Monday, May 26, 2014

NO! You Don't Get to Kill People Because Girls Rejected Your Advances!

Elliot Rodger, 22, was mightily miffed, because he "couldn't get no respect" during his assorted forays onto the UC- Santa Barbara Campus, including the town of Isla Vista. Worse, there were "the blonde girls" who rejected his advances in favor of the "big brutes who walked on the beaches"-  and in his ego-inflated mind this merited "punishment".  In a blathering 140 page manifesto this little scion of privilege (his father was an assistant director for 'The Hunger Games') wrote:

"All of my suffering on this world has been at the hands of humanity, particularly women. It has made me realize how brutal and twisted humanity is as a species."

He then went on to bawl and whine about how his life "has been a dark story of sadness, anger and hatred. It is a story of war against unjust cruelty."

A war against unjust cruelty? Are you kidding me? If he wanted to make war against unjust cruelty he could have pulled his head out of his ass and helped feed the homeless, or maybe helped organize protests on the growing inequality in this country thanks to the Neoliberal rats. Instead, he vowed a "day of retribution" writing:

"On the day before the 'day of retribution' I will start the first phase of my vengeance, Silently killing as many people as I can around Isla Vista by luring them into my apartment through trickery and violence."

And the little miscreant followed it up by first cowardly knifing his three apartment roommates then going outside on a killing spree including opening fire on three women near the Alpha Phi sorority house,  killing two of them, and firing on others from inside his BMW. All in all the aggrieved punk left six dead and wounded five others before offing himself.

Law enforcement and others are now going through his writings trying to make sense of them - but it's likely a lost cause. When unjustified grievance and hyperbolic victimhood trumps reason, reason exits and all that's left is unjustified rant and BS. Clips of his video babble published in assorted papers over the weekend disclose one deluded, sick puppy. At one point he whines how "the last eight years of my life I've been forced to endure an existence of loneliness and rejection and unfulfilled desires all because girls have never been attracted to me. Girls gave their affection and love to other men, never to me."

Hmmmmm....did he ever try to make himself loveable?  But, of course, an entitled twerp wouldn't see it that way. He'd only perceive that he's the son of some big shot so merits respect and love without effort. He can be whatever he wants and demand love and affection but need not be loveable or even remotely likeable.. But alas, reality doesn't work that way. The females of our species - most of them - have especially canny emotional radar and are able to detect selfish, self-involved twerps from a literal block away. Of course, sometimes they're temporarily blinded and let the exterior  'package' obscure the loser inside and pay the price later, but the choice remains theirs and no one coerces them into desiring or loving someone they have no wish to.

Rodger's mistake was in demanding the women he encountered forego any choice and instantly kowtow to him. In other words, he fancied himself a demigod, worthy of demigod-style worship - not normal human affection. He was also saddled with a monumental inferiority complex because the blonde women he fancied, desired "beach brutes" instead. He was prepared again to deny them their choice on the basis of what he - the all-seeing demigod- deemed to be infatuation with the wrong types. He, of course, was the only "right type" for them.

But his bellyaching about girls not being attracted to him really takes the cake:

"You girls have never been attracted to me. I don't know why you girls aren't attracted to me, but I will punish you all for it."

Again, note the grandiosity and level of self-delusion. He's all important so all those who don't fall on their faces in front of him have to pay the price. A demigod for sure.

Had the little twerp invested more time in his books, he'd likely not have come to such a sorry end, or ended the lives of others.  Instead of pursuing girls who had no interest in him he'd have done better to do some serious exploration  toward self-awareness, or better, escaped his self-imprisonment by joining organizations specifically  to help others. He could have joined Alpha Pi Omega - the national service fraternity. Instead of seeking to have others kowtow to his needs he ought to have sought to attend to others' needs.

He also had the wrong idea about college, writing "college is the time when everyone experiences those things such as sex and fun and pleasure."

Uh, no, that's not what college is all about. College is about testing the extent of one's intellectual and emotional growth not merely wallowing in self-gratification.  In other words, if "sex, fun and pleasure" are part of the college experience they occur as coincident with it - during occasional events - not as ends in themselves.

The words of Buddhist philosopher Alan Watts again ring true ('The Wisdom of Uncertainty',  p. 131):

"Released from the circle of attempted self-love, the mind of man draws the whole universe into its own unity as a single dewdrop seems to contain the entire sky.  This, rather than any mere emotion, is the power and principle of free action and creative morality."

Being worthy of love, then, comes before  receiving love from others. To be worthy of love, one must break the bonds of exclusive self-love which  corrupts perceptions and is self-limiting. Self-love to the extent of self-worship (such as Rodger evinced) forecloses choice and free action - on the part of the person imprisoned, as well as the objects of his attention - which remain objects and never are seen as persons.

The sad fact is that although Elliot Rodger demanded affection and love from others, he was never capable of giving it himself.  Could he have been severely mentally ill? Undoubtedly, and this would explain the self-delusion to the point of murdering in response to feeling "unloved".  The other tragic aspect is that though the evidence disclosed a sicko lurking in Santa Barbara, the authorities never searched his apt. If they had they would have turned up his purchased weapons. But like all sociopaths Rodger's smooth demeanor convinced the authorities (who contacted him 3 times)  he was no threat.

Now, six people have paid for it, even as the gun lobby continues to turn a blind eye to their own role in this latest tragedy.

No comments: