The Ballad of Victem Blaming

Look at Your Game, Girl is a haunting piece of music, not just because of its melody, but because of the man behind it. Charles Manson wrote the song before he became a household name for orchestrating the brutal Tate-LaBianca murders. At first listen, it appears to be a melancholic reflection on a woman who has lost herself in self-deception, love, and regret. But when considering Manson’s history and his ability to manipulate, control, and brainwash young women, the song takes on a far more sinister meaning. It becomes not just a song, but an eerie confession, a glimpse into the psychology of a man who built his own cult and destroyed the lives of the women he ensnared.

Manson always saw himself as a musician first, long before he became the figurehead of a murderous group. His dreams of fame were the driving force behind many of his actions, and he believed that his music would one day make him a legend. In the late 1960s, he was deeply embedded in the Los Angeles music scene, rubbing shoulders with rock stars and celebrities. He had even managed to get close to Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, who took a liking to Manson’s charisma and musical style. Wilson allowed Manson and his growing group of followers to stay in his house for a period of time, indulging in Manson’s free-love, drug-fueled philosophy. Wilson, fascinated by the counterculture movement, was initially intrigued by Manson’s songs and even introduced him to music industry insiders.

Manson saw Wilson as his ticket to success, and for a moment, it seemed like he might actually achieve his dream. But his delusions of grandeur were shattered when Wilson and the industry professionals he met ultimately rejected him. His erratic behavior and controlling tendencies turned people off. Wilson eventually grew uncomfortable with Manson’s demands and the way he used young women to manipulate situations. Manson didn’t just show up to parties—he arrived with his “Family,” a group of young women whom he had effectively brainwashed. He used them as bait, sending them to seduce influential men in the industry, hoping they could open doors for him. When this failed, Manson’s bitterness grew, and his resentment toward the music industry festered into outright hatred.

His biggest betrayal came when The Beach Boys recorded a version of one of his songs, Cease to Exist, but changed the lyrics and renamed it Never Learn Not to Love without giving Manson credit. For Manson, this wasn’t just a slight—it was a theft, a confirmation that the music industry had used him and thrown him away. He had been on the edge of achieving his dream, only to have it ripped away by the very people he had hoped would recognize his genius. This rejection fueled the anger that would later explode into violence. His failure to break into the music world solidified his belief that the establishment was corrupt, that Hollywood and the music industry were filled with liars and thieves, and that he and his Family needed to bring about a new order—one where he was no longer the outcast, but the leader of a revolution.

The women who surrounded him were the tools he used to navigate this world. They were more than just followers; they were instruments of his will, extensions of his desires. They seduced, manipulated, and carried out his orders. Manson did not have the charm or the connections to get what he wanted, but he understood how men with power could be easily influenced by young, beautiful women under his control. He had trained them to obey, to see the world as he dictated it. When he wanted something—whether it was a meeting with a producer, an invitation to a party, or access to money—he sent the women in first. They would flirt, promise affection, and lure in potential allies.

Manson’s philosophy revolved around the idea of submission, of breaking a person down and reshaping them into something new. This was especially true for the women of the Family. Many of them had come from troubled backgrounds, already lost and searching for meaning. When they met Manson, he became their answer, their guiding force. He provided them with drugs, with purpose, with a sense of family they had never known. But in doing so, he stripped them of their autonomy. He changed their names, convinced them that their past lives were meaningless, that their old selves had to die so they could be reborn under his teachings.

His control over them was absolute. He used LSD not as a recreational drug, but as a weapon. He dosed them heavily, guiding their trips with his own words, ensuring that their hallucinations reinforced his worldview. When they were at their most vulnerable, he planted his ideology into their minds. He repeated his philosophy over and over until they could no longer distinguish their own thoughts from his voice. He turned them against their families, against society, against their own moral instincts. He taught them that there was no right or wrong, that love and death were intertwined, that they had to shed their egos and merge into a collective under his leadership.

Songs like Look at Your Game, Girl are disturbing because they mirror this process of manipulation. The lyrics seem to mock the woman in the song, telling her that she has deceived herself, that she has lost everything by playing a “game” that was never real. This is the same tactic Manson used on his followers—convincing them that their past lives were nothing but illusions, that they had been living a lie before they met him. He often told his girls that they were playing games with their minds, that the world outside was meaningless, that they needed to surrender completely to his truth.

In the song, the woman is left broken, with nothing to show for the “game” she played. This is exactly what happened to the women of the Manson Family. By the time they realized what had happened, it was too late. Many of them had committed murder in his name, believing they were part of something greater. They had gone too far to turn back.

For some of them, the moment of realization came in prison, when Manson’s spell finally wore off. Susan Atkins, one of the most devoted members of the Family, later expressed remorse, saying that she had been completely brainwashed. Leslie Van Houten, once a promising young woman with a bright future, had to face the reality that she had thrown her life away for a man who had manipulated her into killing strangers. Patricia Krenwinkel, who once believed Manson was the center of the universe, later admitted that she had been acting out of blind devotion, that she had done things she never would have done on her own.

Manson himself never showed remorse. He continued to believe in his own myth until the day he died. In his mind, he had been the visionary, the misunderstood genius. His failure in the music industry, his rejection by Wilson and others, only reinforced his belief that he had been right all along—that society was corrupt, that the people in power were liars and thieves, and that he had been betrayed.

But the truth is, Manson was not a visionary. He was a failed musician who turned his bitterness into something far more dangerous. His music never brought him the fame he wanted, but his crimes did. Ironically, the very system he despised made him famous—not for his art, but for his destruction.

His story is a warning about the power of manipulation, about how easy it is to take vulnerable people and turn them into tools of someone else’s agenda. The tactics he used are not unique to him. Cults, radical movements, and even modern social media influencers use the same psychological methods to shape beliefs and control behavior. Manson was just one of many who understood how to break a person down and reshape them in his own image.

Look at Your Game, Girl is more than just a song. It is an echo of Manson’s ideology, a reflection of the way he saw the people around him—as pawns in his game, as lost souls who didn’t even realize they were being played. The tragedy is that for the women who followed him, the game was all too real. By the time they saw through the illusion, their lives were already destroyed.