I rarely rant about
current affairs. That is for people with
more flexible schedules, and nimble minds.
I take time to think my rants through and then to write them. I’m hoping the topics are not going to be
moot a week from posting them.
But at the same time
I feel that we are seeing something quite unprecedented here, so it would look
odd in perspective, if somebody looked at these ten years down the line, and
got the impression that I was ranting about pandas, heels and washing machines,
as if there wasn’t a massive war going on, a war which scores of my countrymen (and
some countrywomen) were joining.
In this day and age
that post-dates Enlightenment by about 250 years, European kids are running off
to fight the good fight, not for any noble humanitarian reasons, but in order
to force a brutal religious dictatorship on people and off with their heads if
they don’t conform.
There seems to be a
certain amount of head scratching going on among people of just about every
colour and creed in Europe. We don’t
understand why this is happening. The
parents and friends of these facebook-jihadists don’t understand why this is
happening.
I actually find it
quite easy to understand.
It is happening
because these people are young and because they are confused. ISIS responds to their twin need of absolute
certainty at a time when everything is uncertain and for adventure that just
doesn’t get satisfied by playing video games.
Don’t you remember
when you were young? There are all kinds
of confusing ideas going on in your head.
Your body is doing funny things.
You are supposed to start behaving like a grown up, having a life plan,
deciding what you want to do with your life.
We all thought on some level that we were going to be special when we
were kids. We were going to have a
purpose and make a difference. We were
going to change the world. Now it was
dawning on us that we probably weren’t.
Being a lawyer or a lab technician was not the master plan we had
vaguely imagined as kids. The adult that
we were becoming was bound to disappoint everyone, but most of all the kid we had so recently been.
Add to that the
confusion of living at the intersection of two cultures, which are both pulling
you in different directions. There is
simply no way of satisfying everyone around you, the needs and wishes of your
parents are diametrically opposed to those of (some of your) friends.
This is when someone
comes and tells you that he has all the answers. No need to make difficult choices, no need to
feel inadequate and confused. The
answers are all there, in the holy book.
You are special, you have a mission from god. You are god’s soldier. You just have to follow the rules and orders.
But there is
more. You don’t just want certainty and
a purpose. You want adventure. Boys will be boys, they say. Boys drive too fast and they commit petty
crime. But that is all a bit lame, all a
bit childish. You get told that you get
to go and BLOW SHIT UP. And you can be
absolutely certain that this is happening for a good cause. Not just a good cause, but the only cause
there is. God’s cause.
Alas, a full circle. It all comes
together beautifully. God is the answer to your need for certainty as well as to your need for adventure.
Now I don’t know how
many of them are disappointed or scared or regretful when they arrive in Syria
and reality kicks in. I understand that
the westerners hang out among themselves, so that will probably make it easier. But I don’t know what happens to these
people. Chopping off someone’s head or
taking part in gang rape is presumably a bit more difficult to grow out of than
shoplifting.
So I don’t know
much. But I think I know why this is
happening.
Thoughts?
I also have an idea
(not THE idea, just AN idea) how this could be tackled. I’ll get back to that in my next rant.
