Finland’s tragedy :-(

It was with such sadness that I listened to the tragedy that happened in Finland (Tuusula) yesterday on this mornings radio. It was in Swedish, and I honestly thought I must have misunderstood! It has arrived here too in the Nordic, school pupils coming to school one day and shooting other pupils and teachers. Finland that has the best education record in Europe -I believe?

I am a great advocate of the Internet and the opportunities it gives each one of us to excel and communicate as we like. Web 2.0 encapsulates democracy and freedom of speech. It enables us to find communities within which we can feel a part of even if we feel alone in our physical lives. However, it also gives the capacity to normalise what are in fact non-normal tendencies and activities -paedophilia being one, and violence another- it gives us a sense of purpose and belonging maybe in an otherwise non purposeful existence, and perhaps also feeds our super-ego. Pekka-Eric Auvinen that murdered these children and the principal posted his intent on YouTube upto 2 weeks before. It was premeditated and I would expect the posting gave him the motivation to carry through his promise; seeing it there, watching it over and over again, knowing that others were doing the same. I could speculate that he was active in Nazi online communities over a period of time. This is very sad, I never thought I would hear this type of thing happening in Finland.

I am trying to think of other similar tragedies that have happened elsewhere. I know there have been several in the US. Was there also an incident in the UK? I wonder what are the similarities between them? How many have posted online beforehand? How many have been active in online communities?