Disrupting the personal path to violence
People radicalize because someone offers ‘answers,’ writes Phil Gurski.
Elizabeth Moore, the subject of a news story in Friday’s Citizen, was once the “pretty public face” of one of Canada’s nastier white supremacist organizations, Heritage Front.
She joined it in high school before doubts started to set in, and she left after only a few years. She began to speak out publicly against the Front and eventually married a Jewish man, the very ethnicity/faith that her former “colleagues” hated so much.
In her own interpretation of why she joined up, Ms. Moore cites factors such as being the only white girl in her class and feeling disaffected because of “those people over there.” But the most significant reason she offered was that a boy she knew gave her Heritage Front literature.
Bingo! That last point is the key to understanding radicalization. It is not only about alienation or disenfranchisement. It is not only about feeling left out or discriminated against. It is not only about wanting to fit in. It is about who is in your network, the person or people who help you down your personal path to violence.
Every single person who embraces a violent ideology comes to the table with unique characteristics and life experiences. There is no “single pathway” or template. We all go through a stage where we don’t feel 100 per cent great about ourselves and wonder what it all means. This is part of the human condition and growing up.
The key to why a small number go on to join causes like Heritage Front is the sudden appearance of someone who provides THE ANSWER. As Moore describes it, “there’s nothing more powerful than that. It’s like an instant elixir. It solves everything — or seems to.” It is people who cause radicalization, not underlying “issues.”
This is why the notion of “self-radicalization” is nonsensical. If all it took were a pile of grievances, we would have seven billion radicalized people. But we don’t, so something else must be at play. That something else is a “radicalizer” or a facilitator who points you in a direction you hadn’t thought of before.
This is why it is so important to shut down the spewers of hate. There is a catch though: a lot of what these ideologues do and say is protected under constitutional rights to free speech. But just because these activities are protected does not imply that they cannot be challenged and shown for the simple garbage they are. We all have a duty to do so. Phil Gurski is President and CEO of Borealis Threat and Risk Consulting. His third book, the Lesser Jihads, comes out Sept. 15. This is excerpted from his blog at: www. borealisthreatandrisk.com.