The Dude In Norway and the Cute Guy Syndrome

"How can cute guys be so mad at the world?"

I know I'm supposed to be talking about money, and I'll get back to it. The subject isn't going away anytime soon. But my thoughts today, as I've been bombarded with the picture of the Dude from Norway online, are about how someone so cute could be so mad at the world.

I can see it a little in the Islamic terrorists. Hell, if I were as ugly as Osama Bin Sharkbait, I'd be mad at the world too. I'm almost as ugly as him, and I deal with it. But others aren't as well adjusted as I am and I can see how they might twist off and think that they should hate the rest of us.

But this guy is damn near beautiful. It's hard to imagine how someone that pretty could be such a slime. They say that the eyes are the window to the soul. His eyes are peaceful, passionate and happy. He looks like the kind of guy that should be at home with a couple of young daughters that he loves more than anything, and a wife who adores him, and a successful career and a good life. He says he's protecting the future of Europe, so he shoots dozens of kids that ARE the future of Europe at point blank range. This makes no sense at all.

Cute guys receive, and are entitled to, special, privileged treatment in this world - especially if they're just a little bit nice. The rest of us have to work to earn the acceptance and respect of others that pretty people enjoy automatically. It's their advantage, and life gave it to them. It's a gift that opens doors for them, and creates opportunities that the rest of us have to strive for.

One would think that, given these opportunities and assets, they'd be a step ahead of everyone else, leading the way to a better world and a more harmonious culture. I don't understand what happens to them to make them so bitter, full of hate and destructive.

Perhaps it is conceit. Maybe they actually believe deep down that they are better than anyone else. Like athletes in High School whose Division 2 scholarship doesn't exactly pave the way to the effortless, successful life they think they're entitled to, maybe these cute guys get burned when they find out that cute only opens doors and doesn't replace character. Perhaps they are blinded by their own light, and never really learn to respect anyone else, only to manipulate them and be a tease.

Whatever their issues are, I don't get it. I have a real weakness for intelligent, passionate, pretty guys. I've met quite a few of them in my life, and a couple of them are just wonderful people. But I've met the other kind too.

In fact, tomorrow, Mr Happy's Halloween, is my opportunity to lick my wounds and lament over my unfortunate and totally innocent association with just such a pretty guy - a guy whose brightness blinded me, who I thought was a friend and an asset and who turned out to be total skank.

I sort of wish I had been given the opportunity to talk to the Norway Dude for a couple of months. Maybe together we could have avoided his doom, saved the lives of a lot of people and prevented a real tragedy in an overall pretty nice part of the world.