A similar thread ties the San Bernardino shooters, the Paris attacks of a few months ago and the Charlie Hebdo shooters and many others. The attackers weren't k

A similar thread ties the San Bernardino shooters, the Paris attacks of a few months ago and the Charlie Hebdo shooters and many others. The attackers weren't known as being particularly devout, but they weren't known for having much of a life outside the Jihadi cause. By the time an impressionable, disheartened recruit is on the Internet looking for violent hate speech to adopt, many things have already failed socially for them: a real sense of belonging, dignified prospects, hope for a future, a nurturing, generative ethos, a stable family. They are a socially shattered coterie. Jihad gave them a sense of significance they never had but always wanted. People underestimate a preference to die on one's feet over living on one's knees. Not to mention fighting for a cause larger than oneself, right or wrong.