Transcript:
Woohoo, I’ll never have to take a final again! feels good to be free. I just love Hobbes and Nietzche. Well tomorrow I’ll be ordering 9 more 10 round clips for my carbine. I’m gonna be so fucking loaded in about a month. the big things we need to figure now is the time bombs for the commons and how we will get them in and leave then there to go off, without any fucking Jews finding them. I wonder if anyone will write a book on me. sure is a ton of symbolism, double meanings, themes, appearance vs reality shit going on here. oh well, it better be fuckin good if it is writtin. 12/17/98
My thoughts
Eric Harris’s December 17 entry begins with a line that is simultaneously casual, almost childish, and chilling: “Woohoo, I’ll never have to take a final again! feels good to be free.” At first, it reads like a typical teenage celebration at the end of school but the context makes it horrifyingly ironic. The “freedom” he’s celebrating isn’t escaping finals; it’s the deadly rampage he is planning which will result in his death. That childish phrasing underscores the unsettling contrast between a normal adolescent voice and what’s about to come.
Harris then invokes Hobbes and Nietzsche. Hobbes is famous for his ideas about human nature as inherently self-interested and prone to conflict, which may reflect Harris’s worldview of life as a struggle for power and dominance. Nietzsche, meanwhile, often appears in discussions of morality, the will to power, and going beyond traditional ideas of ethics.
Harris seems drawn to these concepts as he frames himself as someone outside ordinary social rules.
These references in my opinion are more than name-dropping; they reveal that Harris is attempting to intellectualise his worldview, layering philosophical legitimacy onto his violent fantasies. Yet in the journal, they also feel performative… a way to appear sophisticated and thoughtful while planning what he is.
The journal then moves into detailed planning: ordering more clips, timing bombs, and planning their placement. The blend of childlike excitement, big philosophical ideas, and practical planning shows the journal’s two-sided nature. Harris is simultaneously rehearsing violence, performing for an imagined audience, and constructing a persona that blends intellect, danger, and control.
Finally, his reflection on symbolism, double meanings, and “appearance vs reality” underscores that the journal is not what it seems. The journal is part of a crafted performance. Harris is shaping a narrative and persona, blending bravado, intellect, and obsession, but beneath it lies a journal designed to mislead, impress, and perform. What readers see is only part of the story.
The deeper reality remains hidden behind the mask he is consciously building.
Curious about the philosophers Eric mentions and my thoughts on it as well as my conclusion? It’s on the next page.
Echoes in the Columbine Archive 
Leave a comment