Is the ‘Friendship Recession’ Affecting Your Health? In this podcast (episode #564) and blog, I talk about the importance of friendships, and how they can impact our mental health.Friendships are a beautiful part of life that contribute so much value to our lives in so many wonderful ways. However, in recent years, researchers have noticed a decline in people’s social circles...

What Is the Abrahamic Covenant? The Abrahamic Covenant is really the beginnings of the formal revelation of the covenant of grace, of God's decision to reach into humanity and specifically save people for Himself. It comes in the form of a promise to Abraham. Abraham, who's the son of an idolater, who did not know God. God takes the initiative with him, calls him into a relationship...

Historically, dictators have been known for their cruelty, abuse of power, and willingness to kill anyone who gets in their way. But of all of historys worst dictators, there are a few who stand out as particularly vile. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler is likely the first who comes to mind, given that he and his genocidal regime organized the Holocaust, but Hitler is shockingly not responsible for the highest number of deaths in history. And while the exact death tolls from these authoritarian figures are unknown they didnt keep proper records of every single person they killed, after all the estimates tell a profoundly dark and disturbing story. So, if not Hitler, who was the deadliest dictator of all time?Mao Zedongs Devastating Great Leap ForwardPublic DomainMao Zedongs rule lasted nearly 30 years, during which millions of people died.Although his name comes up less often in conversations about the worlds most murderous leaders than Hitler or Stalin, Mao Zedongs dictatorship in China resulted in deadly policies and horrific crimes. And recent scholarship suggests that Mao Zedong was the deadliest dictator in history.According to historian Frank Diktter, who published Maos Great Famine: The Story of Chinas Most Devastating Catastrophe, 19581962 in 2010, at least 45 million people between 1958 and 1962 died due to Maos policies. Some have suggested that the real number could be as high as 80 million.As a Chinese communist leader and founder of the Peoples Republic of China, Mao Zedong ruled over the country from 1949 until he died in 1976. During this period, he implemented radical campaigns that led to catastrophic loss of human life. The most devastating of Maos policies was what he called the Great Leap Forward, an ambitious attempt to rapidly transform China from an agrarian society into an industrialized communist society, partly through the formation of peoples communes. This campaign led to the deadliest famine in human history, causing an estimated 30 million deaths (though some say the real number could be as high as 55 million). The famine was primarily caused by misguided agricultural policies that diverted valuable labor from farming to industrial projects like the widespread construction of backyard furnaces, resulting in food shortages. Even for a country that had experienced nearly 2,000 known famines throughout its history, this was a staggering level of devastation. Public DomainChinese government officials traveling to the countryside during the Great Leap Forward.As expert Judith Shapiro wrote in the book Maos War Against Nature, Maoism constructed a world that pitted humans against nature, and inculcated this world view among the people through repression, indoctrination, utopian promises and censorship.This war against nature involved unscientific agricultural experiments, widespread deforestation, and even trying to stop birds from eating grain. As one study examined, in addition to the millions of people that Maos regime killed, millions of sparrows were also killed which led to a noticeable increase in locust populations, which then ravaged crops. On top of this, Maos regime also implemented brutal political purges and repressive campaigns to intimidate, harm, and kill possible opponents. The Cultural Revolution, for example, was launched to help remove opposition and reconsolidate Maos power. During this time, his Red Guards targeted teachers, intellectuals, and perceived revisionists, subjecting them to public humiliation, torture, and execution. At one point, Mao reportedly boasted that while Chinas first emperor Qin Shi Huang had buried alive 460 scholars, his regime had buried alive 46,000 scholars. The death toll from Maos policies extended beyond famines and political purges. The Chinese labor camp system, similar to the Soviet gulag, imprisoned an estimated 50 million people from the 1950s through the 1980s, with about 20 million dying due to primitive conditions and forced labor.Public DomainMao Zedong, pictured with Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev.Despite the overwhelming evidence of his policy failures, Mao refused to acknowledge the famines severity. He had positioned himself as a demigod who could do no wrong admitting to making crucial mistakes would have been in direct conflict with this self-imposed image. When other highly influential Chinese political leaders spoke out against Mao, they often put their jobs, reputations, and lives at risk. As the Monthly Review noted in 2006, though, Maos deadly regime is a curious case, as far as dictators go. Mao, unlike other dictators, had not brazenly committed outright genocide against a specific group or groups of people, but his confident incompetence in his rush to mass modernize China ultimately led to millions upon millions of deaths. At the same time, the country did see some success in industrializing, life expectancy (ironically), and overall production. It just came at a tragic human cost. And after Maos death, his successor Deng Xiaoping publicly stated that he felt Mao was 70 percent right and 30 percent wrong on his policy positions though, privately, it seemed that Deng felt those numbers might have been flipped. Either way, the fact that so many people died as a result of Maos dictatorship is evidence enough of the horrors within his movement. Of course, there were also dictators who did target specific groups of people for murder and this alone makes their rule all the more horrifying. Joseph Stalins Great Purge, Gulag System, And Authoritarian PoliciesPublic DomainSoviet leader Joseph Stalin.There is some irony in Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong both ranking among historys deadliest dictators. Initially, Mao had viewed Stalin and the Soviet Union as the model for revolutionary success, with Mao using many of Stalins tactics, such as purges of perceived political enemies. However, as time went on, Mao began to resent Stalins condescending attitude toward him and the Chinese Revolution. And when Stalin was reluctant to fully support the Chinese Communists in their fight against the Chinese Nationalists, Mao never forgave the betrayal. Eventually, he criticized Stalin, acknowledging that Stalin had made serious mistakes. But he never fully denounced Stalins Great Purge. Photo 12/Alamy Stock PhotoThe aftermath of the Katyn massacre, where thousands of Polish prisoners were slaughtered by the Soviet NKVD.The Great Purge was the most intense phase of Stalins political repression. Launched after the assassination of party official Sergei Kirov which Stalin possibly orchestrated as a pretext the purge targeted virtually every segment of Soviet society. The Soviet secret police, known as the NKVD, arrested, tortured, and executed Stalins political rivals and critics, intellectuals, Old Bolsheviks, ethnic minorities, citizens accused of counter-revolutionary activities, and even senior military officials.Show trials forced prominent figures to confess to absurd charges before being executed. Notably, the executions of many experienced military leaders and other soldiers weakened the Red Army before World War II.Beyond political killings, Stalins policies also caused mass starvation. The Holodomor in Ukraine, a deliberately engineered famine, killed millions of people as grain was confiscated while starving peasants were prevented from leaving their villages or seeking out food elsewhere. Library of CongressA Soviet gulag.The gulag system imprisoned millions in brutal forced labor camps, where its been estimated that some 10 percent of prisoners died every year. Projects like the White Sea-Baltic Canal were built by prisoners who died by the thousands due to exhaustion, malnutrition, and exposure.The total death toll under Stalin is estimated to be between 6 million and 20 million people, though some scholars suggest even higher numbers.Adolf Hitler, The Nazi Regime, And The HolocaustTime Life Pictures/National Archives/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesAdolf Hitler, the leader of Nazi Germany and one of the deadliest dictators.Although in terms of numbers alone, Adolf Hitlers death toll was not the highest, it is still perhaps the most prominent and infamous example of mass murder perpetrated by a dictator. After becoming chancellor of Germany in January 1933, Hitler rapidly dismantled the countrys democratic institutions, banned all opposing political parties, and established a totalitarian state built on racial ideology, antisemitism, and absolute obedience to the Fhrer.The Holocaust, Nazi Germanys deliberate genocide of European Jews, was the regimes most infamous atrocity. Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis systematically murdered approximately 6 million Jews through mass shootings, gas chambers, starvation, and brutal treatment in extermination camps like Auschwitz, where an estimated 1.1 million victims were killed.United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via Wikimedia CommonsA famous image from the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during the Holocaust.The death toll under Hitler extended far beyond Jewish victims. The Nazis also murdered millions of non-Jewish civilians and prisoners of war. Other victims included over 3 million Soviet prisoners of war, nearly 2 million non-Jewish Poles, over 250,000 disabled people, hundreds or possibly thousands of gay men, Jehovahs Witnesses, and various political opponents.And despite the horrific nature of Hitlers crimes, which only fully came to light after his death and the defeat of Nazi Germany, this was sadly not the last time a mass genocide was carried out by a countrys leader.Pol Pot And The Cambodian GenocidePictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock PhotoPol Pot, one of historys deadliest dictators, pictured around 1978.Pol Pot, leader of the Khmer Rouge, orchestrated one of the most brutal genocides of the 20th century after seizing control of Cambodia in 1975. His radical communist regime sought to create an agrarian utopia by forcibly emptying cities and marching millions to the countryside to work as peasant laborers. This forced exodus, known as Year Zero, marked the beginning of a systematic campaign to eradicate all aspects of modern society.The genocide targeted multiple groups for extermination. Ethnic minorities faced particular brutality the Muslim Cham population was nearly annihilated, while Vietnamese and Chinese communities were also systematically eliminated. The Khmer Rouge also murdered professionals, intellectuals, and people thought to have too many foreign connections.SJOBERG/AFP/Getty ImagesA photo from the day that Cambodia fell under control of the Khmer Rouge forces in 1975.Even wearing glasses could put your life at risk.The regime established concentration camps and security centers, with Tuol Sleng becoming the most infamous interrogation facility, where an estimated 17,000 to 20,000 people were tortured and executed. Starvation, disease, and forced labor killed many more in the agricultural communes.Roland Neveu/LightRocket via Getty ImagesA woman crying over the body of her dead husband, who was murdered by the Khmer Rouge.From 1975 to 1979, an estimated 2 million people nearly a quarter of the countrys population died under Pol Pots regime. The genocide ended only when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge, and leading to the revelation of the full extent of the atrocities to the world. Pol Pot died, reportedly from heart failure, in 1998, without ever facing justice for his crimes against humanity in Cambodia.And unfortunately, that is often the case with dictators. The regimes fall, the surviving people are eventually liberated, memorials are erected to honor the murdered victims, but the men who orchestrated the mass suffering of millions of people often either die while in power, or at least in relative safety, or take their own lives to escape accountability. Its a stark reminder that sometimes, the law only applies to those who are too powerless to oppose it. After reading about historys deadliest dictators, go inside the tragic true stories of the nine deadliest days in American history. Then, discover the deadliest Mafia hitmen in history and the gruesome stories behind them.The post The Gulag, The Holocaust, And The Great Leap Forward: Inside The Stories Of Historys Deadliest Dictators appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Wikimedia CommonsA votive plaque showing elements of the Eleusinian Mysteries that dates to the mid-4th century B.C.E.Twice a year in the ancient Mediterranean, untold numbers of people descended on the small town of Eleusis, Greece to participate in a secret series of rituals known as the the Eleusinian Mysteries. Famous Greeks and Romans, from Plato to Augustus, participated in these rituals, which involved bathing, fasting, and drinking an elixir which scientists have long suspected was laced with the ergot fungus to create psychedelic hallucinations.But there was one problem with this theory: The ergot fungus is highly toxic and can cause debilitating symptoms, even death. Researchers thus wondered if the ancient Greeks had the ability to neutralize the fungus, eliminating its toxic proteins while retaining its hallucinogenic properties.A new study, however, has proven that methods known during antiquity such as combining water and ash to make lye could indeed neutralize the toxins in ergot, suggesting that ancient Greek priestesses would have been capable of using it to brew a psychedelic elixir during the Eleusinian Mysteries.How Ancient Greek Priestesses Could Have Brewed A Psychedelic Elixir Using ErgotAccording to a new study from Scientific Reports, researchers set out to revisit a hypothesis first raised in the 1970s. This theory says that the Eleusinian Mysteries which were practiced between 1600 B.C.E. and 392 C.E., and honored the story of Demeter and Persephone could have involved hallucinogenic substances made from the ergot fungus. Indeed, traces of ergot have been found in a ceremonial vase at an Eleusinian site in Spain, as well as in the dental plaque of someone buried there.The problem with this theory about the Eleusinian Mysteries has long been the nature of the fungus itself, which is highly toxic and capable of killing those who consume it. Thus, the question is whether or not ancient people possessed the knowledge to neutralize the toxic attributes of the fungus, thus making it safe to consume. To explore this question, researchers set out to neutralize the fungus using only methods available in antiquity.Evangelos Dadiotis and Romanos AntonopoulosResearchers attempted to neutralize the ergot fungus by using only methods available in the ancient world.Their experiment was a success. By using a combination of water and wood ash, the researchers were able to produce an alkaline solution that broke down the toxic properties of the ergot fungus but maintained the hallucinogenic ones. These latter effects are due to the chemical lysergic acid amide (LSA), which is similar to the drug LSD and can be a precursor to it.The researchers method, as they recently wrote, could have been readily applied by the priestesses of Eleusis, who would have been well-aware of the method of combining water and ash to produce a simple lye.But aside from the consumption of ergot, perhaps, what exactly happened during the Eleusinian Mysteries themselves, the ancient rituals attended by everyone from Roman emperors to Greek philosophers?Inside The Ancient Greek Secrets Of The Eleusinian MysteriesWikimedia CommonsA stone relief from the first century B.C.E. showing an initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries.The Eleusinian Mysteries took place in Eleusis, Greece, just north of Athens. They celebrated the story of Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades and brought to the Underworld.According to ancient Greek myth, Demeters grief over the loss of her daughter made the world barren, so Zeus persuaded Hades to return Persephone to her mother for part of the year. The myth thus explained the changing of the seasons. But for participants in the Eleusinian Mysteries, this story also represented overcoming the fear of death.These rituals began in ancient Greece around 1600 B.C.E. and took place twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. They reenacted Demeters search for Persephone, by walking from Athens to Eleusis along an important road known as the Sacred Way.The rituals themselves would then involve ceremonial bathing in the sea, animal sacrifices, and the consumption of an elixir called kykeon, which was made of barley and flavored with herbs. Kykeon, researchers now believe, was also treated with the ergot fungus, which caused participants to hallucinate.Participants were said to emerge from the Eleusinian Mysteries with a newfound fearlessness about death which, given the very lethal properties of the ergot fungus they consumed, was perhaps well earned.After reading about the psychedelic elixir that ancient priestesses may have used during the Eleusinian Mysteries, discover the story of the Gorgons from Greek myth, the fearsome monsters who had snakes for hair and could turn men to stone. Then, learn about Ganymede, the handsome Trojan prince of Greek myth who was kidnapped by Zeus to be the gods cupbearer, and who has since become a queer symbol.The post Ancient Greeces Most Secretive Cult May Have Used A Psychedelic Hallucinogen For Its Rituals appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Wikimedia CommonsThe last lifeboat to leave the doomed ship carries Titanic survivors to safety.Of the estimated 2,224 passengers and crew aboard the Titanic when it struck an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, some 1,500 died in the cold waters of the North Atlantic. A mere 700 people lived on. These are some of the most powerful stories of the Titanic survivors:Titanic Survivors: The Navratil OrphansWikimedia CommonsThe Navratil boys, Michel and Edmond. April 1912.A dramatic divorce and scandal brought the young Michel and Edmond Navratil to the bow of the Titanic in 1912.They were accompanied on the voyage by their father, Michel Navratil Sr., who was still smarting from his recent separation from their mother, Marcelle Caretto. Marcelle had won custody of the children, but she had allowed them to visit Michel over the Easter holiday. Michel, believing that his wifes infidelity made her an unsuitable guardian, decided to use that weekend to relocate with his children to the United States.He bought second-class tickets on the Titanic and boarded the doomed ship, introducing himself to fellow passengers as the widower Louis M. Hoffman, a man traveling with his sons, Lolo and Momon.On the night the Titanic struck the iceberg, Navratil was able to get the boys aboard a lifeboat the very last lifeboat to leave the ship.Michel Jr., though only three at the time, remembered that just before placing him in the boat, his father gave him a final message:My child, when your mother comes for you, as she surely will, tell her that I loved her dearly and still do. Tell her I expected her to follow us, so that we might all live happily together in the peace and freedom of the New World.Wikimedia CommonsThe Navratil brothers, still unidentified, in New York after the sinking of the Titanic. April 1912.Those were Michel Navratils last words. Though he died in the disaster, his sons survived. They spoke no English and might have been in serious trouble in New York, but a friendly French-speaking woman who also survived took them in and cared for them.The publicity surrounding the Titanics sinking was what saved them: their photographs appeared in newspapers around the world. Their mother, home in France with no idea where her sons had disappeared to, spotted their photo in the morning paper.On May 16, more than a month after the ship sank, she reunited with her boys in New York, and all three returned to France.Michel Jr. would later recall the splendor of the Titanic and the childish sense of adventure he felt while getting into the lifeboat. Only when he grew older did he realize what had been at stake that night and how many had been left behind.The post 12 Titanic Survivors Whose Stories Reveal The Tragedys True Scope appeared first on All That's Interesting.

When Columbine High School seniors Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris murdered 12 students, one teacher, and ultimately themselves in an April 20, 1999 shooting in Littleton, Colorado, the media initially described them as victims of bullying and outcasts thirsty for revenge.They were allegedly members of a goth subculture known as the Trench Coat Mafia that fueled their hatred for mainstream society.Jefferson County Sheriffs OfficeThe media painted Columbine shooters Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as bullied members of an outcast group known as the Trench Coat Mafia, but it wasnt true.But this narrative has since been proven false.Most of the initial reporting was wrong, explained Dave Cullen, a journalist who spent a decade researching the school shooting and chronicled its aftermath. We were so anxious to answer that burning question for you that we jumped to conclusions on tiny fragments of evidence in the first days, even hours.At the time, the Columbine High School massacre was the deadliest school shooting in the history of the United States. It changed everything from how the adults in the nation thought of their children to how first responders approached similar such high-risk crises and how parents thought about violence in the media.As such, there was a scramble on behalf of the public and media alike to make sense of the seemingly senseless killing. But those media reports were wrought with contention and misunderstanding, and consequently, a large portion of the immediate coverage on the massacre was actually inaccurate, including the narrative of the Trench Coat Mafia.Wikimedia CommonsEric Harris and Dylan Klebold in the Columbine cafeteria during the shooting on April 20, 1999.But the colorful myths and erroneous details in the supposed story of the shooting since the initial coverage are now firmly in place. And as school shootings spike nationwide to unprecedented levels, its time to root out the truth behind the motives of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris.Indeed, Understanding what happened can help us try to prevent these things from happening again in the future, Kirsten Kreiling, president of the Columbine Memorial Foundation said. If you dont understand history, you are doomed to repeat it.The Mythic Trench Coat MafiaIn the aftermath of the Columbine shooting, Harris and Klebold were presented by the media not only as members of the Trench Coat Mafia but as victims of bullying by the more popular members of their high school. This was supposedly the reason why they responded with such violence. But in reality, Harris and Klebold were not victims. They werent out for revenge against jock bullies or an entire school that had ostracized them.Through extensive communication with the local Jefferson County Sheriffs office, the FBI, and students alike, Cullen revealed that the two shooters were actually socially accepted teenagers who werent bullied but they certainly werent normal teenagers either.Columbine.WikiaDylan Klebold (left) and Eric Harris. Circa 1998-1999.It was claimed that Harris and Klebold were members of the Trench Coat Mafia, a school group initially reported by the media to perpetuate violence and described as a sick Goth subculture. It was said that the Trench Coat Mafia admired guns, Nazis, the military, and shock rock singer Marilyn Manson.But the Trench Coat Mafia was really a school community of harmless computer gamers who wore black trench coats.Moreover, Cullens conversations with students and an analysis of police documents uncovered that Harris and Klebold were not, in fact, a part of the Trench Coat Mafia. They did not appear in any of the groups annual photos and members of the actual Trench Coat Mafia graduated years before Klebold and Harris.Both Harris and Klebold had their own circle of friends, with the latter even attending the school prom with a date on his arm in a limousine filled with a dozen classmates days before the shooting. Klebold also assisted in student theatrical productions and was a computer assistant.Harris was described by his parents as athletic and he too enjoyed computer programming. He was a member of a video production group with the schools Rebel News Network and worked in the schools computer labs as well, but wasnt a member of the Trench Coat Mafia. His parents said he was content to be alone, but was by no means a loner and did have his own group of friends.I dont believe bullying caused Columbine, said Jeff Kass, who reported on the event for Rocky Mountain News. My reason for that is they never mentioned it in their diaries.Kass eventually penned his own tome on the subject Columbine: A True Crime Story and like Cullen, detailed the duos personal lives, which each strongly indicated potentially dangerous and suspicious activity long before April 20, 1999. None of this chilling foreshadowing had anything to do with the Trench Coat Mafia.Ignored Warning Signs About Eric Harris And Dylan Klebold Before The Columbine ShootingDespite being accepted members of their community, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were far from normal in terms of their attitudes towards violence and society.Cullen found that Harris had thoroughly voiced his bleak perspective on modern society on numerous occasions before the massacre. Harris allegedly found joy in manipulating people, lying to them, and expressed little to no empathy regarding their troubles.God I cant wait till they die. I can taste the blood nowYou know what I hate?MANKIND!!!kill everything, Harris wrote in his notebook.As for Harris partner, Cullen wrote, Klebold is easier to comprehend, a more familiar type. He was hotheaded but depressive and suicidal. He blamed himself for his problems.A picture of a calculated killer, Harris, and a troubled young man, Klebold, appeared to be the more likely profile of the shooters to Cullen than victims-turned-aggressors.Kass also got a hold of Klebolds college application essay through a Freedom of Information Act request and found that the young killer was somewhat self-aware and made active attempts to make sense of himself and his life. Klebold acknowledged in the essay that he had made mistakes and had become part of a bad crowd during his sophomore and junior years. But that he completed a college application at all strongly indicated to Kass that Klebold at least considered living out a future.Nonetheless, both Harris and Klebold gave their parents and local authorities a hefty supply of warning signs which went largely ignored and unreported.In 1998, Harris and Klebold were arrested for breaking into a Jefferson County vehicle and placed into a juvenile diversion program by authorities. Meanwhile, Klebold recorded depressing and alarming notes in a personal day planner. He wrote unrequited love letters, and described feeling alone and wanting to die. In November 1997, Klebold wrote that he wanted someone to buy him a gun so that he could kill himself with it.Harris And Klebold Prepare For Bloodshed, Taking No Cues From The Trench Coat MafiaPhoto by Rick Maiman/Sygma via Getty ImagesEric Harris in the Columbine yearbook. 1998-1999.Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were busy making pipe bombs and quietly amassing a sizable arsenal of weapons which Harris recorded on his personal website. In 1998, junior Brooks Brown discovered his name on that very website and that Harris had threatened to murder him.When I first saw the Web pages, I was utterly blown away, said Brown. Hes not saying that hes gonna beat me up, hes saying he wants to blow me up and hes talking about how hes making the pipe bombs to do it with.When parents Randy and Judy Brown visited the Jefferson County Sheriffs Office to alert them of this, they were told Harris already had a well-documented criminal file. Both Harris and Klebold were still on probation at this time for having broken into a car and for theft.Jefferson County Sheriffs Department via Getty ImagesEric Harris practices firing a weapon at a makeshift shooting range. March 6, 1999.I was utterly dumbfounded that they did nothing with the Web pages, said Brooks Brown. Eric was saying how he was gonna blow people up. Hey, Im making pipe bombs. Ive got the designs for them on my Web site. Im gonna kill these people. Heres why. Thats a level beyond making a joke.A document obtained by CBS confirmed that investigators met with Mrs. Judy Brown and subsequently tried to get a warrant to search Harris home but they failed to do so. Oddly, a sheriffs deputy reportedly found a pipe bombconsistent with the devices Harris described on his website without having searched the young killers home.Fellow Columbine student Nate Dykeman said that Harris and Klebold had shown off their weapons and bragged about them months before the shooting. Meanwhile, Devon Adams, a sophomore in 1998, also found herself mentioned on Harris website as an intended target.Klebold even handed in an assignment that was so violent that his teacher later called it the most vicious story shed ever read.The man unloaded one of the pistols across the fronts of four innocentsThestreetlights caused a visible reflection off of the droplets of bloodI understood his actions.Excerpt from Dylan Klebold's assignment.By then, Klebold and Harris had added two sawed-off shotguns, a semiautomatic pistol, and a rifle to their stockpile.Whats more, Joe Schallmoser and Howard Cornell, who were in charge of drafting a new set of security guidelines for the district following the shootings at Paducah, Kentucky and Jonesboro, Arkansas, reported that Columbine High school rejected implementing the safeguards just eight months before the attack.Jefferson County Sheriffs Department via Getty ImagesEric Harris (left) and Dylan Klebold examine a sawed-off shotgun at a makeshift shooting range. March 6, 1999.The guidelines wouldve required that the school notify parents and law enforcement about a threat by any student to commit any act of violence. Even though Columbine said theyd already discovered a potential threat Harris they added they didnt need any assistance and thus did not take preemptive action against the future killer.Why The Destruction At Columbine Was Supposed To Be Even More Far-ReachingOne of the more universally held beliefs since the shooting was that Harris and Klebold managed to successfully accomplish everything they set out to do that day.However, this is at least halfway incorrect, as the pairs primary intention was to set off bombs that would earn them comparisons to Timothy McVeigh and the destruction he wrought during the Oklahoma City bombing a few years prior.Craig F. Walker/The Denver Post via Getty ImagesEvidence, including the propane bombs, presented to the public five years after the Columbine shooting. Feb. 26, 2004.Investigators eventually uncovered that fact after they read the journals left behind by Harris and Klebold. The statements found therein, of course, explained the two failed 20-pound propane bombs the pair carried into the cafeteria that morning.The original plan was for the explosions to wreak havoc while Harris and Klebold waited near their cars in the parking lot to pick off anyone and everyone frantically exiting the building. The plan was to kill hundreds, with two massive homemade bombs putting things into motion but their strategy failed, and the bombs didnt go off.Jefferson County Sheriffs Office/Getty ImagesThe west entryway to Columbine, with flags marking points where bullet casings were found. April 20, 1999.According to chief of investigations for the Jefferson County Sheriffs Department, John Kiekbusch, the propane bombs failed because of their shoddy wiring, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. Only then, while waiting outside in frustration for the bombs to go off, did the two shooters re-enter the school and begin their massacre before taking their own lives shortly after 12 p.m.During their shooting spree, the pair even tried to set the cafeteria bombs off by firing at them but to no avail. It was shortly after that, when the SWAT team finally entered the building, that they killed themselves.How The Columbine Massacre Caught Officials Off GuardMost of the immediate coverage surrounding the shooting suggested that Harris and Klebold had taken the school hostage and made it difficult for the police to intervene.In reality, it was simply a scenario that Jefferson County Police or most of the country, for that matter had never encountered. Columbine was the first major hostage standoff of the cellphone age, wrote Cullen, who added that police had never seen anything like it.According to Cullen, though Columbine was never a hostage situation, the police approached the situation that way. He described how the police had set up a perimeter, made sure that the gunmen didnt escape and were waiting for their demands, essentially. And at one point also going into the building, about an hour into it, the first SWAT team went in.Steve Liss/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesFBI domestic terrorism squad agent Rich Price working on the Columbine case, with a chart of the cafeteria behind him.The authorities had taken a defensive stance as opposed to an aggressive one which is utilized today and as such, mishandled the entire situation at Columbine. The notion that Harris and Klebold barricaded themselves inside, held students hostage and wouldve probably made demands had things not gone off the rails was a major misinterpretation of the scenario.Why Mental Health Struggles, Not The Trench Coat Mafia, Were To BlameDavid Butow/Corbis via Getty ImagesStudents gather at a memorial for the victims. May 1999.Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold werent social outcasts who were desperate to extoll vengeance on those who wronged them. Far more likely are the well-founded theories that the two teenagers were psychotic and clinically depressed, respectively. They werent outcast members of an angry group called the Trench Coat Mafia, but actually a calculating killer and troubled young man.Perhaps the plain answer millions long for even decades after the Columbine High School massacre as to why the two boys committed the atrocious acts of violence they did has nothing to do with any Trench Coat Mafia and is instead likely best explained by one straightforward statement: They were mentally unwell.Oddballs are not the problem. They do not fit the profile. There is no profile. All the recent school shooters shared exactly one trait: 100 percent male. Aside from personal experience, no other characteristic hit 50 percent, not even close, Cullen wrote.Parents across the nation were desperate to make any semblance of sense of the tragedy and were eager to pin the terrifying behavior on an unorthodox subculture that the Trench Coat Mafia came to represent. No one wanted to believe that their children died for no reason and everyone wanted to believe that acts like this dont come from just anyone, but a special kind of person, like a Trench Coat Mafia kind of person.Harris and Klebold planned for a year and dreamed much bigger, said Cullen. The school served as means to a grander end, to terrorize the entire nation by attacking a symbol of American life. Their slaughter was aimed at students and teachers, but it was not motivated by resentment of them in particular.The path toward violence is an evolutionary one, Cullen also wrote, with signposts along the way.After this look at the Trench Coat Mafia and other myths from the Columbine school shooting, read the stories of two of the massacres victims, Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall.The post What Was The Trench Coat Mafia? Inside The Infamous Myth That Defined Columbine appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Greetings, farmer! I hear youve earned the title of available on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S! You will soon be able to experience Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar not just on Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, taking the best and most recent entry in the series to new horizons. Marvelous Inc. broke the news with a new trailer for the upcoming release.

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