Youth violence and the apocalyptic

This paper is a discussion of the apocalyptic themes in contemporary forms of youth violence, especially its totalism and end-of-the-world imagery. At Columbine High, in April 1999, two students chose the apocalyptic date of April 20, Hitler's birthday, to carry out their rampage. That violence connects with a long history of American fascination with the gun, and images of regeneration through violence itself grows out of an urban landscape of despair. The apocalyptic, however, is not simply the result of social crisis. We live with imagery of extinction and cannot fully trust a human future. The apocalyptic, in other words, itself evokes youth violence. These intersecting themes are illustrated with the case of Cliff.