Looking at the facts of this terrible tragedy and the ones before it might just provide us the insight we need to prevent future attacks.
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While the world continues to mourn the loss of life in Paris and the retaliations continue, I find myself wanting to have a better understanding of the underlying causes of these mass killings. It’s certainly simpler and, in some ways, more comforting to just say the cause was terrorism and the solution is to wipe out the terrorists. But that solution has a number of problems.
The first is it fails to get to the real factors causing the problem. The second is that in our zeal to protect ourselves, we inadvertently kill and wound other humans and induce more young men to grow up hating us and looking for ways to get even.
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Terrorism is generally thought of as the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.
Since 2000 there has been over a five-fold increase in the number of deaths from terrorism, rising from 3,361 in 2000 to 17,958 in 2013.
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Based on this definition, terrorism is on the increase world-wide. The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress. Each year they compile “The Global Terrorism Index” to measure and understand the impact of terrorism in the world.
Since 2000 there has been over a five-fold increase in the number of deaths from terrorism, rising from 3,361 in 2000 to 17,958 in 2013. Since last spring the group, known as ISIS or ISIL, has been expanding beyond its local struggle to international terrorism. In the last two weeks, it did that in a spectacular way, first claiming responsibility for downing a Russian planeload of 224 passengers, then sending squads of killers who ended the lives of 43 people in Beirut and 129 in Paris.
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Here are five underlying causes of the killings that few people are addressing:
Terrorism thrives in areas of conflict.
Though we are rightly concerned about terrorist attacks in our own country, most terrorist killings occur in countries where there is ongoing conflict. Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria accounted for 78% of all deaths in 2014.
Terrorism thrives in countries with large populations of young males.
“Young people without jobs and with few prospects for the future, inevitably end up becoming angry and seeking out enablers to their fantasies of ‘getting back at the world’ for their perceived feelings of loss or lost opportunity.”
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According to CIA World Factbook, the median age of males world-wide is just under 30 years. Would you care to guess the median age of the males in the countries where most of the terrorist killings are being planned and executed? The simple answer is that five countries with the highest number of terrorist killings have some of the youngest populations of males. Here are the median ages of males:
- Iraq, 21.4
- Nigeria 18.1
- Afghanistan 18.1
- Pakistan, 22.6
- Syria, 23.7
Terrorism thrives in countries with high unemployment.
John Brian Shannon, a writer and contributor to the United Nations Development Program says, “High Youth Unemployment in the Middle East fuels ISIS growth.” After studying the relationship between unemployment and terrorism, Shannon draws this conclusion:
“Unemployment among youths continues to hit 70% in some Middle East countries. It’s not a temporary situation it’s the normal state of affairs there, and almost alone it’s responsible for the rapid rise of terror and other crime throughout the region.
“Young people without jobs and with few prospects for the future, inevitably end up becoming angry and seeking out enablers to their fantasies of ‘getting back at the world’ for their perceived feelings of loss or lost opportunity.”
Terrorism thrives in countries where young men have given up hope.
Terrorism thrives in countries where people want to reject the modern world and want to return to the past.
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Think about what it takes to become a terrorist and be willing to kill and die. Whatever their ideological beliefs, these are depressed young men. Imagine what it is like to be a young man living in a country where there is constant conflict. The girls you are attracted to won’t even look at you because your future prospects look hopeless. You can’t get a job that would convince a young woman to go out with you. These kinds of conditions often bring about deep feelings of depression and low self-worth.
Women and girls tend to “act in” their depression and feel sad and hopeless. Men and boys tend to “act out” their depression and become irritable and angry.
Terrorism thrives in countries where people want to reject the modern world and want to return to the past.
The majority of claimed deaths from terrorist attacks, 66 per cent in 2013, are claimed by only four terrorist organizations; ISIL (ISIS), Boko Haram, the Taliban and al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. Variations of religious ideologies based on extreme interpretations of Wahhabi Islam are the key commonality for all four groups.
An in-depth article in The Atlantic, by Graeme Wood, concludes,
“The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse.”
I look forward to your comments on this article as well as on my earlier article on the causes of the Paris killings. If you would like to learn more about how we can improve the lives of young men and their families, come visit me at www.MenAlive.com where you can take the quiz that describes the relationship between irritability, anger, and male-type depression.
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Photo: Getty Images
I totally disagree with the arguments in this article. The five points are mostly vague generalizations that are easily refuted. First, areas of the world with high unemployment that have not resulted in terrorism are: Hawaii, Uruguay, Uganda, Vietnam, and Georgia. Those areas have not been affected by terrorism or the mass murders so common in the states today. I think stigmatizing men as more prone to violence/murder is very sexist. The countries that you mention (Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria) are all countries that are currently war zones. How exactly do you distinguish between acts of war and… Read more »
The big ‘Hidden’ factor behind the Paris attacks, is that the US had founded, funded, supplied, and continues to support government destabilization under their umbrella of Color Revolutions with the current branding of ‘ISIS’. By their own admission, The DIA has lined out the creation and funding from day one as a proxy force to oust Assad. What ever ‘ISIS’ does – it is with the tacit approval, direction, funding and protection of US apparatchik. ISIS is U.S. – it is only ‘Hidden’ to those that are blinded by patriotism, and cowboy despotism.
I agree with the importance of looking at these root causes. Driving several of these — e.g. lack of employment, lack of hope — are some very basic issues of environmental degradation and populations exceeding the carrying capacity of the land. Layered on top of this is a rapidly changing climate which in many locations degrades the human carrying capacity, see Researchers Link Syrian Conflict to a Drought Made Worse by Climate Change at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/earth/study-links-syria-conflict-to-drought-caused-by-climate-change.html?_r=0 . Recognizing these causes can dramatically alter the choice of effective solutions, from Trumps well received, “I would bomb the shit out of them” to… Read more »
I also wonder how much money / resources are earmarked for the benefit of men and how much is earmarked for the benefit of women by NGOs and foreign governments. It just seems like in Africa in particular the majority of “humanitarian” money spent on “men’s health” is spent to circumcise them including paying them (illegally, but sometimes called a “reimbursement”) to get it done.
John, Looking at attitudes and values and where we spend our money is important. We need to look deeper than the headlines to better understand what is going on in the world. Sex and gender issues are important, I believe.