tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3760499050398059751.post4387611689472528497..comments2024-01-20T11:41:55.576+01:00Comments on Abu Susu's Blog: Personalized Jihad?Yassin Musharbashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01022989741254984902noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3760499050398059751.post-51695815298078945232013-04-25T10:59:45.791+02:002013-04-25T10:59:45.791+02:00Sharon, Charles -- thanks both of you for the deba...Sharon, Charles -- thanks both of you for the debate! I see common ground here in that we ought to not just treat the brothers as just another case of Jihasists bombing "the West". We need to try and dig deeper and understand that behind all of these terrible careers are personal factors involved -- in some cases more (like this one, presumably), in other to a lesser extent. Yassin Musharbashhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01022989741254984902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3760499050398059751.post-55989263523757539802013-04-25T02:27:05.131+02:002013-04-25T02:27:05.131+02:00I think your meanderings are valid. The Boston Ma...I think your meanderings are valid. The Boston Marathon isn't just a marathon. It happens on Patriot's Day. I can't help but wonder how extensive the influence the Alex Jones crowd had on their thinking. I could tell immediately from one of Dzhokhar's tweets that he was from that mindset. Could it be that they were fed up with the farce of American freedom - at least in terms of what it brought to them - and infuriated by American ignorance about and attacks on Islam? We are hardly nuanced in our understanding of Islam, to say the least. This is not to justify what they did, but an attempt to figure out how the alienation and frustration drove them to become violent. Then again, there is a part of me that wonders if there might be a bit of the sociopath in both. How could they look on so calmly as the bombs exploded? Dzhokhar's interactions with fellow students and the garage mechanic revealed that he was not as cool, calm, and collected as he wanted to believe. Also his seeming willingness to communicate with investigators makes it clear he is not a hardened AQ fighter. In the end I will not be surprised to find out that he doesn't know who he is either.sharon lynchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06062060786536420283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3760499050398059751.post-66888320023133556822013-04-25T00:36:58.571+02:002013-04-25T00:36:58.571+02:00I think it’s an insightful piece, and that your po...I think it’s an insightful piece, and that your point actually militates strongly against silo-ed thinking. <br /><br />The other day in some twitter convo I said “i'd suggest real expertise wld be more than 1 person, & they'd mostly be able to hear one another” and I think that’s pretty much what you’re getting at, when you write:<br /><br /><i>In what sort of capacity, and for which reasons did he take part? They may lie in a sphere to which political scientists, Arabists, journalists or whatever else most of us may be don't necessarily have the best understanding of and access to.</i><br /><br />And:<br /><br /><i>Maybe we should call in the psychologists.</i><br /><br />But you’re right, and wrong, it seems to me, when you say:<br /><br /><i>I am no psychologist and I feel bad even trying for a second to think like one. </i><br /><br />Psychology is not your discipline, okay – but when you notice your discomfort, you’re noticing what the best of them notice – your own thought process as it unspools. <br /><br />And besides, you're a novelist as well as a journalist, aren't you? A writer's imagination may be more familiar with some disciplines than others, but it knows no boundaries...<br /><br />Which brings me to the idea that we don’t actually need another discipline to bring its own turf wars into the conversation, we need a concert of minds, a polyphony of insights.<br /><br />And the listening skills to hear them in counterpoint...<br />Charles Cameron (hipbone)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13765294963993981323noreply@blogger.com