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> We will probably never understand why any one young man decides to end the lives of others. [...] Actually, there is a very easy answer and precisely why men
by alacombe 9y ago
> We will probably never understand why any one young man decides to end the lives of others. [...]
Actually, there is a very easy answer and precisely why men join armed forces, or a biker's club / gang / ISIS: power. [and to follow up on this, the same "will to power" that our societies have deprived them of.]
- hoodoof 9y agoAdult men joining gangs just seems so childish. I remember wanting to be in a gang when I was 15 years old but I grew out of it.
- alacombe 9y agoExactly, this is generally going to happen before 25 years old, when the frontal cortex is not yet fully developed. Which is another pattern: most are below 25 years of age.
- harry8 9y ago[citation needed] I can think of as many examples of wanton killers from all ages, genders, races etc. But now I've said that I'm not sure I want to look at those stats.
- colechristensen 9y agoHumans form social groups. If you have a segment of the population that has nowhere to be part of a group, they'll find a place to be part of a group.
- shard972 9y agoDid you grow up in the lower class though? You would never expect someone from the upper class for instance to join a street gang and rare for people from the middle class in general. You might think it is childish, but if it's presented to you as the ticket to success in your otherwise unsuccessfull world, why would it be childish?
- hoodoof 9y agoThat's a reasonable counterpoint.
- harry8 9y agojoining the golf club? Cliques are not unknown in middle class life. We may heap scorn upon them by naming them gangs in conversation. Organisational rules being more subtle does not make an organised group less effective than disorganised individuals. Management "teams" are a thing most of us have to deal with.
- debatem1 9y agoGangs are fascinatingly effective and persistent social structures. I suspect that they and the three/four man squad form the minimum viable products for defensive and offensive operations, respectively. The conclusion from that is that it can be rational to want to join a gang when in a situation where larger forms of political or military organization are undesirable or ineffective, and particularly when they're suppressed or are active adversaries.
- redleggedfrog 9y agoYou forgot political parties. That's the tribalism for the masses.
- harry8 9y ago“Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.” Yeah its a quote, Mencken if you need source. Yeah quotes are not a substitute for thought. Yes. I don't pretend to have all the answers but I'm pretty sure one answer does not fit every single individual in finding their motive to do or not do any one thing. We all need the humility to note that what I think I may do in a certain set of circumstances is not what another person might do, they may well just be better than I am, for example. What I will say is that in this topic there is fear (and rightly so). This fear will bring out the salespeople who may even believe 100% in the ideas they're pushing. So we should be mindful of that as we listen to it all.
- txt 9y agoBravo, took all the words out of my head!
- telesilla 9y agoThis is a good overview of the topic of youth violence in schools: https://books.google.be/books?id=XYAFC3vmPmcC&dq=%22will+to+power%22+columbine&source=gbs_navlinks_s https://books.google.be/books?id=XYAFC3vmPmcC&dq=%22will+to+... A young killer supplants "his lost, confused, and unstable self-image with an actively nihilistic will to power." (A reference to Nietzschean nihilism)
- giardini 9y agotelesillla says>"A young killer supplants "his lost, confused, and unstable self-image with an actively nihilistic will to power." Is this possibly also how normal teens become political science students?
- redleggedfrog 9y agoYou forgot political parties. That's the tribalism for the masses.