[firstOrder]

> god help us, using the output of that mind as a platform on which to build suggestions on changing our culture

Why not? There's what to do lessons and what not to do lessons.

From what I read in the essay he talks continually about how he lives in a beautiful, wealthy suburb, has an apartment and BMW, nice clothes and so forth. I don't watch teenage television shows like the OC, The Hills or whatever, but from this material perspective he had the perfect life. Yet his parents split up, he didn't get along with his movie premiere attending father's new wife, and he was isolated and cut off from human contact. He is miserable. He even says repeatedly he goes crazy watching guys with much less money have so much "social success".

Something can be learned from him. That buying into the idea that money alone buys happiness is something close to insanity. That growing up in a wealthy community where image and status are everything, even among kids, might not be healthy. That close friendships and lovers are more important than the BMW he continually refers to.

I can see shades of this when I walk into a post Series A startup on Saturday at 8 PM and see that 95% of the office is there working, many of the people in their 20's. They all think they are going to be the Mark Zuckerberg. It seems like insanity to me. It reminds me of all the people I know who were having trouble in their marriages, so they would work until 6, 7, 8 doing busy work so they wouldn't have to go home. Usually in a few months time I hear from them they are separating from their spouse. Some people see work as an escape from their other problems. Our society being run as it is, by those who it is run by, this is not much frowned upon as a real problem.

I can easily imagine this kid growing up the son of some guy who was in early on some hot startup, with the kid now living in Palo Alto, Altadena or somewhere...

[briandh]

> Why not?

Because it's just one kid. The sample size is too small.

[AznHisoka]

Sorry, but no.

Ok, not everybody is going to kill girls because they rejected you, but almost every man understand at least some of the feelings + frustrations he experienced (especially virgins).

To deny this is to deny the huge elephant in the room - the fact that men do have the primal need for sex, and when it's denied/suppressed, bad things happen as that need goes unfulfilled.

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

You know, speaking as a dude it's pretty insulting to see you insinuate that I'm some pent up murder machine held in check only so long as I keep my dick wet.

[gojomo]

You're probably not. But if the mere observation that some men do risky, strange, violent things as part of their drive for sex strikes you as a personal insult, then you are too sensitive.

[Centigonal]

I think he's offended that one crazy person's actions have turned into a generalization about men (yes, "some men" qualifies it, but since you can't tell "some men" from all the other men, any action that's meant to affect these "some men" affects all men, hence nullifying the qualifier. Furthermore, your grandparent didn't even use the "some").

A much fairer (and still true) statement would be "some people do risky, strange, violent things as part of their drive for sex." If you want to further dissect the issue into the different kind of strange and violent things men do vs. other genders' behaviors, that's fine too, but by comparing Rodgers to "some men," the implication is made that his actions are endemic to men (they're not -- they're endemic to violent, crazy people).

[JoeAltmaier]

Maybe a more cogent point is, crazy violent people find a ready culture of misogyny to hang their urges on. Again and again and again, its women that are the target. This can and should be changed. I hope one day soon its no more accepted to publish 'player handbooks' than it is to distribute KKK race hate messages.

[AznHisoka]

I'm not focusing on his actions here. His actions were the result of pent up, dangerous, toxic emotions. The same emotions that are felt (albeit to a lesser degree) by most men.

Most men just channel that into something else, like entrepreneurship (ie Zuckerberg), or drugs/alcohol/video games.

[tptacek]

If you feel frustrated to the point where you fantasize about killing people who reject your advances, please get help.

[gojomo]

That's an extremely unfair reading of the parent comment. If you want to make that as a general point, at least depersonalize it, addressing to 'someone' or 'anyone', rather than a second-person direct-address.

[anu_gupta]

You've basically just tried to excuse rape.

[coldtea]

Yeah, so did Terrence: ""I am a human being, I consider nothing that is human alien to me."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence

So? We are capable of empathy and understanding of lots of things, that being ethical we wouldn't do. It's not like a murderer or rapist is some kind of alien, that we cannot even comprehend. We do it all the time, in talk and in art. E.g:

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/therapy/triggerinside.html