Terrorism is not a particularly new problem — it’s been a part of the world since civilization first organized. Despite how old it is, what we know about terrorist motivations and psychology is fairly …
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There is a tipical archetype of terrorist in the literature: Michael Kolhaas (written by Heinrich von Kleist) Very exciting novel, I suggest it for reading.
Interesting article, with many important points to contribute. I wonder, though, if we are still self-limiting by giving too little attention to the interactive dialogue between the terrorist group and its presumed constituency. Much of the relevant literature seems to see this dialogue largely in terms of propaganda, but if terrorism is as much about perceptions and leveraging perceptions, it seems this area may warrant more attention and study.
I think envy may be a factor too.
By killing someone who is more rich, powerful, fortunate, you become superior to them, even if you kill yourself in the process.
A lot of people seem to hate America, or increasingly China, simply because they appear to be “top dog”, which is what they want to be.
Von Clausewitz called war “diplomacy by other means.” Terrorism is “war by other means,” carried out by people who wholeheartedly reject the notion that there can and should only be “one gun” in a civilized society.
I’m not so sure that terrorists approach their tasks with a psychology that is based on lies. I think it’s that they approach their tasks with the standpoint that human life is less important than their political goals. That human life, in many cases, include their own.
Here’s what we in the civilized world are up against. The leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, was quoted in 2006 thusly:
“We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.”
‘Til that attitude changes? Nothing changes. Absolutely nothing
The lack of a really effective impartial international judicial system can’t help, often terrorists really are victims, if there was a fair justice system, who knows, perhaps they would perfer this (I realise this won’t be happening in a hurry, the powers that be might prefer a bit of terrorism to internatinal justice!)
Without a respected, effective justice system within any given nation many of its’ inhabitants might be behaiving like terrorists, taking punishment clumsily into their own hands, trapped in barbaric cycles of revenge.
It’s my understanding it is often like this in areas remote from the law and was often like this before the state in Europe, maybe not always.
hello, i liked this artical. however, i dont think that we are adressing other iues with in this topic. i am meaning that we are focused on muslum groups and we do not look at the groups in the us. I mean what about the white saprimasy groups that have peopl joyn them every day. just because they do not go out and cause harm any more dont you thing they should have a look too? If you do not know these groups they are the skin heads, airyun alinces, the kkk, and the amarican nokcess. Thouse are the ones that are know. what about the ones that are not? i am just saying that they should consider domistic tarisum. thanks fred
I liked this article too but I completely agree with Fredericka in that we often focus too much on terrorists who are muslims but disregard all others that don’t fall into this group.
Although it may seem that all terrorists are muslim, we are actually only made to believe this as other terrorist groups do gain the same attention as muslim terrorists.
Within psychology this is not right as the understanding we gleam from studying one group cannot be generalised to other groups as they may be different in some way or other. Therefore, we are not truly understanding terrorism. xx Marie
I read your work on terrorism and I, being a PhD scholar am looking for a foreign reviewer who can review my thesis. I request you “if you would like to be my reviewer?
will weoght for your reply.
Rehana