Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?

It is sad to think that the first few
People on earth needed no books, movies
Games or music to inspire
Cold-blooded murder the 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? The
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

A lot of people forget or never realize that
I started my band as a criticism of
These very issues of despair
And hypocrisy the name
Marilyn Manson has never celebrated the sad
Fact that America puts killers on
The cover of Time magazine
Giving them as much notoriety as
Our favorite movie stars from Jesse James to
Charles Manson, the media
Since their inception
Have turned criminals into folk heroes they
Just created two new ones
When they plastered those dip-shit's Dylan
Klebold and Eric Harris'
Pictures on the front of every
Newspaper don't be surprised if
Every kid who gets pushed around
Has two new idols

We applaud the creation of a bomb whose sole
Purpose is to destroy all of mankind
And we grow up watching
Our president's brains
Splattered all over Texas times have not
Become more violent they have
Just become more
Televised does anyone think the Civil
War was the least bit civil?
If television had existed, you could
Be sure they would have been
There to cover it
Or maybe even participate in it
Like their violent car chase
Of Princess Di disgusting vultures looking
For corpses, exploiting, fucking
Filming and serving it up
For our hungry appetites
In a gluttonous display of
Endless human stupidity

When it comes down to who's to blame for
The high school murders
In Littleton, Colorado
Throw a rock and you'll hit someone who's
Guilty we're the people who sit back
And tolerate children owning guns
And we're the ones who tune
In and watch the up-to-the-minute
Details of what they do with them i
Think it's terrible when anyone dies
Especially
If it is someone you know and love but what
Is more offensive is that
When these tragedies happen
Most people don't really care any more
Than they Would about the
Season finale of Friends or The Real World
I was dumbfounded as I watched the
Media snake right in, not missing a teardrop
Interviewing the parents of dead children
Televising the funerals then came
The witch hunt

Man's greatest fear is chaos it
Was unthinkable that these
Kids did not have a
Simple black-and-white reason
For their actions and so
A scapegoat was needed
I remember hearing the initial
Reports from Littleton
That Harris and Klebold were wearing makeup
And were dressed like Marilyn Manson
Whom they obviously must
Worship, since they were dressed
In black of course, speculation snowballed
Into making me the poster boy
For everything that is bad
In the world these two
Idiots weren't wearing makeup
And they weren't dressed like me or
Like goths since Middle America
Has not heard of the music they did listen to
(KMFDM and Rammstein, among others)
The media picked something they
Thought was similar

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?

America loves to find an icon to
Hang it's guilt on but, admittedly, i
Have assumed the role of Antichrist I
Am the Nineties voice of individuality
And people tend to associate anyone who looks
And behaves differently with illegal or
Immoral activity deep down
Most adults hate people who
Go against the grain
It's comical that people are naive enough to
Have forgotten Elvis
Jim Morrison and Ozzy so quickly all
Of them were subjected to
The same age-old arguments
Scrutiny and prejudice i wrote a song
Called "Lunchbox
" and some journalists have interpreted
It as a song about guns ironically
The song is about being picked
On and fighting back with my Kiss lunch box
Which I
Used as a weapon on the playground in 1979
Metal lunch boxes were banned because they
Were considered dangerous
Weapons in the hands of
Delinquents i also wrote a song
Called "Get Your Gunn"
The title is spelled with two
N's because the song was
A reaction to the murder of Dr david Gunn
Who was killed in Florida
By pro-life activists
While I was living there that was
The ultimate hypocrisy I
Witnessed growing up:
That these people killed someone in
The name of being "prolife"
The somewhat positive
Messages of these songs are usually
The ones that sensationalists
Misinterpret as promoting
The very things I am decrying

Right now
Everyone is thinking of how they can
Prevent things like Littleton how do
You prevent AIDS, world war, depression
Car crashes? We live in a free country
But with that freedom there is
A burden of personal
Responsibility rather than teaching a
Child what is
Moral and immoral, right and wrong
We first and foremost can
Establish what the laws that govern
Us are you can
Always escape hell by not believing in it
But you cannot escape death and
You cannot escape prison

It is no wonder that kids are growing up
More cynical they have a lot of
Information in front of them they can see
That they are living in a world
That's made of bullshit in the past
There was always the idea that you could turn
And run and start something better but now
America has become one big mall
And because of the Internet and
All of the technology we have
There's nowhere to run people are the same
Everywhere sometimes music
Movies and books are the only things that let
Us feel like someone else feels like
We do i've always tried to let
People know it's OK, or better
If you don't fit
Into the program use your imagination – if
Some geek from Ohio can become something
Why can't anyone else with
The willpower and creativity?

I chose not to jump into the
Media frenzy and defend myself
Though I was begged to be on
Every single TV show in
Existence i didn't want to contribute
To these fameseeking journalists
And opportunists looking to fill
Their churches or to
Get elected because of their
Self-righteous finger-pointing they
Want to blame entertainment? Isn't
Religion the first
Real entertainment? People dress
Up in costumes
Sing songs and dedicate themselves in eternal
Fandom everyone will agree that
Nothing was more entertaining than Clinton
Shooting off his prick
And then his bombs in true
Political form and the news
– that's obvious so is entertainment
To blame? I'd like
Media commentators to ask themselves
Because their coverage of the
Event was some of
The most gruesome entertainment any
Of us have seen i think that the National
Rifle Association is far too
Powerful to take on, so
Most people choose Doom
The Basketball Diaries or yours truly this
Kind of controversy does not
Help me sell records or tickets
And I wouldn't
Want it to i'm a controversial artist
One who dares to have an
Opinion and bothers to create
Music and videos that challenge
People's ideas in
A world that is watered down
And hollow in my work I examine
The America we live in
And I've always tried to show people
That the devil we blame our
Atrocities on is really just each one
Of us so don't expect
The end of the world to come
One day out of the
Blue – it's been happening every
Day for a long time