Fatherless Shooters & the Roots of Nietzsche's Violent Child Nihilism

Fatherless Revenge: Numerous recent articles explore the roots of fatherless rage, illustrated by the ultimate act of societal rejection and daddy issues – mass armed murder of strangers. Is this true? Consider: Statistically, “Children in fatherless homes are 279% more likely to deal drugs or carry firearms for offensive purposes versus kids who live with Dads; while 85% of all children with behavioral disorders come from fatherless homes.” (U.S. Dept Justice)

One can speculate the entire disaster of socialism results from a long-running rejection of the human and divine Father's authority and stern love. So, of the 27 deadliest mass shooters, almost all came from broken families with no biological dad at home. Perhaps one came from a home with an intact father – and he was a Muslim radical.

Nietzsche's Role Model: These facts are simply rejected by the left for too well exposing their embargo of male authority. Cowering away from the shadow of the the ultimate male role model – God the Father. Let's too trace the logic of mass murder as daddy rejection to a key thinker, German Friedrich Nietzsche, a brilliantly crazed writer who lost his own father, a pastor, at age 3, and never recovered.

Fuhrer Loved Fred: Hitler embraced Nietzsche, for both Hitler and Frederick rejected the biblical God, Hitler extolling paganism as Nietzsche went full atheist. Consider Michael Kalish's argument why Hitler and the Nazis saw in Nietzsche a hero:

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a fervent philosopher who was anti-democracy, anti-Christianity, anti-Judaism, anti-socialist and self-acclaimed Anti-Christ, expressed his belief in a master race and the coming of a superman in many of his works. In his unique aphoristic style, Nietzsche wrote in The Genealogy of Morals (III 14):

The sick are the great danger of man, not the evil, not the 'beasts of prey.' They who are from the outset botched, oppressed, broken those are they, the weakest are they, who most undermine the life beneath the feet of man, who instill the most dangerous venom and skepticism into our trust in life, in man, in ourselves…Here teem the worms of revenge and vindictiveness; here the air reeks of things secret and unmentionable; here is ever spun the net of the most malignant conspiracy – the conspiracy of the sufferers against the sound and the victorious; here is the sight of the victorious hated.

Context is a critical factor to understanding Nietzsche's philosophy. Nietzsche's reference to the sick, their vengeful attitude and conspiracy, and in related writing, the Jews, parallels the concepts and terminology used in Hitler's Mein Kampf... Can Nietzsche's theories be considered a foundation for Hitler's Mein Kampf? Hitler's explicit condemnations of the slave race, his ravings about the Aryan elite, and his proposed Darwinist resolution...

Hitler + Nietzsche's: Many sympathetic scholars dismiss Hitler's Nietzsche infatuation, but Adolf loved the mad philosopher. No doubt his 'Ubermensch,' aka Superman was a great theme for the crazy eugenics and crackpot race theories Adolf celebrated. In fact, the Nazi's chief policy was Anti-Antisemitism.

Father's Outline: But the real question is how did Friedrich losing his beloved father at such a young age affect his mental development and beliefs? Much of Nietzsche's writings is not just angry but unhinged, as he embraces nihilism, the absence of law or values. Biographer Ronald Hayman stated that when Nietzsche killed off God, he made it necessary for his Superman to 'reevaluate all values,' which ultimately led to his predictable insanity. But loss of a father often leads a son to an unruly life since there is no home male authority figure which often leads to unsanctioned rebellion. See the Federalist:

As University of Virginia Professor Brad Wilcox pointed out back in 2013: “From shootings at MIT (Tsarnaev brothers) to the University of Central Florida to the Learning Academy in Decatur, Ga., nearly every shooting over the last year in Wikipedia’s ‘list of U.S. school attacks’ involved a young man whose parents divorced or never married in the first place.” His observation is largely ignored.

Fatherless Religion: The experience of a human father would seem to make the idea of a Father God more real to a child, whereas his absence gives the opposite effect. See The Impact of Fatherlessness on the Way One Relates to God as Father, by Dobbs, who summarizes in an academic :

Of foremost concern is that of the influence of fatherlessness on the perception of father. The influence of a father has an affect on the perception of God based on the premise that an absent father leads to a negative perception of father. In my survey population, those who were fatherless had an average perception of father score 28.5% lower than those with fathers. This supports the premise that fatherlessness leads to a negative perception of father. However, it was the negative perception of father, rather than fatherlessness itself, which most significantly influences the perception of God.

Fatherless Effects: Here is a list of fatherless effects on kids: The Effects of Growing Up Without a Dad – More Likely to be Aggressive; Depressed; Low Self-Esteem; Do Poorly in Schools; More Likely Incarcerated and to Commit Suicide; More Likely to Use Drugs. One can see how the psyche can be shattered by this male vacuum. Consider a few of the baleful effects of fatherless kids:

63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5x average.
90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.
85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average.  (Center for Disease Control)
80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average.  (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)
71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average.  (National Principals Association Report)

One US Senator speculated:

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) posited a possible connection between children raised with only one parent and particularly senseless crime. He asked, “Why is our culture suddenly producing so many young men who want to murder innocent people?” Then he suggested a few possible answers: “It raises questions like, you know, could things like fatherlessness, the breakdown of families, isolation from civil society, or the glorification of violence be contributing factors?”

The Last Element of this story is the incredible takeover of cutting edge youth culture by nihilism, aka the utter lack of any rules or laws, ““Nihilism” comes from the Latin nihil, or nothing, which means not anything, that which does not exist. It appears in the verb “annihilate,” meaning to bring to nothing, to destroy completely.”

Is the cause really a mystery? See the Federalist:

On CNN’s list of the “27 Deadliest Mass Shootings In U.S. History,” seven of those shootings were committed by young (under 30) males since 2005. Of the seven, only one—Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho (who had been mentally unstable since childhood)—was raised by his biological father throughout childhood.

Of Nietzsche, a king of Nihilism, it's noted:

Nietzsche spoke of “the death of God,” and foresaw the dissolution of traditional religion and metaphysics...he embraced nihilism, rejected philosophical reasoning, and promoted a literary exploration of the human condition, while not being concerned with gaining truth and knowledge in the traditional sense of those terms. It is agreed that he suggested a plan for “becoming what one is” through the cultivation of instincts and various cognitive faculties, a plan that requires constant struggle with one’s psychological and intellectual inheritances.

Rejection of All Values: In rejecting all religion and God Himself, Nietzsche created a world with an extraordinary need. That each person must create all their own values. An insane mission for one who rejected the Protestant biblical God of his father. Nietzsche biographer Ronald Hayman states he gave himself no other choice than to become insane to avoid taking God's place to create all human values and laws.

Nietzsche's Kids: And so Nietzsche's spiritual children, full of incoherent rage and unmet needs, living in a world where only violence makes sense of their fury at abandonment, kill to try and re-balance the spiritual score. And in writing their names across the sky in blood, so drag the world one step closer to an inevitable Apocalypse. God save us.