Bleeding Edge, pp. 312-313

[David Kilroy]

Mark's point is too easily glossed over, and it dovetails with Laura's:
among these jihadists there are more than a few who are "successful" people
with fulfilling lives, careers-- even families, yet they are fundamentally
dissatisfied with the powers dominating the world.  They may have had
alternative outlets for their combative desires but they chose martyrdom
because they feel essentially powerless.  Though their methods are
abominable it's hard to argue with that sentiment.  We are all quite
powerless in this respect.

Look at the Losers lashing out across the U.S. now: *our* jihadists.
Paranoid white men who feel their power slipping away, who never properly
mastered their minds or lives, stockpiling arms, cobbling together
militias, blaming anyone brown, women, non-christians-- instead of the
financial forces shaping their communities.  These targets, no matter how
irrationally picked, are easier to attack physically than the withered
self-serving pricks that actually create income inequality.  It's laziness
meshed with despair.  It is the Loser's route.  What makes that path so
seductive is its accessiblity.  It's entry-level, working class,
dumbed-down, approachable.  Attack the people because the Powers aren't on
your level.

Martyrdom is, in the most fucked-up way imaginable, inclusive for people
who feel left behind.  It is its own reward.  An "I was right" because
being right ends in death & freedom from reprisal.  THAT is what's driving
violent insurrection the world over.  It's exactly what's happening with
the jihadists.

America never quite seems to grok this stuff, which is peculiar, because no
matter how big a game we talk we've always been a fractious, tribal
country.  Historically we have always distrusted difference, alienated &
ostracized whole cultures rather than accept them as Human.  So too for the
underclass, the radicals, the eggheads & intellectuals: the Losers who
don't get to be write history.  The American government's problem with
Occupy is the same problem it had with Panthers like Fred Hampton:
politically we thrive on being divisive over what constitutes acceptable
dissent.  We demonize & quash that which we refuse to comprehend, either
with violence or through rhetorical opprobrium, gearing the populace
against it.

And it's not just us.  Either you tune in to Trump's America / Cameron's
vision for a proud England / Xi Jinping's five year plan... or drop out of
the human race.

Jihadists choose violence because ultimately there is some measure of
brotherhood & solace in their "mission", inflicting the only pain it can on
a thankless, embittered power structure wholly lacking compassion and
patience for losers.  And we're all losers down here on the street.
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