By John Lawrence
Elliot Rodger left a 140 page document which is a truly revealing window into his soul. After reading this “manifesto,” which is really more of a life history, his twisted life which led up in painful stages to his “Day of Retribution” becomes, if not excusable, at least more understandable. And understanding why people feel impelled to do these horrific acts is important if we are to come to any conclusions which just might prevent more of these situations in the future.
Understanding is more important than condemning. It’s not about Rodger, at this point, or his victims. Nothing can be done to bring them back. But lessons can be learned about what went wrong in this young man’s life and what could have been done to deflect him from his ultimate course. After all, right up until the end he expressed some tiny bit of hope that his life would take a more positive turn, and he wouldn’t be driven to commit the crimes that he did.
One of the misconceptions that the media has hastily come up with is that Rodger hated only women. For sure he was a misogynist, but he hated men equally as much, especially the cool jock type men that he fantasized women were exclusively attracted to instead of being attracted to an “intelligent gentleman” like himself. He couldn’t stand the sight of a young couple holding hands on the street or (horrors) making out! It enraged him since he fantasized about all the sex they were having while he was getting none.
His jealousy, envy and rage didn’t happen overnight. They built up to the breaking point over a number of years starting after he went through puberty. It got to the point where he hated both men and women whom he fantasized were having more sexual pleasure than he was. In fact his only sexual pleasure was masturbation; he never had sex with a woman. And he wasn’t willing to go on living that way. In his sick mind, if he couldn’t have the pleasure of making love to a beautiful blonde woman, then nobody else would have that pleasure either if he could do anything about it.
One of the major malfunctions of his sick mind was that he expected that it was girls’ (collective) responsibility to provide him with sex and love. And it just wasn’t any girl he wanted. He wanted a sexy, beautiful blonde. His problem was that he never put any meaningful effort into meeting, dating or establishing a relationship with any girl.
He gives detailed accounts of all his play dates in childhood going back to age zero, including all the names of every kid he was ever friends with, yet he never mentions one girl whom he actually dated or who actually rejected him. He fantasized that girls rejected him because they didn’t come to him and offer to have sex with him. In fact the rejections he experienced at the hands of girls were probably all fantasies.
One of the things about this manifesto is that Rodger is brutally honest about his own feelings and psychological predicaments, no matter how twisted they are. His negative feelings festered for many years until they built up to a boiling point in his own mind. He planned his “Day of Retribution” at least a year in advance. It was all about revenge for a world that didn’t satisfy his needs and caused him excruciating pain although he was willing to call it off at the last minute if only a beautiful girl would have sex with him.
Rodger grew up shorter than average and not physically strong. He was always trying to fit in and regretted his lack of cool friends although he had many others. He took refuge in video games, in particular, World of Warcraft. He was so badly bullied in high school that he begged his parents to take him out of it. They did and he finished high school at continuation school, the school for dropouts that enabled them to get a high school equivalency certificate.
One would have thought that he would have made some friends there since he experienced no bullying at all. Unfortunately, Rodger was a snob and considered those at continuation school to be low class losers.
Although he was the product of a broken home (his parents divorced when he was seven), he had a lot of perks due to his parents’ connections to the film industry and evidently quite a lot of money in the family despite his father’s financial debacle in the movie Oh My God that he produced. Peter Rodger was also an assistant director of The Hunger Games, a movie in which teenagers go around trying to kill each other.
Elliot Rodger got to walk down the red carpet at a number of Hollywood premieres. He had an admitted taste for luxury and opulence. He became convinced that the only way out of his predicament was to become wealthy, really wealthy. He tried to convince his mother on several occasions that she should marry a rich man. He fantasized about moving into a mansion like some of his parents’ rich friends owned.
As he became more and more desperate, he became convinced that he would be able to get a beautiful girlfriend if only he himself could become wealthy and the only feasible way of doing this was for him to win the lottery. He thought it was his destiny to win in order to make up for all the unfairness that he had experienced since attaining puberty.
He considered that he had had a happy childhood up until that time, and he was owed this destiny. He made numerous trips to Arizona to buy Megamillion Lottery tickets at a time when they weren’t offered in California. Later when it became legal in California he bought more. After each incident, his not winning left him even deeper in despair.
Finally, after giving up hope of ever having a beautiful girl by his side and having a happy life, he started making plans for a “Day of Retribution.” He even planned to kill his little brother, Jazz, whom he liked, because he could see he was the outgoing type that girls would be attracted to. His stepmother, whom he hated, would have to go as well. He made his elaborate plans over the period of a year, and they were a lot more elaborate than what tragically actually happened.
What can be learned from Rodger’s life history? That he was obsessed with having something that he couldn’t obtain? That he didn’t have the social skills to go about getting the thing he most wanted in life? That nothing else was more important to him than losing his virginity and having sex with a beautiful blonde girl? That he fantasized about how ideal the lives were of all the beautiful people who effortlessly were able to have what he desired?
That he considered the world to be unfair because women were attracted to obnoxious, alpha male, jock types instead of to intelligent gentlemen? That girls’ lack of attraction to him constituted rejection? That negative feelings can build and build to the boiling point at which they explode splattering other peoples’ innocent lives in their wake?
This episode also speaks to a hollow, crass culture, the props of which are guns, violent video games, material goods and sex devoid of meaningful relationships, a culture that places pleasure and entertainment above any and all ethical values.
Although Rodger had a variety of psychologists, psychiatrists and life coaches, they all failed miserably to apprehend the depth and nature of his problems or to be in a position to do anything about them. Actually, he had only one problem: how to have sex with a girl. If it could have been arranged, the tragedy in Isla Vista might never have happened. Rodger himself was powerless to make it happen, and he, narcissistically, thought the world owed it to him without any effort on his part.
Actually, his efforts, which consisted of walking around Santa Barbara waiting for a girl to approach him, were totally misguided. Being at a party school was just the wrong milieu for him. He didn’t have the personality to be a casual pick-up artist. He might have tried online dating. But he was a snob who was put out that he couldn’t be in the upper echelon of snobs and have everything that they had in the same way they had it. He wouldn’t have lowered himself.
If any verification for the theories of Wilhelm Reich were needed, the story of this individual’s life is it. Wilhelm Reich authored The Mass Psychology of Fascism, a book which was banned in this country in the 1960s. The San Diego Free Press, to its credit, published and distributed bootleg copies of the book. Reich’s main thesis was that what led to the Nazi era was sexual repression among Germans, Hitler in particular.
Comparing Mein Kampf, Hitler’s autobiography, to Rodger’s manifesto, one can see that they had very similar dysfunctional personalities. Resentment fueled both their violent fantasies. Hitler resented the fact that he had been denied admission to Munich’s prestigious art school twice. The Germans seethed with resentment at the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which ended the First World War.
Reich wrote that sexual repression led to feelings being bottled up which eventually turned into rage and hatred. Rodger was a proto fascist. He fantasized about being dictator of the world and putting women into concentration camps watching them from a tower as they slowly died of hunger–Hunger Games redux?
He thought there was something wrong with them that they were not attracted to him but to the jock types. He would have outlawed all sexual pleasure on the grounds that, if he couldn’t have it, nobody else would have it either. Finally, both Hitler and Rodger fantasized and carried out a Gotterdammerung of total destruction of themselves and the world around them. Fortunately, in both cases the havoc they wreaked was considerably less than the havoc they envisioned.
John Lawrence
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I’m happy to get the summary of those 130 pages; a case of glad you did it for me. One thing that seemed evident early when this destruction of life became known was narcissism. If he couldn’t get laid, he’d see that others couldn’t. It was an insult and injustice that he was forced to masturbate, beautiful piece of overprivileged, underskilled baby that he was. May this disaster insult the narcissists of this world.
I agree that it may be understandable and agree that he needed much more help than he got, but I can’t muster up any sympathy for him. Words just cannot describe what kind of loser he was. I’m not a fan of the death penalty but if he were to have lived long enough to be properly arrested, tired and found guilty of murder and given that as sentence I wouldn’t lose a whole lot of sleep.
This information is partially from their divorce, relatives in England among other sources:
Elliott diagnosis: manic depressed, psychotic schizophrenia, bi-polar, hearing voices and Asperger’s (that not officially diagnosed but required in their divorce agreement)
He did not take this controversial psychotic drug “Risperitone” because after he researched it – he found that to be the wrong meds. He could not socially function.
He had NOT seen his psychiatrists for the past two years.
His treatment was complicated because he NEVER spoke. (His short video’s is the only proof that he spoke more than one word)
His parents wanted him to be happy and forced him to Santa Barbara, expecting him to be able to socialize. The mother purchased the BMW abt 9 months ago.
He should have been in a clinic or closely supervised; his age was 22 but his developmental state was that of a 8 yrs old boy. All his play dates were arranged and purchased by his parents. He never learned how to. Material wise he had all but he lacked family emotional connect, love, support system etc.
I can not hate this boy – It’s sad all around. I do fault his parents and no amount of ‘damage control’ can make up for what they knew and shipping him off into an environment he could never functioned. They knew that!
Cali, can you honestly tell your readers you’re not making this stuff up? Or at least give us some reason to believe you know where this stuff came from; for example, who are his relatives in England and how do you know what they’ve said? How do you know he “did not take this controversial psychotic drug “Risperitone” or that he hadn’t seen his psychiatrist in two years? And can you expect people to believe that “he NEVER spoke” (Asperger’s?) and yet spoke quite clearly on his selfie-video? If in fact he never spoke how could he have been admitted to a college?
You should realize that readers out there are likely as smart as you, Cali, and may not like the disrespect you’ve shown their intelligence.
Cali is substantially correct, Bob, insofar as his manifesto backs this up. In it he says Risperitone was prescribed but he researched it and decided not to take it. He spent his first five years in England as his father came from a well to do family there. I don’t know if they were considered nobility or not. Anyway, according to Elliot’s account, the family lost their money in the Great Depression. Elliot visited relatives there often including his grandmother with whom he had a good relationship.
It’s true that he was a very slow developer. He said that even in his teenage years he still felt like a child. According to his account, his mother had hired a life coach for him (actually more than one) whom he had seen since going to Santa Barbara. As far as more professional help, I couldn’t say whether, again according to his account, he had seen someone in the last two years.
As far as all those diagnoses of mental illness, Elliot doesn’t mention any of them in his account. It’s true the mother purchased the BMW recently. Elliot’s original plan was to steal his father’s Lexus SUV for his final attack because he considered it to be more lethal to people he hit on the street.
His relationship with his father was distant because his father’s work took him away a lot and especially after his father’s marriage to his stepmother who, according to Elliot, set the rules in the house. He felt his father should have done that so he lost respect for his father.
It seemed like he was closer to his mother, but that might have been because his mother generally gave him what he wanted.
I agree with Cali that his parents’ decision to send him to Santa Barbara was a total disaster.
Whatever you can say about this kid, he was evidently quite intelligent and brutally honest about his feelings in his “manifesto” where he details his whole life from Day 1 in five year segments. To have expressed himself in writing so well and articulately signifies that he didn’t lack intelligence.
I can’t buy that he never spoke though as he gives a lot of accounts of meetings with his father and stepmother, for example, where they resolved some of their differences. There were also meetings with a guy he met in Morocco, his life coaches, his grandmother etc.
His major problem was that he couldn’t form a relationship with the opposite sex and this problem festered over many years until negative emotions built up to the boiling point.
I don’t know whether I sympathize with him or not because there are other things about him I don’t like – his proto fascism for example, but I do think that, thanks to the “manifesto” we do have an understanding of what drove him to his final solution and I think this should be helpful in other cases. The police, obviously, should have searched his apartment if the parents were that concerned that they called them in the first place. Otherwise, psychiatrists and psychologists should be able to put people on the “no can buy” gun list.
Lotta words. They don’t address what I said.
I it’s time for people to take responsibility for informing the public of people that need help and see to it that they get that help.
Severe mental illness in childhood impedes or stops emotional development. It sounds like the man was stuck in the mind of a child, hence the narcissistic response. Children think the world revolves around them or should. Their fantasy life is frequently just as real to them as “reality”.
Clearly the parents tried to get help, but the mental health system is broken. Mental illness is not easily diagnosed nor is drug treatment always successful or even helpful.
The police are not qualified to make the call as to whether or not a person is a danger to himself or others.
From what little we know from the press coverage, the parents tried desperately to stop him, but they couldn’t get there in time.
We DO have laws to prevent the mentally ill from buying guns. He had a long documented history as a mental patient.
Who sold him guns?
Those last sentences make the most excellent point. Guns were sold to a person known to be seriously disabled mentally. Who sold him the guns? Must we allow guns to be sold under all circumstances, without background checks? I’m afraid we’ve heard Wayne la Pierre of the NRA say as much. Obey.
He bought the guns legally because he had no previous criminal record. A measure is before Congress to provide more funding for the background check system which is widely viewed as dysfunctional;
From Time.com:
“The measure, if passed by the Senate and signed by President Barack Obama, would increase funding for the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System (NICS) by $19.5 million to pay for improvements to the database. A prospective gun buyer is checked against the database for red flags like felony convictions and history of mental illness, but the system is woefully dysfunctional. A USA Today investigation recently found that in five states alone, law enforcement agencies failed to submit records of 2.5 million arrest warrants to the database. Twelve states have submitted fewer than 100 mental health records to the NICS database, Thompson said.”
The gun rights lobby will fight any expansion of the background checks system. Rodger should have been in it but wasn’t.