A long very interesting read on radicals in the Arab world

Politics International Politics
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[quote]The radical loser

Hans Magnus Enzensberger looks at the kind of ideological trigger required to ignite the radical loser - whether amok killer, murderer or terrorist - and make him explode[/quote]

A very informative and frightening image brought forth by the written word.

signandsight.com/features/493.html

[quote]Many professions take the loser as the object of their studoes and as the basis for their existence. Social psychologists, social workers, social policy experts, criminologists, therapists and others who do not count themselves among the losers would be out of work without him. But with the best will in the world, the client remains obscure to them: their empathy knows clearly-defined professional bounds. One thing they do know is that the radical loser is hard to get through to and, ultimately, unpredictable. Identifying the one person among the hundreds passing through their offices and surgeries who is prepared to go all the way is more than they are capable of. Maybe they sense that this is not just a social issue that can be repaired by bureaucratic means. For the loser keeps his ideas to himself. That is the trouble. He keeps quiet and waits. He lets nothing show. Which is precisely why he is feared. In historical terms, this fear is very old, but today it is more justified than ever. Anyone with the smallest scrap of power within society will at times feel something of the huge destructive energy that lies within the radical loser and which no intervention can neutralize, however well-meaning or serious it might be.

He can explode at any moment. This is the only solution to his problem that he can imagine: a worsening of the evil conditions under which he suffers. The newspapers run stories on him every week: the father of two who killed his wife, his small children and finally himself. Unthinkable! A headline in the local section: A Family Tragedy. Or the man who suddenly barricades himself in his apartment, taking the landlord, who wanted money from him, as his hostage. When the police finally gets to the scene, he starts shooting. He is then said to have “run amok”, a word borrowed from the Malayan. He kills an officer before collapsing in the shower of bullets. What triggered this explosion remains unclear. His wife’s nagging perhaps, noisy neighbours, an argument at the pub, or the bank cancelling his loan. A disparaging remark from a superior is enough to make the man climb a tower and start firing at anything that moves outside the supermarket, not in spite of but precisely because of the fact that this massacre will accelerate his own end. Where on earth did he get that machine pistol from?

At last, this radical loser

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I find this article highly depressing. So there’s no cure? WE have to live with these people?

It could be shorter though, I had to skim.

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[quote]The radical loser
Hans Magnus Enzensberger looks at the kind of ideological trigger required to ignite the radical loser - whether amok killer, murderer or terrorist - and make him explode
I. The isolated individual

It is difficult to talk about the loser, and it is stupid not to.
[/quote]

Wow. Throw around the labels. Brilliant. A person who is alone is a “radical loser”

Labelling people as losers sure doesn’t help the situation.

[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]I find this article highly depressing. So there’s no cure? WE have to live with these people?
[/quote]

Reminds me of that quote from Marilyn Manson in “Bowling for Columbine”; “I wouldn’t say anything to them. I would have listened to them, which is what no one did.”

That makes me sad, ShrimpCrackers. That people aren’t willing to listen to differing view points and try to empathize with why people are acting out. Like somehow you’re special and you would never be capable of doing something horrible.

Type in “Stanford Prison Experiment” or “Milgram experiment” and read a bit about what “normal” people are capable of.

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[quote=“Cyberguerrilla”]
Reminds me of that quote from Marilyn Manson in “Bowling for Columbine”; “I wouldn’t say anything to them. I would have listened to them, which is what no one did.”

That makes me sad, ShrimpCrackers. That people aren’t willing to listen to differing view points and try to empathize with why people are acting out. Like somehow you’re special and you would never be capable of doing something horrible.

Type in “Stanford Prison Experiment” or “Milgram experiment” and read a bit about what “normal” people are capable of.[/quote]
Ah, so the Islamofacists are worthy of “empathy?” Give me right, royal fucking break.

We’ve all been listening to what the Islamofacist losers are saying. They are saying, in a nutshell, that we should all be Muslims.

Over my dead body. Literally.

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[quote=“ShrimpCrackers”]I find this article highly depressing. So there’s no cure? WE have to live with these people?

It could be shorter though, I had to skim.[/quote]

A couple of pieces that might cheer you up

[quote]Buried in Amman’s Rubble: Zarqawi’s Support

Amid the continuing bloodshed in Iraq, there is evidence of fresh thinking. The change is, ironically, brought about by Abu Musab Zarqawi himself, whose indiscriminate terrorism appears to have succeeded in uniting people there against his global jihad ideology. Since the hotel bombings in Zarqawi’s native Jordan, more and more Sunni Iraqis and Arabs have condemned the terrorist leader’s nightmarish vision for their societies – one that promises further “catastrophic” suicide attacks. Their reaction represents an important turning point, both for the militants for whom this change of outlook represents a new predicament and for the U.S. government, which must recognize that securing Iraq’s future stability is not up to foreign military forces but depends on local public opinion.[/quote]
washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co … 02370.html

As well, anti-Zarqawi demos in Morocco and Egypt
.
And, the big picture:

[quote]It’s good to look at the big picture every once in a while

I’ve blogged previously about the fact that there has been a secular trend in the world towards reduced interstate and intrastate violence – i.e., there’s a lot less war going on.

Oxblog links to a new endeavour – the Human Security Report, which is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Canada, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, and the U.K.

The overview is chock-full of heart-warming statistics:

The number of genocides and politicides plummeted by 80% between 1988 and 2001.

The number of armed conflicts around the world has declined by more than 40% since the early 1990s.

International crises, often harbingers of war, declined by more than 70% between 1981 and 2001.

The number of refugees dropped by some 45% between 1992 and 2003, as more and more wars came toan end.

The period since the end of World War II is the longest interval of uninterrupted peace between the major

powers in hundreds of years.

The number of actual and attempted military coups has been declining for more than 40 years. In 1963 there were 25 coups and attempted coups around the world, the highest number in the postorld War II period. In 2004 there were only 10 coup attempts–a 60% decline. All of them failed. [I’ve touched on this point before as well–DD.][/quote]

danieldrezner.com/archives/002448.html

Terrorists- whether groups or loners- we will aways have with us-the Timothy McVeighs, Unabombers etc, not to mention the alphabet soup referred to by Enzensberger.

In the long run, the Islamic fundy terrorists aren’t a big threat, and won’t make that much difference.

(One exception- if they, or anyone else gets ahold of a loose nuke- should be number one priority for security, but apparently isn’t)

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You are wrong.

The Islamofascists remain extremely motivated and very deadly and we cannot afford the luxury of dicking around. We need to win this war now and that means taking Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran out of the picture ASAP. One day, Pakistan will go and then let’s talk about how we do not need to worry about Islamofascists. You have no idea. This is going to be a very costly battle yet and it is possible that a major city in the West will be rendered uninhabitable for generations. Keep dreaming. WE are in a fight for our lives here and we have the collective left sitting around whining about the rights that are not given to a terrorist who wanted to detonate a dirty bomb. We need to get rid of Syria and Iran now or Iraq will not get better nor will Afghanistan. We need the screws on Saudi and then pray oh pray like hell that we have the time and energy and ability to deal with Pakistan when the time comes. You had just better hope like hell that we have a Republican in office then or we are going to suffer A LOT more.