Week 11
In our current era, terrorism has slowly switched forms from an organizational network in the 20th century to an independent “lone wolf” archetype of terrorism. The reading for this week’s class shows the disorganized structure of global terrorism and the access to the Internet and technology that make it increasingly difficult to pinpoint who would lead such attacks. Combs 201’s article gives insight into these trends and a hypothesis of what could lead to this category of terrorism.
The world is currently in the midst of the war on terrorism; however, this is not a war on one organization structure; splintered ideologies diverging from extremist groups decentralize the structure of these organizations. IDeologies are spread through the internet as propaganda and disinformation, calling for extreme attacks in solidarity with the terrorist group’s mission. These ideologies influence men, Women, and young adults to act as “lone wolves” and orchestrate independent terrorist attacks. Suicide bombings, car attacks, bombings, and chemical attacks have been seen all over the world. Terrorist organizations are more financed and increasingly loosely structured, allowing individuals to be inspired to spread pain without the explicit instruction of these organizations. With the improvement in technology and illustrative training manuals, the access to perform these attacks has a rising influence on large swaths of people, similar to a virus spreading. The Internet is a database that allows the terrorist organization to prop up different loosely linked websites, allowing its spread to be effective but decentralized enough not to be linked to a common source. One website may be shut down, and another may pop up almost immediately. These websites are also protected by firewalls and source protection, which are not necessarily found on Google or a search engine. Shutting down the internet is not a solution, as there are group chats, telegram chats, and spam links that help fund these structures.
The war on terrorism can be seen as a war on a virus, spreading and seeping into our lives. The recognition of that could help with deterrence and community support. Recognizing that these potential terrorists are within our community spreads awareness and empathy. Terrorism does not have an endpoint; however, more awareness and increased empathy for our common humanity could deter future disasters. There is no clear winner in these types of attacks, but there is a lot of pain and grief associated. As the article quotes, “The end doesn’t justify the means.
One reply on “The virus of pain”
Ava,
This is an interesting and thoughtful blog post. Since 9/11, when the United States and other countries began to focus enormous amount of human and financial resources on terrorism and terrorist groups, these groups responded by changing their tactics–primarily to avoid being detected and destroyed. They now communicate through encrypted apps and operate in small cells, often only loosely coordinated.
You are also quite right that the Internet has become the primary instrument through which terrorist ideologies are communicated and spread. There is so much mis/disinformation on the web that often-innocent and poorly educated people become radicalized based on lies. And, as you pointed out, it is very difficult to stamp out these uses of the Internet, becaue when a site is identified and shut down, another one pops up. This is similar to the child’s game of “Whack a mole.” –Professor Wallerstein