Militant solidarity grows from intimate action-buddy bonds, not top-down recruitment

Evidence

Soccer, paintball, camping, hiking, rafting, body building, martial arts training, and other forms of physically stimulating and intimate group action create a small cultural niche: a bunch of buddies who become a “band of brothers” in a glorious cause (Atran 2010). It usually suffices that one or a few of these action buddies come to believe in the cause, truly and uncompromisingly, and for the rest to follow even unto death. This is in contrast to exaggerated notions of “command and control” organizations sending recruiters to “brainwash” unwitting minds into joining well-structured organizations. Standard counterterrorism notions of “cells” and “recruitment”—and to some degree even “leadership”—often reflect more the psychology and organization of people analyzing terrorist groups than terrorist groups themselves. — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 63

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s theme of manufactured vs. primordial group solidarity — this argues solidarity is made through shared embodied action, not pre-given identity or doctrine. — connects to: Group solidarity can form through shared bodily practice, not shared ideas — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics: how Americans…, 686; Group cohesion grows from networked personal bonds, not mere shared categories — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor: Unconditional…, 52; A trusted friend’s offer of belonging can initiate the radicalization pathway
• ADDENDUM: Pairs with the Grafting article’s ‘grafting as narrative metaphor’: band-of-brothers bonds forged through shared physical action parallel how two separate trees can fuse into one organism.

Related

• A trusted friend’s offer of belonging can initiate the radicalization pathway (similarity 0.81)
• Group cohesion grows from networked personal bonds, not mere shared categories (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Group cohesion grows from networked personal bonds, not mere shared categories #expands (0.88) — Scott Atran, The Devoted Actor, 52
• Group solidarity can form through shared bodily practice, not shared ideas #expands (0.85) — Nina Eliasoph, Avoiding politics, 686