One Sick Wretch

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

One Sick Wretch

It's all over the news.

This sick wretch, Elliot Rodger, killed at least 6 people and injured 13 more (numbers as of this posting) in a killing spree in Santa Barbara. Here's just one article for reference:

'I will slaughter every single blonde s**t I see': lonely killer posted chilling video warning of 'retribution' because he was still a virgin at age 22

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and ALEX GREIG

24 May 2014

MailOnline

Why did he do this?

Because he could not get a girlfriend!!!!!

Literally.

That sounds trivial, but it's in his own words. He left a confession video on YouTube.

(Watch at your own risk. When you watch this knowing what he did, it gets really creepy.)

This is a Black Swan event. There is no rational explanation and no way to fit this into anything that makes sense. The dude was just sick and evil qua sick and evil. He did this rampage because he wanted to and thought it was good to do that.

End of story.

That doesn't stop people from speculating, though. The comments all over the Internet are all over the place.

And for as much as I know this is because it is and that's all there is to the why, I also speculate...

I can't help it.

How the hell did this guy go from where he was to where he ended up, leaving a trail of dead and injured bodies in his wake?

Michael

[Richard Wiig]

He's stepped beyond "the world owes me a living" and into "the world owes me a life", so it's only natural that he set out to hurt people when the world didn't give it to him. A collectivist monster.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

It's going to be interesting to see what the media does to this.

I came across several references to Columbine by Dave Cullen while digging around on this story--basically I was looking for answers just like anyone.

I think the best hypothesis right now is that Rodger was a psychopath pure and simple, but I need more information before I accept this fully.

In Columbine (which I just ordered), Cullen dissects how several different agenda-driven groups in our culture took that story and spun it as if it were an example of their respective agenda. I have no doubt this will happen with Rodger.

The formula, from what I gathered so far, seems to be:

1. Spin the tragedy into a semi-believable legend with a strong moral component (i.e., emphasize in the storytelling only those features that support the agenda, omit those that contradict it, and make up the rest--always looking to align the moral message with dramatic moments); and

2. Repeat the legend over and over in the media, and get others to constantly reference it, until it becomes an accepted "truth."

Except it isn't the truth, of course.

Knowing how this works, it is something we (meaning interested parties) should look out for and try to identify it as it happens. I know it's horrible to treat a tragedy like this as a real-time case study in media manipulation, but, if some good can come of it, holding to the truth while publicly identifying and analyzing the spin and lies seems to me worthwhile. Not much, but something.

We can't undo what happened, nor can we participate in the pain of the victims and their families, but we can try to keep the truth about what happened alive enough so the false legends do not take.

Michael

[Backlighting]

Look for another cry out to ban guns.

[Selene]

'...so it's only natural that he set out to hurt people when the world didn't give it to him.'

No, it is completely unnatural and needs to be confined, or, eliminated from the gene pool.

A...

[Reidy]

I don't know what the media will do with it, either, but early returns indicate that they're handling it responsibly. Here is one of two stories I've seen to date stating clearly that he got the guns legally. This was gun control at work. I can remember when you would have waited two weeks to read this in National Review.

[Richard Wiig]

Nature is a bitch, Adam. Even psychopaths must act on the ideas in their head. That is natural. It's no mystery as to what the collectivists will make of this. It's another vehicle to further their collectivism, plain and simple. The screeching about banning guns (which is more passing the buck) started almost immediately.

[James Heaps-Nelson]

He wrote a 140 PAGE document. Are you kidding me?? The video is just bizarre. There he is, in one of the nicest areas of the country, in a nice car. Instead of this, he could have done just about anything else. Some people are just wired wrong.

Jim

[BaalChatzaf]

Amazing. All those dead people because no girl wanted to suck his dick.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[Kyle Jacob Biodrowski]

Look for another cry out to ban guns.

Don't forget about the Feminists.

Any good, wannabe statist needs a good crises every now and then.

[Richard Wiig]

Some people are just wired wrong.

Wired wrong? If he was wired wrong then he couldn't be held responsible for his actions. I think he was programmed wrong, like too many people are. Those who believe absurdities commit atrocities.

[SoAMadDeathWish]

"Waaaaa! I'm too much of a pussy to ask a girl out! Why can't I get laid!?"

What a baby...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Some people are just wired wrong.

Wired wrong? If he was wired wrong then he couldn't be held responsible for his actions. I think he was programmed wrong, like too many people are. Those who believe absurdities commit atrocities.

Richard,

It's been a long time and I'm pretty sure you have been reading the site. I hope you have been paying attention to the spirit of the way things go here.

I hope I don't regret this, but I'm releasing the restriction.

Michael

[tmj]

My first thought was that the video itself and the motivations to post played some part in his 'actualization' of his plan. Psychology probably povides some description of the mental process of a psychopath/sociopath from intention to formulation and actualization. Narcissistic tendancies played out and substanciated by letting the 'world' know why "it' was wrong or wronged the person, and the ability or expectation of getting that message out via video posting.

[Selene]

Some people are just wired wrong.

Wired wrong? If he was wired wrong then he couldn't be held responsible for his actions. I think he was programmed wrong, like too many people are. Those who believe absurdities commit atrocities.

Richard,

It's been a long time and I'm pretty sure you have been reading the site. I hope you have been paying attention to the spirit of the way things go here.

I hope I don't regret this, but I'm releasing the restriction.

Michael

Lol Michael, this is like Rush's Open Line Friday concept...a huge chance turning over content to amateurs...

I have certain areas of agreement with him, however, he needs to be housebroken since he forgets that he is in you and Kat's virtual house.

A...

[anthony]

He's stepped beyond "the world owes me a living" and into "the world owes me a life", so it's only natural that he set out to hurt people when the world didn't give it to him. A collectivist monster.

That was exactly my reaction, too. Entitlement is entitlement - it, and envy, the immediate effects of altruism-collectivism. Shown up more by a sick brat who actually 'had it all' - the status, toys, but lacked one thing everybody else was getting, in his second-hand view. "It's not fair..."

Of course a murderous rampage takes more than collectivism, his evident pathological narcissisim quite likely took him over the edge, but collectivism laid the foundation I think.

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I've been thinking about core story and this guy Rodger.

I've watched several of his videos. I've visited puahate.com where he was a member (pua = pick-up artist), that is while the site was still up. They have now taken it down. (You can see something about it here.) I've downloaded his pdf manifesto "My Twisted World" (see here) and skimmed through it. I've read several articles about him and more comments from users at different sites than I think is healthy.

One thing jumped out at me--especially in the "Retribution" video in the opening post: how scripted everything sounds or aims at. It's not real and from the heart. It's staged. He's acting in the video, and not being very good at it either.

Elliot Rodger had a core story and he kept saying it, manifesting it, acting it out and so on. He just had a lousy plot and theme, which is why I believe it comes off so phony. There was no meaning of human life running through his story. It was all about lack.

When you look at it from this perspective, it almost seems like the "no girlfriend" angle is an accidental input. That happened first because of puberty and hormones, so he ran with it. That's what it feels like to me. His theme could have been no physical height or strength, if he were poor--no money, if he were fat--no easy way to keep the fat off, if he were crippled--no healthy legs, and on and on.

He cultivated his core story of victimhood from an early age, no doubt because he felt like a victim. But you know what's missing in it? What could have balanced out the victimhood?

Gratitude.

Look at everything I looked at about him and you will not see gratitude for anything.

Whatever people say about religions being false and so on, their core storylines contain gratitude. Ayn Rand's works are full of gratitude. Even personality cults (which have really lame-ass core stories) contain gratitude. I think gratitude has to be present in a core story if the people following it are to be happy and peaceful.

I believe this guy walked around in life without being shown gratitude by his family and friends, and without feeling it. The way you show gratitude (to teach it, that is) is to display yourself manifesting it in how you respond to other people and different situations, in how you tell your own core story. That's partly what going to church, or philosophical lectures, or appreciating art, or even meditating are all about. Cultivating gratitude and sharing that with your loved ones.

Oh... these activities are about other things as well, but when they are fulfilling, I believe it's the gratitude at work.

I don't know anything about his home life except what I read about his father Peter, who besides being an assistant director for The Hunger Games and a talented photographer (see here, especially here if you are into artsy women's butts), seems to be well-meaning. But I wonder if he ever shared gratitude with his son.

You can read all over the place that this kid had everything to be grateful for, good family, wealth, good looks, good education, good neighborhood, all the gadgets and entertainment he could ever want, etc.

But gratitude doesn't come from the stuff and people around you. It comes from within. From habits you cultivate inside yourself.

So gratitude for what? Actually on a neuroscience level, it doesn't matter. Gratitude for God, for life, for reality, for loved ones, for your own potential, for small blessings, for just about anything is good. The emotion of gratitude itself is something the human soul craves to feel.

It's almost like the feeling you get when you finish eating or drinking. Imagine if you went around feeling hungry or thirsty all the time and never felt satisfied. That would be a miserable life indeed.

I think gratitude is like that feeling of satisfaction, but for spiritual hunger instead of physical. Without it, a person feels dead inside. In constant pain and/or boredom.

And when a person feels that, bad things happen.

This is something to think about when looking at your own core story, your premises. Is gratitude present?

I know I'm checking mine right now.

Michael

[caroljane]

Ban guns!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

And the knives Rodger killed with?

Bad knives?

Michael

[Wolf DeVoon]

Maxim of common law from the 16th century: A dead thing (gun, knife, rock) can do no felony.

[Darrell Hougen]

I've been thinking about core story and this guy Rodger.

I've watched several of his videos. I've visited puahate.com where he was a member (pua = pick-up artist), that is while the site was still up. They have now taken it down. (You can see something about it here.) I've downloaded his pdf manifesto "My Twisted World" (see here) and skimmed through it. I've read several articles about him and more comments from users at different sites than I think is healthy.

One thing jumped out at me--especially in the "Retribution" video in the opening post: how scripted everything sounds or aims at. It's not real and from the heart. It's staged. He's acting in the video, and not being very good at it either.

Elliot Rodger had a core story and he kept saying it, manifesting it, acting it out and so on. He just had a lousy plot and theme, which is why I believe it comes off so phony. There was no meaning of human life running through his story. It was all about lack.

When you look at it from this perspective, it almost seems like the "no girlfriend" angle is an accidental input. That happened first because of puberty and hormones, so he ran with it. That's what it feels like to me. His theme could have been no physical height or strength, if he were poor--no money, if he were fat--no easy way to keep the fat off, if he were crippled--no healthy legs, and on and on.

He cultivated his core story of victimhood from an early age, no doubt because he felt like a victim. But you know what's missing in it? What could have balanced out the victimhood?

Gratitude.

Look at everything I looked at about him and you will not see gratitude for anything.

Whatever people say about religions being false and so on, their core storylines contain gratitude. Ayn Rand's works are full of gratitude. Even personality cults (which have really lame-ass core stories) contain gratitude. I think gratitude has to be present in a core story if the people following it are to be happy and peaceful.

I believe this guy walked around in life without being shown gratitude by his family and friends, and without feeling it. The way you show gratitude (to teach it, that is) is to display yourself manifesting it in how you respond to other people and different situations, in how you tell your own core story. That's partly what going to church, or philosophical lectures, or appreciating art, or even meditating are all about. Cultivating gratitude and sharing that with your loved ones.

Oh... these activities are about other things as well, but when they are fulfilling, I believe it's the gratitude at work.

I don't know anything about his home life except what I read about his father Peter, who besides being an assistant director for The Hunger Games and a talented photographer (see here, especially here if you are into artsy women's butts), seems to be well-meaning. But I wonder if he ever shared gratitude with his son.

You can read all over the place that this kid had everything to be grateful for, good family, wealth, good looks, good education, good neighborhood, all the gadgets and entertainment he could ever want, etc.

But gratitude doesn't come from the stuff and people around you. It comes from within. From habits you cultivate inside yourself.

So gratitude for what? Actually on a neuroscience level, it doesn't matter. Gratitude for God, for life, for reality, for loved ones, for your own potential, for small blessings, for just about anything is good. The emotion of gratitude itself is something the human soul craves to feel.

It's almost like the feeling you get when you finish eating or drinking. Imagine if you went around feeling hungry or thirsty all the time and never felt satisfied. That would be a miserable life indeed.

I think gratitude is like that feeling of satisfaction, but for spiritual hunger instead of physical. Without it, a person feels dead inside. In constant pain and/or boredom.

And when a person feels that, bad things happen.

This is something to think about when looking at your own core story, your premises. Is gratitude present?

I know I'm checking mine right now.

Michael

Thank you for that nice observation.

Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. When a person feels entitled to something, there is no reason to feel gratitude. When a person realizes that the other person didn't have to do what he did but that he did it out of the goodness of his heart or because he cares about the person or likes the person, then the person feels gratitude. If there was no person behind a good occurrence, then one might feel fortunate rather than grateful.

Anyway, thank you for putting a positive spin on the lesson we should learn from this tragedy.

Darrell

[anthony]

Yes, Although what precedes gratitude or sense of entitlement but avowal of self or denial of self? This is extreme self-lessness, unchecked by social conformism (as it usually is) I'm seeing.

[Richard Wiig]

A nice article from Daniel Greenfield.

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/the-you-didnt-do-that-society/