Sociology and Explanations (Re: Hitchens responds to critics

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Sat Sep 29 11:05:28 PDT 2001


Doug Henwood wrote:
>
>
>
> terrorists emerge from a
> severly discontented population
>

This seems right. Terrorism is an extreme form of individualist politics, but with fairly rare exceptions I would think terrorists can't operate without a sense (accurate or deluded) that their "cause" echoes some sort of popular demand. McVeigh, I understand, did not really represent the militia, but the existence of the militia and other similar activity created the atmosphere that made him possible. And whatever the "psychological profile" of the Unabomber, his personal motivations would have taken some other form had no environmental movement existed.

Carrol



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