And so we have another mass shooting perpetrated by a loser loner. This time, it was the son of a somewhat successful film director who had enough wealth to give his son everything he could ever have wanted.
I’m not going to get into the causes of Elliot Rodger’s rampage. Yes, there were ways to have prevented it. There is no point in dwelling on those now, other than to take it as a learning experience. Stefan Molyneux has done a pretty decent video on Rodger’s upbringing and some good observations to go with it.
No, I do not wish to make a political or social statement about what we can learn from Elliot Rodger’s rampage. Instead I only wish to point out that Elliot Rodger’s actions are perfectly predictable when you account for both sin and a life not grounded in any kind of objective morality.
Elliot Rodger spent much of his mid to late teens and early adulthood pursuing women in his own way. At least in a manner in which he thought would work. He was socially awkward and could not comprehend why other people didn’t think the same way he did. This kind of toxic thinking was so potent, that he literally fantasized about locking up all the people who disagreed with him in a concentration camp and having them killed.
His life was consumed by envy. He wanted what others had and when he failed to acquire that, even when he tried his hardest (in his own mind), he decided to destroy it all. This is how envy works. It is not an emotion, it is a deadly sin that consumes our souls as much as pride, lust, or greed do.
What we see in him is a deranged man-boy who put too much stake in external, material concerns rather than focusing on his own internal self. He was a damaged soul and women sensed this. Despite his decent looks (which were probably average by major film industry standards) and his well-off lifestyle, he was empty inside and full of self-pity and hatred.
This does not attract other people, especially other women. Instead, it repulses them. Women are very intuitive and can sense when a man is a creeper.
Look, not everyone is born rich, attractive, and healthy. Most of us usually get one of those things and some of us get two. But most of us do not hold that against other people and instead look at how we can make our situations better with what we have. I know that our culture is moving against that ideal, but so far, it has been standing strong.
The point of all this is that Elliot Rodger stared into the darkness and he didn’t blink. He embraced it, wallowed in it, and hated everyone for not accepting him as he was. Instead of seeking to improve himself, to make himself a better man than his father, he instead desired to make everyone see his point of view or kill them if they didn’t.
This is the ultimate form of evil. Satan must have been proud.