How long ago was it that Elliot Rodger resolved his feelings of rejection by killing six and wounding even more at Santa Barbara? With our short retention, we’ve forgotten it, haven’t we, even though his problems could teach us a lot, especially when he lost connection with everything and everyone except World of Warcraft and the Lottery.
Now the delusion for this week comes from Wisconsin where
two 12 year olds stabbed a “friend” 19 times as a rite of some sort that would
get them to meet Slender Man, a stickman created as part of a contest and
morphed into something that apparently way too many ‘tweens have decided is
real.
Really? Yes, just
check YouTube and discussion forums.
Even the conversations about the Wisconsin events mix fiction and
reality.
Did I ever get wrapped up in my games and take them into
reality? Sure. Mary Sue was my alter ego for years—until I
was four. And growing up doing the boom
years of science fiction films, my friends and I were attacked by giant ants (“Them”)
and blobs all the way home from the movie theatre. That was when I was six and seven. But even as I was playing up and down the
town alleys and over several days, I knew the difference between the “game” and
reality, and I had moved on to other things once I hit the double digits.
What were you doing when you were 12? I was in sixth grade. I was reading Hardy Boys and getting A’s and
earning badges in Girl Scouts and participating in a charades club. Sometimes I helped my dad in the garden or
even on the oil lease, and I helped my mom bake in the kitchen and take care of
my little brother. I went to Catechism
every Saturday and Mass every Sunday. I
was taking flute lessons and baton lessons and I was mesmerized with American
Bandstand. At school I was in the band
and my entire class was in square dancing.
I bet you can come up with a similar list that combines new
adventures that expanded your horizons with family responsibilities that
reminded you that you were important to others.
That combination of expanding experiences and assuming responsibilities
seemed to be missing from Elliot Rodger’s existence? What do you suppose is the situation with
these girls for whom a bunch of pixels is more real than their friend?
