Same Old Story: Lack of Agency and Narrative Drives Young Men to the Extreme

A young immigrant man in New York was arrested at JFK Airport on his way to Syria to join ISIS:

In Brooklyn, Eager to Join ISIS, if Only His Mother Would Return His Passport

Aside from the comical implication of a mother taking away her son’s passport so he couldn’t join the world’s most notorious terrorist organization, the larger issue is what drives young men around the world to seek out and join ISIS (women also join but I believe their motivations are different from the men). The New York Times story sets up the subject as a kind of a “loser” relegated to a job chopping onions and tomatoes in a basement, while quietly seething about the permissive moral culture around him. The article posits that this combination led him to want to join ISIS, but I believe there is something else driving these men because not all of them were “losers and misfits.” The story broke yesterday that the so-called “Jihadi John” who ostensibly beheads captives for ISIS is a Kuwaiti who used to live in London with a middle class lifestyle. The NYT ran a video story a month ago of a Malaysian imam who enjoyed a good, stable life with the respect of his community, who left it all behind to join ISIS (and eventually died in the fighting):

The Jihadist In Our Family

They all came from different backgrounds but ended up in the same place fighting for an organization that most of us consider heinous and troglodyte. This is actually nothing new, but has happened throughout human history where men of fighting age (and some too young or old) go off and join an outfit fighting for a cause. And that’s the key here, it’s for a cause that has established a grand narrative at odds with the prevailing one (democratic capitalism in today’s world). All these men felt their life had little or no cause, and that their agency was limited to effect change. From a young age, we are taught that we can be anything we want but then when reaching adulthood, we realize that many of us will not be able to reach that rarefied air  where agency, wealth and power reside. Instead we can only reach a middling level for not everyone can reach the highest rung, even if we try our mightiest and best (not everyone can be above average). ISIS gives a sense of purpose to these men that they cannot or can no longer find in their home cultures/countries. There is no grand narrative for them to live out, no sense of higher purpose to achieve or strive for. Instead ISIS preys on this insecurity and provides a disturbingly twisted but attractive and romantic narrative. Young men in other countries rushed to join the Communist revolutions in Russia and China in the 20th century, even though it proved disastrous. ISIS does the same, and when ISIS fails (which it will), there will be some other grand narrative to take its place for young men to “escape” lives that they perceive to be without or with little meaning, agency or value.

Four Years for “ISIS Bride” Is Harsh Sentence

An incredibly misguided Colorado woman got a four year prison sentence for wanting to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and intending to be a bride for one its soldiers.

Four Years for Wanting to Join ISIS

This sentence is wrong-headed on many levels (and, yes, she will probably not serve the full four years, but even one year is too harsh for this case).

First, any time a government incarcerates a human being then that government is committing a violent act itself. It is unnatural to cage a human being, and should be used only in cases to protect society from future harm (i.e. violent offenders or the criminally insane). This woman committed no act herself, she just intended to join ISIS and had been in the process to do so. Yes, she probably would have done it if the FBI did not stop her at the airport, and, yes, the FBI probably saved her life. The right thing was done by stopping her, and afterwards she has fully cooperated with federal authorities by providing information on her contacts and offering to testify against them. And for this, she received four years in prison? That is not justice. In fact, it will only encourage others not to cooperate with law enforcement in the future. It is the same with John Walker Lindh (“(“the American Taliban”), who is serving a long sentence with no reprieve even after fully cooperating with authorities. He also never fought the US government or military (when he joined the Taliban, the US was at peace with the Taliban and even had talks with their representatives).

Second, imprisoning people is incredibly expensive. Taxpayers are on the hook every time a person is put into prison. The US has over 1% of its population in prison (by far, the highest proportion on the planet), and it is a huge money pit that could be spent on other priorities within the country. This case is just another example of this extreme waste of money, but people don’t say anything or care about it. Deflated footballs get the attention, while the government flushes your money away. Make this woman do community service or garnish her wages as punishment, that would be more civilized, just and effectual.

Stop throwing people into prison for non-violent crimes (particularly first offenders) and wasting taxpayer money.

Originally posted: http://www.mccarthyism.com/2015/20150124.htm