the other hand the media glorifies these killers from Dexter on down. I remember a movie called 15 minutes where killers went on a spree and recorded the whole thing. Chronicle was, in its own way, about the social networking of bad behaviors.
All of these real world realities add up to two things. 1) We live in a society where becoming a serial killer is now another way that kids used to negative attention can reasonably get attention. 2) 10 minutes is up.