Helter Skelter 2019

In 1969, Charles Manson didn’t just order his ‘family’ to murder Sharon Tate, her friends and numerous other victims for fun.

The atrocities were intended to capitalize on the racial tensions and set off a race war.  It would be Helter Skelter.  Apparently, clues to this apocalypse were within the subtext of Beatles songs.  Sounds crazy? In 1969 California, mix the height of the counter-culture revolution with Manson’s psychopathic messianic complex, not so much.  However, the public didn’t bite.  Manson was convicted and jailed for life.

Also, not so crazy, on March 15^th a mass shooter (whose name will not be included) in New Zealand murdered 49 innocent civilians.  How does this relate to Helter Skelter?  According to his manifesto, the deviant was critically aware of our modern cultural tensions.  Per the manifesto, the massacre was intended to incite the left to push for stricter gun control and incite the right to react to preserve their rights.  His goal was to cause further balkanization of the social and cultural tensions in in the United States and the West.

Before the bodies were even cold, media and the political class turned the horrific massacre into a successful mission.  The media fell over itself to assign blame to gun ownership.  Their primary focus was President Trump’s response to the shooting on Twitter, in America, instead of the manifesto and developments in the case or the massacre.

We still don’t know what law could have prevented this tragedy.  Despite this, New Zealand politicians are broadly enacting gun restrictions.  This was the intent of the shooter.  Its why he chose to use a gun in the first place.  His manifesto outlining all of this was sent to the Guardian just before the shooting.  The media and politicians knew this was what he wanted. They know it now but refuse to show restraint.  That is the difference between the successful New Zealand shooter and Manson’s failure. 

History proved Manson a failure, the apocalypse he sought to catalyze never happened because his conduct failed to divide us.  Time will tell if that becomes the legacy of the deviant in New Zealand or if it becomes ground zero for something worse.