Phi Beta Cons asks a thoughtful question about the connection of campus shootings to the implicit nihilism of the postmodern university:

Is it possible that such places “can drive an immature mind insane” or “tweak a narcissistic or paranoid [entering] high schooler into a temporary state of madness”? Do lugubrious classroom lectures “take a toll on students with no frame of reference”? And might such an environment contribute to leading some students to kill?

Well, this seems a difficult thesis to prove, and one that plays to conservative bias.  Yet.  Yet.  The “atmosphere” of a campus is difficult to measure, but there’s no doubt that universities are where most (young) people first come to see that ideas have some kind of referent and bearing in the world.  This is one of the cool things about college, one of the things that ignites so many young minds: ideas matter.  This is why college and graduate students are so dang bothersome, and so dang admirable.  They’ve just come to see the philosophical implications of decisions, of words, of ideas.  And so every decision, every word, every choice is a philosophical battle. 

So, before I digress too too much, let me suggest that, if college is when people come to see that ideas matter, and if those ideas suggest that the world is dark and mostly unfathomable to the average immature and unprepared student, then I suppose that those ideas could contribute to a whole series of unfortunate things: not just campus shootings, but drug and alcohol abuse, brutal and pathetic sexual behavior, and a general dissolution of ideals.  Or not.