The Null Device

Werther Syndrome for the online age: In depressed parts of eastern Germany, online Satanic teen suicide pacts are all the rage, with kids staging black masses in cemeteries, decapitating goats and talking each other into offing themselves in chat rooms and with SMS messages:

The Blue Rose group encourages youngsters to talk in Internet chat rooms about the uselessness of their lives, the pointlessness of their existence and the glamour of death. In a region of high unemployment, where many towns have no cinemas or discotheques, the group has hit a deep nerve with disillusioned youth.

(So it's group anti-therapy; reminds me of a spoken-word track Boyd Rice. once did...)

This upsurge in the occult and satanic worship culminated in the region at Whitsun last year when 30,000 youths gathered near Leipzig to hear bands like Wolfsheim and Elegia sing morbid songs of suicide and depression.

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