George Sodini, a systems analyst from Pittsburgh, walked into the LA Fitness gym, in Collier Pa, firing as many as 30 rounds from two handguns, killing 3 women before turning a gun on himself. He called it his "Exit Plan" and had plotted this event for months.
The question is "Why?" The answer is the all-too frequent: lonely, isolated, angry man who felt unloved and ignored. He calculated that 30 million women had ignored him over a 25 to 30 year period. "Girls and women don't even give me a second look ANYWHERE." "Proof that I am a total malfunction." A man who felt neglected and unwanted, who sought attention through killing.
He wrote: "A man needs a woman for confidence. He gets a boost on the job, career, with other men, and everywhere else when he knows inside he has someone to spend the night with and who is also a friend. This type of life I see is a closed world with me specifically and totally excluded."
His victims were described as "young girls...that look so beautiful as to not be human, very edible." And so he walked into an aerobics class, turned off the light and started shooting.
The psychological community is quick to identify George's symptoms as that of a classic mass murderer. But not so quick to accept responsibility for him.
What is it about our society that people are so needy, so sexually oriented and so isolated? Is it in the water? The genes? Or is it a sense of entitlement? George felt his childhood was abusive. His blog spends a lot of time talking about how he was mistreated as a child. And how he went through life feeling no one cared for him, loved him or nurtured him.
And so he isolated himself, nurturing this loneliness and loathing, justifying what is clearly disturbing behavior. His perceived rejection justifying his actions.
Oh, he also hated God and religion. His "Exit Plan" included the ultimate effort to not simply take control of his circumstance, but to judge those he perceived to be his tormentors: young women. There had been one in a nondenominational church who had spurned his attention, apparently.
Is George Sordini an exception? An anomoly? Or is he the norm? No one is likely to know for sure. But if we just look around, it doesn't take much to see that most people are just like George. Self-centered. Feeling alone. Wanting to 'belong.' And pursuing sexual intimacy as the cure.
We don't all kill people. But we do serve self. And a self-serving attitude is not simply contrary to godliness, it's socially and spiritually destructive.
George Sordini is probably more of a prototype than an aberration. And, if so, we will see more and more of this sort of behavior. I wonder if anyone will see the connection between our secular, psychological philosophy of life and these events. Or will we continue to be shocked that so many are acting out their pain and despair in such dramatic ways, labeling them "classic mass murderers" and going back to sleep?
