Serial Beheader
“Jihadi John” … is Mohammed Emwazi, a Briton from a well-to-do family who grew up in West London and graduated from [University of Westminster] with a degree in computer programming.
…Kuwaiti-born … in his mid-20s
so…. wait. I thot it was Poverty™ that was…
the root causes of this – what makes these 17-year-old kids pick up an AK-47 instead of trying to start a business?
Maybe we need some Trained Interventionist™ to create a Counter-Narrative™?
Or, maybe, we could take into account Human Nature for what it is and has been for centuries?
Here’s a quote of a book review by a mind far better than mine: I’ve scraped off the identifiers so as not to muddy the point.
…Nearly all western thought …, certainly all “progressive” thought, has assumed tacitly that human beings desire nothing beyond ease, security and avoidance of pain. In such a view of life there is no room, for instance, for patriotism and the military virtues. The Socialist who finds his children playing with soldiers is usually upset, but he is never able to think of a substitute for the tin soldiers; tin pacifists somehow won’t do. [The author], because in his own joyless mind he feels it with exceptional strength, knows that human beings don’t only want comfort, safety, short working-hours, hygiene, birth-control and, in general, common sense; they also, at least intermittently, want struggle and self-sacrifice, not to mention drums, flags and loyalty-parades.
…Whereas Socialism, and even capitalism in a more grudging way, have said to people “I offer you a good time,” [the author] has said to them “I offer you struggle, danger and death,” and as a result a whole nation flings itself at his feet.
Humans have an inherent, basic need to struggle and strive. Without it, they would have failed to survive milennia ago. Just because we have achieved a way to feed, clothe and amuse a great proportion of the population with relatively little struggle does not mean we can all become fat ’n’ happy sitting on our couches and satisfying our needs by watching Survivor. We may be fat but we lack satisfaction.
It’s not the corn syrup in processed foods that is Making America Fat; it is the lack of a struggle to achieve _____________. …whatever that _____________ may be.
It is not Poverty™ that fuels Gang Warfare in the inner cities; it is a lack of focused, Civilized Struggle appropriate to the singular energy of young males. And everyone else. Much as it is with Young Males — and Young Females — and everyone else — who join the unholy “Holy Jihad”.
Granted, many young males have found other, more Civilized ways to satisfy their need for struggle while others become limp metrosexuals lacking in vitality and fierceness yet following Fashion with vigor, others take their fierceness into Activism and, with the enthusiasm and vigor of 13 year-old guurlz, tearing down the Dirtybad/Mean Guurlz on Social Media. Others become invigorated with commercial sports and even riot — create artificial, temporary War — after wins or losses.
It’s extremely difficult to subvert, much less stifle the Human need for Struggle.
Historically, the singular energy of Young Males has been directed by their own Cultures/Civilizations toward conquering the Natural World in order to feed the family/tribe. Or to conquering the ‘barbarians’, to keep from being conquered, and to gain land and other resources — to feed the tribe/society.
The West was an ideal outlet for the Need for Struggle. Men like Carson and Bridger and Williams were extraordinary but the shopkeepers and freighters and town builders — the ‘average people’ — who came after them faced far more dangers than today’s ‘average people’ could withstand. Or than they think they could withstand. Or than they have been led to believe they could withstand…
[Aside: when a Culture gets to the level of promoting “awareness” of crap like “micro-aggressions” as something to Struggle against, we’ve truly lost the plot.]
But struggle engenders self-reliance. It feeds innovation and creativity. And it demonstrates to regular people that they do not need Other People [oft called “The Govt” which term seems to invoke some sort of magic] to make them safe and fight their battles for them.
Therefore they become no longer useful to that element of Humanity [also a constant] who wishes to treat them as the ant treats the aphid. In fact, they become actively hostile to the idea that the work of their own hands and brains ”belongs” to Others.
But, back to the point of why the jihaddis don’t “start a business” instead of picking up an AK-47 — or a scimitar. The ancient and primitive Human need for Struggle.
It can be Civilized into starting a business and many other forms, but… It must still carry the risks, the dangers, and the potential of Great Rewards to satisfy the same needs that were addressed by facing an armed enemy or an angry grizzly, by counting coup on a live Enemy and stealing his horses, by traveling across uncharted wilderness and creating a Home… That is the Evolutionary Question we now face.
Hillary Rodham Clinton exclusively used a personal email account to conduct government business as secretary of state, State Department officials said, and may have violated federal requirements that officials’ correspondence be retained as part of the agency’s record.
[T]his speech* explains what we are up against. Unless we demand Congress define it, immediately, irrespective of what the Joker of State and all those in the administration that are on the wrong side of history are trying to snow the public with!
[T]his year, as many as 6 million taxpayers will learn that they now owe a “Shared Responsibility Payment” because they didn’t have health insurance last year.
