The reason I ask this is because last night as I was watching 'a very special episode' of One Tree Hill, I got pissed off by the shit some of the characters were saying. This 'very special episode' revolved around the character of ... damn I can't even remember his name ... which I guess is the point, because it's this guy who used to be friends with the leads, but then they all drifted apart. They to the top tier of high school hierarchy and he ... well he stayed behind. He got picked on, he got ignored and he got mad, which culminated last night with him taking a gun to school, having decided to teach everyone a lesson for ignoring him.
Now to my questions of responsibility for our friends and towards society. All this guy's old friends were last night feeling bad because he'd done this ... all taking part of the blame unto themselves. Even in the previous episode when this character popped up for the first time since the first few episodes of the first season, he was bitchy and angry that his friends had moved on without him and hadn't stayed friends with him. They all felt bad and vowed to do better ... meaning when some bullies pounced on him in last episode they jumped in to defend him ... something he wasn't even grateful for.
To which I say BULLSHIT! All this shit about how they're bad friends because they moved up the social ladder and left him behind. Bullshit. One of the very friends that moved up the social ladder was every much a social misfit as he was, but yet he moved up and got popular simply by being the nice guy he was ... not because he'd suddenly turned gorgeous or studly or cool. No. Dear sweet Mouth stayed the same and people got to know him and loved him for being who he was. But this guy thinks he can complain about being forgotten? Like one character rightly pointed out ... friendships work both ways. Just as they may have stopped reaching out to him, he stopped reaching out to them.
He stepped back because he was shy of their new limelight and he chose to stay behind. Everyone else moved forward with their lives, except him. The friends he accused of leaving him behind aren't jerks. They are nice people. Not the sort of people to dump their friends because they suddenly got popular, almost as a complete group they all moved up the social ladder. He neither contacted them, or tried to be with them. Yet suddenly they're to be blamed for the breakdown of their friendship? Bullshit!
I call bullshit also on a reporter who was a complete idiot. One of the leads, Brooke, my favorite character, saw a reporter accessing some exploitive video about the guy with the gun online and she told the female reporter that she should be ashamed of herself. But then later, the woman approaches Brooke and asked her if she knew the shooter ... if she'd been friends with him and Brooke honestly, said no. And the stupid fucking reporter had the audacity to tell Brooke that she should be ashamed of herself, because her answer apparently proved what the shooter was saying in his video, that he was a nobody with no friends and no one cared. That Brooke was part of the problem because she hadn't been friends with him either.
Bull fucking shit. Let me tell you something Ms Asshole reporter. It's not Brooke's fault that this guy didn't like his life and decided that attempted murder and then suicide was the best way to handle things. She goes to school with hundreds of other students every day. Is she supposed to get to know every one of them and make nice just in case one day one of them turns insane and starts shooting people? Just so she could feel better about herself saying well I was friends with him. What a load of ass.
It sickens me, absolutely sickens me, when people try to make others feel responsible for the actions of others because they didn't know them. I went to school with thousands of people over the years ... am I responsible for all their actions because I didn't befriend them all?
Look ... high school is hard enough without having to go through it with the added pressure of having to be the best, nicest, most generous, most friendly person in the world. Trying to make everyone happy, just so you can feel better about being a 'good person.' It is not the fault of the popular kids that they are popular and others are not. It is not the fault of random individuals, that other people get picked on and teased.
So I fucking resent the writer's idea that Brooke was in anyway responsible for that guy's actions or that she should feel badly because she didn't know him and wasn't friends with him. Fuck you writers, trying to pass the buck. Yes we get that the pain and loneliness that the shooter felt was horrible and it's unfortunate that he felt he had to take such drastic measures to make himself visible. But let's not forget that millions, of kids feel this same way every day, throughout their high school years and beyond ... but not all of them deal with this feeling of inadequacy, loneliness and 'invisibility' with a gun or bomb.
Many of them seek alternatives. They get help, or focus their energy on a hobby or art. They do not take guns to school believing that it will solve their problems. And just as actual shootings are random acts or desperation or unbelievable anger, so too is the affect of other students on said acts. So trying to make Brooke responsible? That is irresponsible. Not everyone can be saved ... not everyone will want to be saved, because their anger stems from a hell of a lot more than just being unpopular at school.
It's not enough to just blame one's school life. At the end of the school day you go home and hopefully to a home where you have a life other than school. The kid admitted that he was a disappointment to his father, his mother who appeared in the episode seemed to be somewhat ... lacking in the skills necessary to give him a much needed boost in self esteem. So I don't understand why the writers felt the need to make his problems all about his friends or lack there of at school. Putting that sort of responsibility on a bunch of teenagers, who are all struggling in their own ways to deal with their own lives ... complete bullshit.
So take some fucking responsibility for your actions writers. Stop trying to pass the buck ... if you're going to do a 'very special episode' try doing more than skimming the surface and tossing easy blame around. Because that's just bullshit.
"Am I my brother's keeper?"