[FASL] The psychological effects of rejection and rejection management

This past Friday, May 23rd, a massacre occurred, sparking a debate on women’s rights. The massacre was committed by a twenty-two year old man who, before committing suicide, murdered six people. The shooter had been planning this killing for almost a year in his “war against women.” Before the shootings he had left a YouTube video entitled “Elliot Rodger’s Retribution” and a hundred and forty-one page manifesto stating that, "I'm twenty-two years old and still a virgin, never even kissed a girl. And through college, two and a half years, more than that actually, I'm still a virgin. It has been very torturous. The popular kids, you never accepted me and now you will all pay for it. Girls, all I ever wanted was to love you, be loved by you. I wanted a girlfriend. I wanted sex, love, affection, adoration.” He also then killed three of his roommates by stabbing them to death. During the massacre the shooter purposefully targeted the Alpha Phi sorority house at University of California at Santa Barbara; fatally shooting two women standing outside the house. He then went on a rampage killing another man and then finally himself after injuring thirteen others.

His reason for this premeditated massacre was that a girl in the seventh grade of middle school rejected him.  The ripple effect of rejection is toxic to the whole society and we should begin to have the discussion on how to educate ourselves, especially young people on how to understand and better manage impulsive emotion triggered by rejection. 

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