Does Breivik has too many followers?

When Russia recovered from the shock of Dmitry Vinogradov's crime, who went on shooting spree and shot his six colleagues dead, many started thinking about the causes of the tragedy. Anyone can buy a gun and go to kill people. Not everyone, of course, but those who step over the line. Psychologists say that the number of such people has been growing.

If one listens to the stories of why Dmitry Vinogradov took a gun and shot his colleagues, a normal person can only say: "This is not a reason!" Indeed, a fight with a girl (who assures that she never considered Vinogradov her fiancée) is not the reason. Childhood experiences are not a reason either. Even if the man was mad at the whole world - this does not serve as the reason either.

Vinogradov was dubbed as the "Russian Breivik" not for the crime per se, but for his manifesto, which the man posted on his webpage a few hours before he went to kill.

"Breivik" says that he had been watching the human society for a long time, and he came to conclusion that people were evil. "Humanity is a cancerous tumor on the body of the planet," wrote Vinogradov and added that he hated everyone.

The comparison with the Norwegian terrorist is, of course, far-fetched and invented by journalists. First, Vinogradov's "manifesto" is two pages of printed text (against 1,500 pages by Anders Breivik). Secondly, the Norwegian shooter killed 77 people. In addition, Vinogradov can hardly be called a terrorist. After the crime committed by a quiet man, a lawyer of a pharmaceutical company, psychologists started talking about a whole phenomenon that emerged in the society.

According to psychologist Kirill Svetitsky, the whole story of the Russian Breivik means that the objectives of the society to which this society has to go, are so vague that no one knows what to do and how to achieve self-realization. This is what Vinogradov tried to do, who said that he wanted to show everyone how "cool" he was.

"There is no goal to do something for society, but most importantly - there are no social guidelines that would be supporting us. Before the revolution, everything was based on spirituality, then - on ideology, during the years of late communism, the society also wanted to go somewhere. Then there was nothing.  It is our fault, because we did not put any public goals for ourselves, we live for ourselves. Therefore, if there is a "Breivik", there are those who would follow him and do what he does. If there is Jack the Ripper, there will be his followers too," the psychologist said.

Are there people who are ready to do what Vinogradov did? After all, if you believe psychologists, the "Russian Breivik" has set the model for others to follow: you can go and do it, if nothing can be done. Psychologists say that the people who are ready to repeat Vinogradov's crime are plentiful. Another thing that Vinogradov has reached his limit, but others of his potential followers have not. It is clear that most people will never be able to reach the point of no return, but after the "Breivik" case, most likely, we will treat each other differently.

Vinogradov's biography says that he was a secluded person from his early childhood. He did not have many friends and was not at all like other people. The description matches many people.

According to a member of the European Association for Psychotherapy, Irina Obukhova, this is exactly the cause that may trigger the "witch hunt" in the society.

"The main thing now is not to have this witch hunt for people, who seem outwardly calm, not very sociable. They should not be viewed as potential killers or someone else. It is natural that we are social beings, and it is very hard for us to stay out of contact. If a person moves away from others, they start to feel uncomfortable with people. Anyway, this is a certain edge of a diagnosis. A human being can not feel nothing. If he or she suppresses feelings, a person saves it up inside until to a certain point when it all explodes," Irina Obukhova said.

It just so happens that everyone has their own "detonator." Vinogradov considered that breaking up with his girlfriend was a reason for mass murder. Someone else may think that careless drivers deserve to be killed. Everyone has their own reasons. The question is - what can stop us?

Anton Frolov

Pravda.Ru

Read the original in Russian