Violence... The story so far

A need for a handbook on terror may arise for any of at least four reasons. We discuss them on this page. To begin, a handbook for terror might read:

• debilitate your victim by inducing terror - use any means available;
• invoke political and economic grievances, past insults, and God's will to gain the appearance of a moral crusade;
• find support in the fanatical, immature, and impressionable minds;
• martyr yourself for life everlasting among virgins (directed to males only?);
• fund your projects by any means possible, even stealing from charities and the poor;
• use the openness of democratic societies against them;
• play on the paranoid fears of your victims;
• hit your victims where they are vulnerable and when they are complacent;
• the goal justifies any means, any crime against humanity or nature;
• do not fall into any predictable pattern unless such a pattern amplifies the terror;
• convert, enslave or kill your victims.

Now to the reasons:

Terrorism, in one perspective, is a last resort for the economically disadvantaged. As a last resort, terrorism is claimed to be justified as an attempt to narrow the huge gaps in wealth and privilege among nations, via a war on Zionism for example. When sixty percent (60%) of the world population receives 5.6% of the total world income, there is a problem. And when revenues of the richest 200 corporations exceed those of 150 countries, the issue is seen to be outrageous even to those who are comparatively well off.

In another view, terrorism is the modern jihad for resolving social differences. Natural evolution that encourages, thrives on, and is driven by innate differences, may be a factor in societal evolution toward just this result.

Another view is that small sects see their terrorism as divine providence, even as it is self-proclaimed. The irony here is that most religious-oriented terrorists are (and have been historically) monotheists! And none in our times can claim the moral high ground even though each religion is based in part on a sensible code of ethics and morality. One problem may be that religion is not a suitable basis for the political governance and secular activities that led Europe out of feudalism and repression into enlightened self-government with individual freedom and pluralism.

In yet another view, terrorism arises from our genetic heritage, remnants from the law of the jungle; a simple read of natural history and anthropology testifies to that possibility. In the jungle, those who survive are those who can create, avoid, or otherwise handle its natural dangers. And so it is in this modern jungle we call civilization, where dangers arise from nations as well as individuals or any type or size of organization in between.

These four viewpoints, and there are others, are extreme conditions to be sure, but they can be society-shaking. We use the word extremism in a basic sense: extreme situations relative to the mean or mode of behavior in our civilizations. Within and among the above, we see extreme contrasts in wealth, social, religious, and genetic makeup.

Human beings have compassion for and lend assistance to total strangers. We hope to tap into that compassion as we work to reduce the contrasts among us to reasonable levels.

We must develop means to deal with the many causes for terrorism on both the individual and societal levels. That is our mission. Meanwhile, we must defend ourselves, for that is only common sense. Toward that end, we provide you with the following link.

Suspicious Activity Report Site for reporting suspicious activities to the US Government.

Some popular pages: Natural History | Civilization