Homegrown Western recruits join al-Qaeda to resolve internal adolescent tensions

Evidence

Rather than engaging in nebulous negative sublimation — “Behold, Satan” — it would better behove the opponents of Islamist Terrorism to consider more carefully what is specific about it. As John Stevens noted over the weekend, the typical al-Qaeda terrorist is unlikely to have been parachuted in from an Afghan village. They are much more likely to have lived in the West, either as residents or as nationals. Their affiliation with al-Qaeda will, we can speculate, almost certainly serve the function of resolving a tension in themselves. Al-Qaeda recruit from schools and colleges because they are astute enough to recognise that male adolescence is a time of boiling confusion that craves easy certainties. It cannot be that difficult for a fervent Jihadi to convince impressionable young men adrift in the miserable haze of Babylonic capitalism that it is not al-Qaeda but their enemies who are really Evil. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1437

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: why extremists recruit from the West’s own alienated young rather than importing radicals — the radicalization as identity-resolution thesis.
• XREF: connects to: Al-Qaeda recruits Western residents and recruits adolescents craving easy certainties — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1437; Terrorist groups recruit through family and intimate personal bonds that substitute for kin. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4111

Broader Connections

• Al-Qaeda recruits Western residents and recruits adolescents craving easy certainties #expands (0.85) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1437
• Terrorist groups recruit through family and intimate personal bonds that substitute for kin. #complicates (0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 4111