This is a pointless ask but it’s unfortunate that Vlad’s isolation lead him down such a path. I mean, he even killed his own teacher. Sometimes I find it hard to believe Vlad was full of hatred. I think he was more depressed, and didn’t see a point in living anymore. Just me ?
Not just you bud. I think similarly as well. Thank you for bringing this up because I've been meaning to talk about it
I've read from an article, sadly I've lost it but I'll try to look for it soon again — the main person Vlad targeted was the college principal. It could also be viewed in the cctv that he tried to find her in her office, but she left a few minutes prior the attack. Numerous news articles have also mentioned how he occasionally expressed his contempt in school being born out of how his classmates would "make fun" of him for being "different and not like the rest". As well as how he did not like how rude the professors were.
With the teachers, I can see where he's coming from because teens will say anything when they hate the educational system. His schoolmates have expressed their cluelessness about it — how would they know, when many teens also say the same stuff about shooting up their school because they hate the place? It's concerning, yet sadly true. The educational system is neglectful, so I can see why the students don't like being there. However, his reaction to it was disproportionate. In his own words, "But it’s BAD to KILL people. I just expressed my subjective opinion and I don’t call for killing." While it is alright to have a subjective and hypothetical opinon, killing should never be an option and he did just that.
With his classmates on the other hand, however it may be true that he felt "bullied", I think that he saw the times they laughed at him as a mockery of his insecurities rather than just seeing it as pointless fun. Teenagers are cruel, but I think what really ticked him off was because he was not "like them" in a sense that they had goals, aspirations, and they saw a future. He didn't have that in himself, nor did he believe in his own capabilities of achieving it.
He didn't make any friends nor did he want to in the first place the whole time he was at college. I believe that he developed a coping mechanism of pushing others away because people had what he didn't and it made him feel bad for himself. He was in an active form of isolation and perhaps his plan was truly a solidification of his willingness to die. I don't think he perpetrated the shooting solely because of revenge but moreso to corner himself into being killed, because then again, what good would happen when he's done with the shooting? He's dead once he picked up his gun and started.
Maybe that was the sense of purpose he could look forward to, destruction. It's disturbing, it's disappointing, it's upsetting. It's human. It's human to want others to finally see just how pained and distributed you are after trying to communicate for years and still be shunned. From what I've been reading and posting, he had been communicating the warning signs all along, though very subtly: he isolated himself by being withdrawn with everyone and would be dismissive once someone he's close to (like his family) would ask, he didn't like the idea of having friends, he talked about violence and revenge so openly, and even had sadistic tendacies when he was a child yet his psychiatrist dismissed it.
Lastly, he even mentioned to one of his friends, Rostik, that everything ends after death. He believes that nothing else happens on the other side. He has this delusional idealized version of death, considering it to be something "beautiful". I think he wanted death so much because he was clinging unto that hope for peace.
I truly believe a person primarily craves death because of their attachment to a hope of permanent relief. An end from all the pain and suffering in this world.
