House of Eratosthenes

Earlier Saturday, attorney Alan Shifman issued a statement saying Peter Rodger believed his son, Elliot Rodger, was the shooter. It was unclear how the son would have obtained a gun. The family is staunchly against guns, he added.

“The Rodger family offers their deepest compassion and sympathy to the families involved in this terrible tragedy. We are experiencing the most inconceivable pain, and our hearts go out to everybody involved,” Shifman said.

Richard Martinez, the father of Christopher Michaels-Martinez, blamed politicians and gun-rights proponents at a news conference Saturday. “When will this insanity stop? … Too many have died. We should say to ourselves `not one more,”‘ he said. [emphasis mine]

Ugh. Yeah…masculinity, and guns, drive them both deeper underground. That’s done wonders for us so far.

I can buy into the idea that Eliott Rodger’s murder spree is a tip-off that something is wrong with our society. But, allowing guns is not likely to be what’s amiss, since there are so many people who own and use guns who wouldn’t do anything like what he did. Ditto for the young guys who are frustrated because they can’t get girls. In fact, the more you read up on this guy, the more you see this chaotic mixed-bag hodge-podge of normal and sick-n-twisted; I find it unavoidable to conclude that the latter started out as the former. The kid lacked the coping skills to deal with the pressures of adolescence. Just like a drinking glass lacks the flexibility to cope with ice tea fresh out of a hot dishwasher, or something like that. Seems like belaboring the obvious to even write it down.

His manifesto shows some signs of how far off-kilter this went…

In order to completely abolish sex, women themselves would have to be abolished. All women must be quarantined like the plague they are, so that they can be used in a manner that actually benefits a civilized society. In order to carry this out, there must exist a new and powerful type of government, under the control of one divine ruler, such as myself. The ruler that establishes this new order would have complete control over every aspect of society, in order to direct it towards a good and pure place. At the disposal of this government, there needs to be a highly trained army of fanatically loyal troops, in order to enforce such revolutionary laws.

Reminds me of what rob said: “Liberalism is the lifelong attempt to make high school come out right.” Think Mister Rodger just proved that.

Sorry, is that unfair to liberalism? Words, I am told, are defined by their common usage; and one thing we see rather consistently in people who are commonly described today as “liberals,” is a refusal, and perhaps an inability, to ever get past the bad stuff. We’re not seeing too many conservatives shooting strangers, even though conservatives are supposed to be the people stockpiling the guns — and, here & there, there are some conservatives who can’t get dates, and are frustrated when they see the objects of their affection ignoring them & lavishing that same affection on blowhards and jerks. (In fact, there are actually some movements to try to make that happen.)

What’s the difference between them and Elliot Rodger?

Mental stability, for one thing. And then after that, there’s something else. Not quite so much the conservatism itself, I’m thinking, but the stuff that goes with it. The ability to get past bad stuff. Attitude. “Oh well, her loss I guess; oh look, a new day.”

The ability to play video games with people online temporarily filled the social void. I got caught up in it, and I was too young and naive to realize the severity of how far I had fallen. I was too scared to accept it. This loss of a social life, coupled with the advent of puberty, caused me to die a little inside. It was too much for me to handle, and I stopped caring about my life and my future. I even stopped caring about what people thought of me. I hid myself away in the online World of Warcraft, a place where I felt comfortable and secure. [bold emphasis mine]

The Elliot Rodger story, thus far, stem to stern has been a saga about coping. This is still a new event and perhaps I shouldn’t draw conclusions in haste, but realistically, how likely is it that anything will come to light that will change this? Elliot couldn’t cope. Or didn’t. But cope with what? First class flights and Katy Perry concerts, a flashy BMW, wine…no chores, no unfinished projects, every problem handled?

Here’s a thought: Exactly. The image that ends up being rendered, is of failure to cope with a lack of purpose. Perhaps that is a delusive image, with some meaningful detail hidden from us so far. But, I don’t think that too likely. Or let’s say I’m not investing too much faith in that. Nor do I think anybody else is, either. His monologue makes it clear he was never wanted anywhere; what about being needed? Did he ever have a role to play in anything? Doesn’t seem to be the case, and in that respect his situation looks the same as many others of these shooters. This “retribution” seems to represent, to him, an opportunity to finally engage some action that will have an effect on something. And we’ve seen this many times before.

His is the story of a “society” getting way too high on managing the people who live in it, legally, politically, culturally and incompetently. And now, about to do even more of it. Scan the YouTube channel for tell-tale “disturbing videos” — hey, guess what, that was done and they actually did find something. How’d that work out? Stigmatize and criminalize the guns. The family is at a loss to explain how he ever got into them, they were “staunchly against” them. It isn’t a big mystery: It’s the allure of the unattainable.

And, the kid was diagnosed with Aspergers. Well, of course he was. See, there it is again: They were going to manage the future shooter. The problem isn’t that they failed, the problem is that they succeeded. They succeeded so well, that Elliot Rodger picked up the ball in the game of people-management and ran with it. He was going to be the Divine Ruler.

He was absolutely insane. But, I’m afraid, that doesn’t prove he was born with anything; there is such a thing as a manufactured insanity.

Update: Business as usual for our friends on the left; “truth” is whatever fits the narrative.

[…] Replaces Lethal Injection With… “Retribution” The Eighteen-Year Reunion “Like a Bystander” The VA as a Model Ché Café Closes Down […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 05/25/2014 @ 03:01
Despite the length of the piece, with hyper links, you haven’t even come close to the number of folks rabidly frothing to plant their “SEE THAT PROVES IT” flag.
Personally, I propose an investigation into the National Origin of the station where the alleged(pending further investigation, internet, ancillary CCTV, and lab reports) gunman, and knife wielder, discriminated to buy the adulterated gasoline empowering the BMW he chose as his transportation of choice in his disregard for what his parents, and international schools taught him about acceptable behavior in public.
*sheesh*
I’ve ALREADY seen a (para) “Inspired by Men’s Rights Movement…” headline as an excuse to revisit serially debunked Fascism catering to misandrist/racist/ economics/ education rape culture… dupes.
- CaptDMO | 05/25/2014 @ 08:31
Yeah, see update. I was worried about what all I was missing by hitting this one so early. The left is pushing their propaganda, and they’ll push some more in the days ahead.
- mkfreeberg | 05/25/2014 @ 08:45
Much of the brew ha ha has FORCED me to skim through this gentleman’s “Manifesto”.
I kept getting that deja vu thing.
Oh, right! Attempted murderer Valerie Salanas, SCUM Manifesto…….
In fairness, she didn’t have a BMW. Her Manifesto IS available at Amazon. (and Wiki)
What is the Vegas Line on time before the movie comes out for THIS one?
I’m pretty sure Amy Fisher’s came out BEFORE the trial was over.
- CaptDMO | 05/26/2014 @ 14:19
It’s not just a failure to cope with a lack of purpose… it’s a failure to be given anything to cope with. The squishy marshmallow left has largely succeeded in crafting a world in which young people have grown to physical adulthood without ever having their will crossed in any small matter, much less a large one. Nobody is permitted to keep score, grade correctly, scold general misbehavior, or look askance at anything. Nobody is told “no.” Nobody hears that their opinions are bunk, and that their arguments are lacking, and that their attitude is piss-poor.

To quote that lovely pillar of the legal profession, Judge Judy: “The questions get harder.” As adults we can say “It hurts that you lost the big game, but it will be better soon” – but only if we ourselves learned from losing the big game once upon a time. We learn that the sun will rise again, there will be other big games, and we most importantly learn that real life doesn’t have a reset button to mash on until we get our predetermined result. The next game awaits – the last game is gone forever, and will always be a loss. That’s how to figure out how to handle results with actual consequences beyond one’s hurt feelings.

Our loonier squishes imagined that their own inability to cope and become successful were the fault of the failures of early life, thus proving that they learned little… and they decided to spare the next generation that learning opportunity, with the not unsurprising result that we have an alarming number of raging narcissists who can’t possibly imagine why anyone could ever disagree with them. They can’t hold jobs because the boss expects things like actual work done the boss’ way, not the worker’s. They can’t form relationships because others expect some give and take and actual respect, and they only want mirrors to reflect their own imagined greatness. They can’t deal with other people’s actual needs, much less reasonable requests that have nothing to do with them personally.

Well, a lot of them are rage-quitting life, and taking innocent people with them, and it’s not going to get better unless what adults remain start teaching hard lessons to young people.
- nightfly | 05/27/2014 @ 13:50
[…] Then & Now Witch Doctor Best Sentence CXXXIII Ohio Replaces Lethal Injection With… “Retribution” The Eighteen-Year Reunion “Like a Bystander” The VA as a Model Ché Café Closes Down […]
- House of Eratosthenes | 05/28/2014 @ 04:42

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