The Radical Loser

[Preacherman]

There's a very interesting article by this title here:

http://www.signandsight.com/features/493.html

In a nutshell, it explores why someone can become a "radical loser", and what happens when a bunch of such people get together - as in Islamic terrorist movements.  Very thought-provoking, and worthwhile reading.  To whet your appetite, here are a couple of excerpts:

Since before the attack on the World Trade Center, political scientists, sociologists and psychologists have been searching in vain for a reliable pattern. Neither poverty nor the experience of political repression alone seem to provide a satisfactory explanation for why young people actively seek out death in a grand bloody finale and aim to take as many people with them as possible. Is there a phenotype that displays the same characteristics down the ages and across all classes and cultures?

But what happens when the radical loser overcomes his isolation, when he becomes socialized, finds a loser-home, from which he can expect not only understanding but also recognition, a collective of people like himself who welcome him, who need him?

Then, the destructive energy that lies within him is multiplied  his unscrupulousness, his amalgam of death-wish and megalomania  and he is rescued from his powerlessness by a fatal sense of omnipotence.

For this to take place, however, a kind of ideological trigger is required to ignite the radical loser and make him explode. As history shows us, offers of this kind have never been in short supply. Their content is of the least importance. They may be religious or political doctrines, nationalist, communist or racist dogmas  any form of sectarianism, however bigoted, is capable of mobilizing the latent energy of the radical loser.

That such an all-encompassing dependency should be experienced as unbearable makes perfect sense. Especially among displaced migrants, regardless of their economic situation, the confrontation with Western civilisation leads to a lasting culture shock. The apparent superabundance of products, opinions, economic and sexual options leads to a double bind of attraction and revulsion, and the abiding memory of the backwardness of one's own culture becomes intolerable. The consequences for one's own sense of self-esteem are clear, as is the urge to compensate by means of conspiracy theories and acts of vengeance. In this situation, many people cannot resist the temptation of the Islamists' offer to punish others for their own failings.

Highly recommended reading.

[SpookyPistolero]

I'll definitely give that a thorough read-through, Preacherman, thanks. I like the excerpts very much. Reminds of some of the 'Cooper Commentaries' where he talks about jealousy being the root of all evil.

My momma used to say that when people (person A) are talking to a much better person than themselves (person B), the good in person B becomes like a mirror, and the lesser people (person A) start to intimately see their personal failings and wrongness. I think maybe others believe that by destroying 'the mirror', they can destroy what is so clearly wrong in themselves, in a way.