Marilyn Manson is well-known for his provocative 'shock rock,'? but his multifaceted work merits attention, too, for the elaborate vision of contemporary evangelical America it proposes. Manson's creations are highly controversial, as was shown by the accusations leveled against him after the Columbine massacre in 1999; yet they are richly aesthetic. The article argues that Manson's work should be seen as contravening the 'symbolic misery'? which, according to the French philosopher Bernard Stiegler, pervades western societies and causes such murders.