'Suicide Bomber' Is an Aspirational Category
To: Mickey Kaus
Re: The 'Madrassa Myth' Myth
Here's a theory for why so many suicide bombers are relatively well-off and well-educated: suicide bomber is an aspirational category in the Islamist world. Just as America has a hard time encouraging kids from lower socioeconomic groups to believe they can grow up to be doctors and lawyers, so Islamists have trouble encouraging poor kids to imagine themselves as terrorists. Poverty can be cruel to dreams!
P.S.
The solution, in both cases, is probably social equality. When university-educated terrorists start sending their kids to madrassas, we should worry.
Re: The 'Madrassa Myth' Myth
Here's a theory for why so many suicide bombers are relatively well-off and well-educated: suicide bomber is an aspirational category in the Islamist world. Just as America has a hard time encouraging kids from lower socioeconomic groups to believe they can grow up to be doctors and lawyers, so Islamists have trouble encouraging poor kids to imagine themselves as terrorists. Poverty can be cruel to dreams!
P.S.
The solution, in both cases, is probably social equality. When university-educated terrorists start sending their kids to madrassas, we should worry.
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