October 11, 2008

Terrorism as a Career Option

By Douglas Stone
Among the greatest underrated factors energizing the tides of history is boredom.  Boredom and peer pressure and the love of personal power and wealth, and all the other mundane and often ugly personal drives that have a force that can exceed the most profound political or religious beliefs -- and for that reason have often built or broken empires.  It was partly boredom that urged young men onto ships to explore the New World and later prompted them to join wagon trains to settle the West.  In the early days of the Civil War, peer pressure worked on state legislatures to prod many former Union stalwarts to embrace the Confederacy.  And in our own time, in the 1960s, rioting in the ghettos and among students was often motivated by nothing more than a testosterone-fueled sense of power and a desire to loot and destroy.  In the Middle East today, it is often boredom and peer pressure, and -- among the leaders especially -- the desire for sheer power and wealth,...(Read Full Article)