There is some suggestion that jihadist organisations do not recruit
from among the most desperate, but from the comparatively privileged.
Nihilism as a disease of affluence. According to this line of
thinking, it isn't (as one is encouraged to suppose) the desperation
of the hopelessly ground-down that motivates such recruits - it's the
spite of narcissists.
Of course I have no idea if this is true; it's just that as a sometime
spiteful narcissist myself I can see how it might work that way.
Doris Lessing's _The Good Terrorist_ is a study in the psychology of
this type - albeit more the Baader Meinhof sort than the jihadist. My
mum made me read it years ago; I can imagine what she was thinking.
Saw a program with interviews with the surviving Baader Meinhoffers a
while back. Struck by what total wankers they all seemed to be: I mean
really quite personally objectionable individuals.
Dominic
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