15. Elliot Rodgers and the Demons of the Collective Subconscious

One factor of the shifting paradigm happening in human society is the recognition of the collective consciousness, and also the collective subconscious. To me, this reality is evident in the frighteningly common occurrence of mass killings, which are coming to violently punctuate Western society.

On an individual level we all have demons to deal with. Our demons are ultimately thought patterns and ideas that formed as a result of some sort of trauma or injury at a time when we were without the emotional capacity to deal with them.

This term demons refers to the fact that these problems, if not properly dealt with and faced, can manifest in ways that are harmful to both ourselves and those around us, often those we love the most.

Moreover, these demons, if not confronted or ignored, are also extremely powerful, in the sense that they have a way to control and motivate us more than any other primal drive.

Consider, for example, an alcoholic whose desire to drink stems from some deeply rooted childhood trauma. For most alcoholics, the desire to drink is one of the strongest motivators they have. It far outweighs other aspects and motivations of existence, hence the problems they face.

Isn’t it possible that collectively we are also haunted by these demons? Certainly some cultures and societies remain haunted by the ghosts of past traumas, and the shattered new realities that those traumas leave them with. (Native American communities come to mind).

Couldn’t it be that humanity as a whole, as a single organism operating on the Earth has demons to confront? Couldn’t it also be true that we are also haunted by the irrational fears of an earlier age, that we now have the ability to face, but because of pain and fear and inconvenience, we suppress, only to have it manifest itself in ever more horrifying ways?

Perhaps it is that some individuals within the collective come themselves to embody these demons. Or perhaps it is that the collective psyche creates these spaces of fear, which inevitably draws those who fell the most disconnected to humanity into them. Our collective psychological trauma creates a void, an abyss into which some small group is inevitably drawn, becoming at once the most influential and destructive force which motivates the collective actions of the human organism.

And so it is not simply the individual actors who are to blame, but rather, the collective state of mental and spiritual illness that allows those actors to gain a foothold in directing our collective behavior.

The body operates on similar principles. Cancer, pathogens, viruses and the like inevitably circulate within the body. It is not a question of eradicating them from existence at all, such a thing is impossible. Rather, we must consider the conditions that give these pathogens a foothold, allowing them to grow and metastasize, ultimately forcing the body to alter its behavior to cater to its existence and, in other words, creating illness and, if ignored for long enough, pain, death, and destruction.

So what is it in our collective psyche that allows our problems to manifest? How is it that we continue to give economic, political, social, and cultural control to a view individuals whose primary drive is the pursuit of senseless accumulation at the expense of virtually all else, even the continued existence of our species?

It is common knowledge that a desire for power and control, an irrational pursuit of immediate sensual pleasure, and a thanatos drive exist within all people. We make a mistake to condemn or judge others who are lead by these baser drives, because in doing so we implicitly assume that those drives don’t exist within ourselves. “Such things only happen to others”, we think. Many people take comfort in telling themselves that “I would never do such a thing.”

But of course, such sentiments are cheap and easily come by. Because we never really know. We can never really understand the circumstances that would drive a person to such a place, much less predict what we ourselves might do if put in the exact same situation.

Another problem is that as a society, we have been ill for so long we have forgotten what it’s like to be healthy. Atrocities and injustice both spectacular and mundane inundate our existence to such an extent that we assume they are a matter of course. Like a person in the throes of illness, we have forgotten the feeling of health, and we wonder if we will ever be well again.

And lastly, we mistake the inevitability of pathogens, both bodily and culturally for the inevitability of being ruled and dominated by these destructive forces. The potential for illness circulates both within us as individuals and in the larger culture. But we must be careful not to mistake the inevitable existence of such forces for the inevitability of being dominated by them.

What then, are we doing to foster our domination by these pathogens? What idea haunts our collective psyches and gives rise to the demons of alienation and self-destruction?

One primary cause of weakness in our collective immune system, both physically and psychically, is the acceptance of violence as a valid means of social interaction. On an individual level, most healthy persons reject this idea vehemently. We understand intrinsically that spousal abuse, or assaulting strangers, or going on mass shooting rampages is morally repugnant. And yet we accept violence on a social and cultural level, hence the existence of the state, as well as other forms of oppression (sexism, homophobia, racism, etc.)

It is this cognitive dissonance between the individual and the social that creates so much tension in our society. I might argue that, on some level, it is partly this tension (in addition to a host of other factors) that drives individual actors to manifest this societal violence in the personal sphere.

We live in a society that is dominated by those who are either outright accepting of violence ( i.e the Evangelical right who support torture of terror suspects and harsh criminal sentencing) or are opposed only on some levels ( i.e the Obama Liberal who supports gun control and a welfare state, yet unquestioningly accepts drone strikes overseas). The fact is, violence has never been a justifiable means of social interaction. Certainly throughout human history violence has been prevalent, but it has never been the ideal. Yet we continue to believe it is acceptable to use on the ever-elusive Other, despite the growth in global connectedness demonstrating that there is no Other, there is only the collective humanity. An act of violence on another is ultimately an act of violence on oneself.

We are all in the same boat. We are all part of the same ecosystem, both physically and socially. Violence to one individual is ultimately violence against the self and against all. The cop who beats a protestor ultimately does violence against himself because he is assaulting his own deeply rooted human connectedness. Perhaps once upon a time, in some communities, such an attitude of tribal cohesion expressed through violence on the Other was justifiable, due to scarcity or some other factor. However, we can no longer afford to express ourselves in this way. Again, most of us understand this on an individual level. On the collective level, in terms of nations, communities, ethnic groups, etc. we still do not seem to understand. And this is where the bodies are buried, so to speak.

Only once we accept this, once we stare down the Demon that says “Violence is an inevitable part of human nature, and will therefore dominate us”, only then can we begin to build the infrastructure, both individually and collective, psychically and physically, to immunize ourselves from another bout of collective illness.

I spent a good amount of time reading the Elliot Rodger manifesto. As an intellectual, and as somebody who cares deeply for the well-being of human society, I consider it a duty to stare into that abyss and see what stares back at me, no matter how frightening or painful.

What I can say is that Elliot Rodgers is not some aberration. We do ourselves a disservice to dismiss him, his views or his actions as merely crazy or evil. They certainly were of course, but they also express something about our society.

I contend that in some ways Elliot Rodgers was a microcosmic expression of the darkest realities of our society, realities that we can no longer afford to ignore.

Brett Easton Ellis’ novel “American Psycho” is one of the most difficult books I’ve ever read. In fact, it’s one of the only books I’ve never been able to finish. The book chronicles a wealthy Wall Street investment banker, who also happens to be a serial killer. Strangely, the notoriously graphic sex and murder scenes were not what made the book unbearable. Rather the laboriously detailed descriptions of various luxury consumer products and the inane, vacuous conversations held by the main characters were what were too real for me. Those were the parts of the book that put me uncomfortably close to the mindset of a serial killer.

Rodger’s manifesto reminded me a lot of this book. The similarities are striking. Rodger’s comes from an affluent family, and throughout the book he describes the various luxuries he is able to indulge in. It is clear that the material conditions of his existence have been met. And yet his deeper social needs, his need for connectedness and real relationships with others goes unmet. Instead, he views himself and others around him as commodities. He constantly chides those of other races who come from “inferior” stock. Most infamously, he views women as commodities. It is clear that he longs for the deep connection of an intimate sexual relationship, but is only capable of viewing women as accessories, as products to bolster his image and provide a sexual release. He has no intimate relationships that aren’t paid for (the only ones he seems capable of possibly opening up to are therapists and the like).

In short, Elliot Rodgers personifies the loneliness of a consumer society, in which luxury and the satiation of material needs cannot cover up the fact that human relations are commodified, and are therefore not truly satisfying, if they are indeed real at all. Elliot Rodgers is an expression of consumer culture and human relations under capitalism taken to their furthest logical extent. Is it not telling that the results were a violent break from reality? Ultimately, sociopathy and violence aren’t aberrations in a society such as ours, they are its inevitable outcome.

The solution to this problem is to recognize individually and collectively that consumer culture is vacuous and void of a true ability to fulfill our deepest needs, namely the need for unconditional love, honesty and acceptance.

This recognition is painful at first, because we must admit our need for true human connection, and by doing so we recognize that those needs aren’t being met. So we must face head on the pain of recognizing these unmet needs rather than palliate them through drugs, consumption, sex, or whatever else it is we might use. A meaningful life outside of consumption, and the meaningful relationships that come with them take time to cultivate. Just like the cultivation of a garden, there will be a lot of work, pain, and hardship and the results won’t always be immediate.

Ultimately, however, a meaningful life is our destiny. Without real relationships, meaningful work, and a harmonious existence with nature (none of which are available in consumer society), life is simply not worth living. Until we fix this problem, the demons of thanatos will continue haunt us.