By an unfortunate coincidence, I ordered this book right before the 11/5 Fort Hood shooting tragedy, and after finishing it I was angry at how steadfastly unwilling the media (and much of society) are to ask the tough questions about why school and workplace shootings, which were almost completely unknown before the 1980s, have become such a grim and seemingly inevitable part of modern society. Mark Ames places the blame squarely on the new corporate culture of the Reagan years, where employees became expendable assets to be used up and thrown away. He chronicles in vivid detail the lives of these average people who "just snapped", and shows, using a lengthy and fascinating parallel to antebellum slave revolts, how time and time again these shootings were anything but random, how workers deliberately targeted their abusive and tyrannical supervisors while sparing coworkers they liked and yet their actions were always dismissed after the fact as "just random craziness" by a media systematically incapable of recognizing the recurring pattern. The same is true of school shootings like Columbine, where bullied and harassed students, routinely ignored by their school officials, felt that the only way they could bring their lives back under control was to go postal. It's hard to read this book and then read news stories about the Fort Hood tragedy, which is just the latest manifestation of the new ugliness in our society that Reagan symbolized and embodied. A good but extremely frustrating book. ( )

Kind of confused about how this differs with Dave Cullen's Columbine. Both paint very different pictures of the boys. I want to believe Cullen's version more just because he focused soley on Columbine, but then if Ames was completely wrong about it, what does that mean for the rest of his book? But aside from that, this was a very interesting and well written book. There were a few segments that went off in tangents that seemed to have little to do with anything, and clearly Ames really hates Reagan, but I suppose that's understandable. ( )

Reviewed by Mr. Overeem (Language Art)
Here's a thesis that'll pique your interest: the horrifying spate of office and school shootings we've seen during the last quarter-century are direct situational descendents of slave rebellions. Whether you're outraged or intrigued by this notion, you'll find Ames' analysis worthy of your engagement, and valuable to your understanding of your workplace (that it may not leave you contented). Ames is not a stylist; he reminds me of a 21st century Tom Paine. Recommended to readers who enjoyed COLUMBINE, the author of which Ames vehemently takes issue with. ( )

What makes high school students and office workers decide to take a gun and shoot people at the place where they spend their days? This is what Mark Ames investigates in Going Postal, which reads at times like an academic thesis, but is none the worse for that.

Ames takes a close look at several incidents of multiple 'rage' shootings, and compares the perceived oppression of disgruntled office workers and school students with that of slaves, a link which I must admit I didn't fully understand. I think his point might have been that while the majority of slaves suffered under limited freedom, only a small minority rebelled.

The same can be said of today's employees and school students. While many press reports speak of loners and weirdness, Ames believes that a lot of this is fabricated to justify inexplicable behaviour, and he backs this up by interviewing friends and family of those who carried out the shootings, who describe fairly normal people who have simply been pushed to the brink of their tolerance levels.

He talks about the FBI's attempts to profile those likely to commit a rage murder, revealing that they have been unable to create a profile that can be successfully applied to those who carry out the crimes. The boys involved in the Columbine shootings for instance, both came from comfortably-off two parent families and although the press tried to portray them as disturbed weirdos, the truth was that they were struggling to cope with the perpetual 'hazing' and bullying that goes on in so many high schools - and workplaces - unchecked.

Ames seems to conclude that this type of murderer is tipped over the edge by perceived injustices in their life, whether this be bullying, pressure to achieve or treatment at work that belittles them in some intolerant way. He also talks about shooting rampages within the Russian army (p. 175 of my copy)which occur due to brutal living conditions and the practice of dyedovschina - or hazing. I was reading this book as the news of the Fort Hood military shooting came out.

Given the high profile of school and workplace shootings, I am surprised that there aren't more books on this subject. Ames lays the blame on a culture of bullying that exists a lot more widely than schools and employers are willing to admit. Students are pushed hard to achieve good results (he mentions the trend in the US for bumper stickers proclaiming that the driver's son or daughter is an honours student), and have to survive in a Darwinistic school culture that many find difficult. Workers also have to survive in a culture of competition, and are at the mercy of ruthless employers who only have eyes for the bottom line. Ames proposes that few rage murders were heard of before Reagan came into power in the US, and that they accelerated during the '80s - an interesting observation.

Ames does a very good job of uncovering the people behind such murders, few of whom turn out to be weird or psychotic. They've just been beaten on one too many times. ( )

Cause & Effect.

Where others before him have failed, this author has successfully managed to profile the individuals who commit workplace/school rage related killings/massacres.
Interesting and detailed case studies delve into the process of alienation offered by modern working life. His hypothesis makes perfect sense in a tragic way... read it and see for yourself. ( )