What makes a terrorist?

[Uncle Timmy]

Historically, the root cause of terrorism is always the same...passion for a cause + greatly disproportionate resources that makes it impossible to fight for the cause in a conventional manner = terrorism.

With the occasional exception of state-sponsored terrorism that is employed as a tactic in a broader campaign and is inspired by true terrorism but lacks the idealism and passion. Perhaps instead of terrorism, we should call it malignant desperationism. Then, perhaps, when we asked what makes a person, a group, malignantly desperate we could gain some insight.

Approaching the topic from a historical perspective, though, I often wonder what caused the shift in the late 20th century away from the highly effective methods of peaceful resistance and nonviolent civil disobedience and toward the much less effective tactic of terrorism. I believe the shift occurred in the 70's, and it seemed to be a sudden seismic shift that began in the Middle East but was taken up by all resistance groups by the 80's and continuing through today.

I like your theory.


To answer your question, I think that the shift that we saw in 20th century is largely attributable to the ?technology of terrorism?.

Clearly, passionate causes fighting a disproportionate struggle against powerful adversaries has always been part of human history.

But until there were commercial aircraft to target, or sophisticated high explosive devices and timing mechanisms ? it was kind of hard to practice terrorism as we know it.

Just look at bin Laden ? he wouldn?t be very effective without his cell phones, access to electronic banking etc.

 

[Kurt]

How does the song go? Terrorism is just another word for nothing left to lose.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Although the causes for which the terrorists fight, may not be worthy causes in our opinion, they do have a purpose, an end result in mind. Last night I had dinner with a very young Marine who has spent 7 months in Iraq. His job is to prepare bombs with fuses and detonators to get them ready for action. He says that all he wants to do is go blow sh_t up. The military trains these young men in such ways that when coupled with all of the testosterone of these men, they are not left with fighting for a cause. They simple get pumped up about killing people and blowing sh_t up.

Terrorism, or just blowing sh_t up and killing because someone tell you to do so, are two different things, but I sort of find terrorism to be the least scary of the two.

 

[Bob]

Terrorism is the dark side of technology. Einstein had something to say about this.

 

[SON]

You are right in the way a young mind can be trained
There's talk of a new draft

And Hezbollah has a video game to train their children to kill Israeli's

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,293616,00.html

 

[Smiling JOe]

Terrorism is the dark side of technology. Einstein had something to say about this.

What is that Einstein quote? Something about World War III being fought with sticks and stones. I think Ted Kaczynski was also trying to alert people to the dangers of technology. Ever read his manifesto? It is rather interesting.

 

[Miss Kitty]

:roll: ...hey all you internet people...6thGen is hanging with real people right now.

 

[Bob]

What is that Einstein quote? Something about World War III being fought with sticks and stones. I think Ted Kaczynski was also trying to alert people to the dangers of technology. Ever read his manifesto? It is rather interesting.

he wasn't thrilled about nuclear fission in a convenient ready-to-go package. Wasn't it H. Ross who coined the phrase" Hey you internet people".

 

[Uncle Timmy]

Can anyone think of an example where technology didn?t enable terrorism?

The KKK maybe.

Perhaps we?ve stumbled on something that could be a ?root cause?. It certainly helps explain the absence of terrorism until fairly recently.

 

[Miss Kitty]

he wasn't thrilled about nuclear fission in a convenient ready-to-go package. Wasn't it H. Ross that coined the phrase" Hey you internet people".

...omg, BOB...another TEXAN!!! They are everywhere!