When Bruce Pardo, dressed as Santa Claus, murdered friends and family on Christmas eve he was acting out a tragic bit of ceremonial violence, and borrowing an ironic and horrifying role from film and comics.
Jonathan Fast
Jonathan Fast is an associate professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work at Yeshiva University. His most recent book is Ceremonial Violence: A Psychological Explanation of School Shootings (Overlook Press, 2008).
