Breaking the Mirror of the Spectacle: Mass Murder/Suicide as the Ecstasy of Simulated Experience

This article develops a sociological understanding of the lone mass shooter and the ways in which his affectual constellation is produced within and mirrors the social space. It begins by outlining the contemporary political context of terrorism. The article then explores the affectual constellation of an isolated mass murderer, by asking the question ‘what is a loser?’. Following this, it links the emergence of the radical loser to modernity through an exploration of the genealogy of nihilism. Then, taking the mass murderer Elliot Rodger as a paradigmatic case, it explores the ways in which his affectual constellation can be understood as produced within the capitalist social formation. Finally, it argues that mass murder can be understood as the ecstasy of simulated experience, its violent countertransference, constituting a zone of indistinction between the spectacle and the real, killing and being killed.

Populist Publics

In May 2016, the Philippines elected a self-confessed mass murderer as president of one of Asia’s oldest democracies. There are many interpretations for Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to power. This chapter offers a distinct perspective from disaster-affected communities who actively campaigned for Duterte. It argues that the emergence of ‘populist publics’ cannot be reduced to a simple case of a demagogue manipulating the sentiments of desperate citizens. Instead, the chapter argues that the relationship between Duterte and disaster survivors is negotiated and contingent, conditional and not fanatical, morally complex and not based on hasty judgment. The chapter argues that populists must also be understood not only in terms of what they say but also how they engage in affective forms of attunement, which allows them to effectively respond to hidden injuries of communities of misery.

The Psychology of the Holocaust in Perspective

Chapter 12 attempts to address the questions many of us ask about the behavior of perpetrators and others during the Holocaust in light of the material presented in the preceding eleven chapters. Is the potential for genocidal behavior universal? Could anyone become a mass murderer under the right circumstances? Is the potential for genocide greater in more modern societies? Of Mind and Murder is not intended to offer definitive answers to any of these questions but to hopefully summarize and contextualize much previous work on the psychology of the Holocaust in ways that might stimulate fruitful discussions of these and other important questions.