Greek tragedy was and remains conceivable due to profound and at least seemingly irresolvable conflicts faced by the subject; in general, it speaks well of those Greeks, being willing to come to terms with conflicting values, gods, choices, deemed important enough to sustain personal conscience, familial and social life, etc.
But here, in the name of ultimate value (or is this merely representative of personal/social and political pathologies and nothing more?), a this-worldly nihilism is put into practice in a matter-of-fact manner. Metaphysical and ontological incoherence: the only thing that truly is is the deity and the sacrifice to the deity; all else is a wastrel, incarnate nothingness.
There can be no greater proof that culture is a major factor in developing and shaping conflict. I'm sure Richard Landes would agree: this woman leveraged one of--if not the most--powerful memes in Arab-Muslim culture: shame. There is no doubt in my mind that in similar circumstance, culturally dissimilar Western women could not be convinced to blow themselves up for having been raped. This cultural construct simply does not exist in the West: the need to erase the shame of rape through the murder of the VICTIM.
These 36 attacks alone--apparently orchestrated by one woman who played on that cultural meme--are both qualitatively and quantitatively enough to blow universalist hypotheses like Robert Pape's out of the water. I don't even think Pape's statistical sample in "Dying to Win" exceeded 200 suicide attacks over 20 years. He claimed it was military occupation at the root of most suicide terrorism, not the particulars of culture or religion. I wonder how he'd react to this?
Yes! This woman played on cultural themes and was in turn gifted with a cadre of suicide killers she would have been unable to find in a Western cultural setting (except to such an extent as she could find recruits in the West who had imported their culture with them -- a good argument for careful immigration rules and law enforcement un-hobbled by politically correct concerns).
This was happening in Israel during the spate of suicide bombings whenever a woman was involved. To the media they were idealistic.
They were given a choice they could not refuse, or by honour killing or by self-detonation (some were not by way of explosives but attempts with knives to free themselves of the original sin).
The most blatant one was where the husband's cousin "had relations" with the wife and then the two drove her to the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza where she blew herself up.
The husband must be psychotic to concoct such a diabolic scheme.
Ends. Means.
Greek tragedy was and remains conceivable due to profound and at least seemingly irresolvable conflicts faced by the subject; in general, it speaks well of those Greeks, being willing to come to terms with conflicting values, gods, choices, deemed important enough to sustain personal conscience, familial and social life, etc.
But here, in the name of ultimate value (or is this merely representative of personal/social and political pathologies and nothing more?), a this-worldly nihilism is put into practice in a matter-of-fact manner. Metaphysical and ontological incoherence: the only thing that truly is is the deity and the sacrifice to the deity; all else is a wastrel, incarnate nothingness.
Martin,
There can be no greater proof that culture is a major factor in developing and shaping conflict. I'm sure Richard Landes would agree: this woman leveraged one of--if not the most--powerful memes in Arab-Muslim culture: shame. There is no doubt in my mind that in similar circumstance, culturally dissimilar Western women could not be convinced to blow themselves up for having been raped. This cultural construct simply does not exist in the West: the need to erase the shame of rape through the murder of the VICTIM.
These 36 attacks alone--apparently orchestrated by one woman who played on that cultural meme--are both qualitatively and quantitatively enough to blow universalist hypotheses like Robert Pape's out of the water. I don't even think Pape's statistical sample in "Dying to Win" exceeded 200 suicide attacks over 20 years. He claimed it was military occupation at the root of most suicide terrorism, not the particulars of culture or religion. I wonder how he'd react to this?
Stu
Yes! This woman played on cultural themes and was in turn gifted with a cadre of suicide killers she would have been unable to find in a Western cultural setting (except to such an extent as she could find recruits in the West who had imported their culture with them -- a good argument for careful immigration rules and law enforcement un-hobbled by politically correct concerns).
Stu,
This was happening in Israel during the spate of suicide bombings whenever a woman was involved. To the media they were idealistic.
They were given a choice they could not refuse, or by honour killing or by self-detonation (some were not by way of explosives but attempts with knives to free themselves of the original sin).
The most blatant one was where the husband's cousin "had relations" with the wife and then the two drove her to the Erez crossing between Israel and Gaza where she blew herself up.
The husband must be psychotic to concoct such a diabolic scheme.
The male model, here. It's not depraved though; that would be grossly judgemental, a failure to be open-minded.
h/t Insta guy