Preventing Elliot Rodger

I'll take great pleasure in slaughtering all of you.  You will finally see, in truth, that I am the superior one - the true alpha male.

 

(Dr. Evil laugh) Yes, after I've annihilated every single girl in the sorority house, I'll take to the streets of Isla Vista  and slay every single person I see there.  All those popular kids who lived such lives of hedonistic pleasure while I've had to rot in loneliness all these years.  They've all looked down upon me, all those times I tried to go out and join them, they've all treated me like a mouse.

 

Well now, I will be a God compared to you. 

The haughty tone, the forced laughter, the cheesy-dialogue; if this was the sort of approach Rodger took in his quest for sex and affection, it's no wonder he was a virgin at 22.

 

Let's be clear - Rodger may have a diagnosis of being on the autism spectrum, but there is no correlation between the narcissism and God delusions manifested in that video.

 

Autism is a cognitive condition that relates to expression, understanding of social etiquette, and ability to interact in a pro-social way.  Demanding sex, bad villain laughs and the pulling out a gun and shooting people are activities with no connection to autism.

 

No, I'd be more interested in looking into those narcissistic traits and expressions misogyny over the course of this guy's life. 

Instead of focusing what or who or how to blame, what can be learned from this experience to prevent the next one?

 

Rodger would have interacted in certain ways in person, had his videos and all his stuff on Facebook.  There were plenty of triggers there to suggest a person with a morale compass that pointed in the wrong direction.

 

What process is in place for students to pass information of concern on to authorities?  Does the school maintain ties with local police?

 

How could Elliot Rodger have been flagged as someone in need of intervention before it was too late? 

 

Elliot Rodger wanted to be better than others, so he got himself a gun and opened fire.  The gun, you see, was the tool of his power.  Something in that the NRA doesn't want you thinking about.

 

The Apex Predator: Chronicle, Capitalism and Genocide

“Soon, many Afrikaners were calling themselves Doppers, after the little metal caps with which they snuffed out candles.  They called themselves Doppers because they were deliberately and consciously extinguishing the light of the Enlightenment, so that they could do what they had to do in darkness.”

  - Rian Malan, My Traitor’s Heart

If you haven’t seen the found-footage, superhero flick Chronicle, you should.  Apart from telling a great, chilling story with achingly real characters, Chronicle presents a thought-provoking example of how confabulation (consciously or unconsciously creating fictional narratives to alleviate cognitive dissonance) allows us to justify the unjustifiable.

The video clip linked to the picture above says it all.  The villain in the film comes to see himself as an Apex Predator – at the top of the human food chain, a lion amongst men.  His power gives him the absolute right to crush lesser mortals, like a child stepping on an ant.  Which he does, leading to horrifying results.  Sadly, he is part of a cycle; the wrongs he commits are instigated by wrongs he suffered himself.  In the end, there were no winners. 

Part of the brilliance of the film is the way in which this character develops into a monster; he can’t intentionally inflict harm on people until he ceases to see himself as one of them.  It’s this piece that has something to tell us about the decline of capitalism and why our world is becoming an increasingly polarized place.  It's less an indictment of a given system than it is a comment on the human condition.

Lions, you see, aren’t individual actors – they’re a species.  While lions might hunt gazelles with impunity, there are social consequences when lions compete with each other.  When individuals or groups of people try to see themselves as resting at the top of the food chain, they consciously or unconsciously establish a false divide between themselves and everyone else.  While distinctions of “other” justify actions or indifference that would be unconscionable directed at “one of our own,” these divisions are completely false – and they have consequences. 

In fact, if history tells us anything, it’s that sooner or later, you reap what you sow.  It’s a lesson we seem to be doomed to repeat.