Psycho-Social Processes Through Which an Individual Becomes a Torturer or Suicide Bomber - Essay Example

? What Are the Psycho-Social Processes Through Which an Individual Becomes a Torturer or Suicide Bomber Introduction There are many problems and evils in this world for which we seemingly have no answer. The injustice that exists all around us often boggles as much as it infuriates us. In recent years, terrorism has increasingly become a concern globally as hate is perpetuated and acted out upon. There is little hope of truly understand the mind of someone that wants to wreak such havoc on a grand scale on different people groups. The most common rationale considered for this type of behavior is based upon ideological or fundamental religious differences. Rather than seeking a diplomatic solution, or working through government channels to iron out various differences, these individuals or organizations typically take matters into their own hate and commit grave acts of violence against fellow human kind. One tool of the terrorist is the suicide bomber. Such individuals can either truly be acting alone, or they may be a pawn in the large scheme of a vast terrorist or criminal organization. What is for certain, however, is that it is important to understand the psycho-social responses that typically are evident in either a torturer or suicide bomber in an effort to better understand their mindset and how to minimize their actions moving forward. That is the focus of this paper. 2. The Real Meaning of a Suicide Bomber While suicide bombers are most commonly thought to be fundamentalist Muslims, anyone who seeks to cause as much damage as possible, within a centralized area, all the while destroying themselves in the process will be considered a suicide bomber. Such bombers can be religious in nature, or they can be attempting to further some type of ideological cause. When consider the strategy of these individuals, it can be said that the concept of suicide bombing is actually quite logical. The bomber conceals certain explosives upon themselves, usually willingly, and in essence smuggle the tools of death into a population that is usually quite dense and of their choosing. Often times a specific target is chosen and the bomber simply has to get close to the location in order to be effective. As a consequence of the suicide bomber being able to choose his or her own location before activating the bomb, their precision actually becomes as good or even better than the best missile guidance systems currently known to man (Baum, 2008). In addition, suicide bombers do not have to wait for permission to activate their bomb. There is no set chain of common once the order has been given, or once the individual decides to take action on their own, as they truly control their own destiny and that of everyone else in the vicinity. In actual terms it is most difficult to stop the suicide bomber because of their fully determined dedication to what they are doing and the reality that is extremely difficult to know who is willing to commit such acts of hatred before it actually occurs. While modern day rules of engagement usually dictate that the other side knows that an attack on their area in eminent, suicide bombers give no such warning, which truly make them nearly the perfect weapon against which there is no proven defense. As such, it becomes even more important to understand what is taking place in the mind of the suicide bomber in order to understand how to defend against them. Suicide bombers can be a man, woman, or child. This reality makes the concept even more infuriating to much of society. Such an individual makes the conscious decision to destroy their own life, and to take down as many others as they can along with them. Some would say that they are brainwashed by other individuals or organizations, while others would say that they are true fanatics in their own right. The reality is that many children today become suicide bombers, and is simply not plausible to consider that they do so on their free will, independent of outside influences. Much of society has written off suicide bombers as simply being pawns in a bigger game of terrorism (Baum, 2008). They are simply servants that are serving monsters is what many would think. In reality, however, suicide bombers pose a grave risk even in age of increased security worldwide because such a person could be anyone. It could be a family member, the neighbor next door, a coworker, or even the paperboy. It is nearly impossible to know who the next suicide bomber will be and where they will attack. One thing that is for certain, however, is that they are all human. Humans, as such, can be reached out to and hopefully encouraged to change their way of thinking and behavior. That must be our hope for the future as we all attempt to come to grip with the psycho-social responses that make up the suicide bomber. 3. The Individual Personified as a Torturer A torturer is an individual who purposefully set out to inflect severe and prolonged physical pain on another individual. This can be done as a form of punishment, or as a means of coercion. Torturers differ from suicide bombers in that they survive the ‘attack’ on another individual. Such people are obviously hard to stomach in society, yet again they can be walking in and among us without anyone knowing it. A torturer can literally be anyone, out and about living a double life unknown to more than a few individuals that do their bidding. Again, torturers are often members of some type of terrorist organization, or they serve an ideological function of one sort or another. Torture is so foreign to most individuals that they can not even fathom the type of person that would perpetuate such actions on another individual. The idea, however, is not new and it has longed gained the attention of the United Nations. Torture is such a serious and grave offense against humanity that the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has been established. This Convention has established the following definition of what it means to be a torturer: ‘Torture’ means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confessions, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflected by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions (Zimbardo, 2007). As can be determined from this lengthy definition, a torturer will go to almost any length they deem necessary in order to either extract information that they need, or to inflict punishment on another individual for either the sake of enjoyment or retribution. It goes beyond mere physical punishment in terms of the actual measures and the way that the pain is inflicted. In short, it is a hour that most humans, thankfully, will never be subject to. The problem is, unfortunately, becoming more pronounced and prevalent within a certain criminal and terrorist element, making this discussion all the more prudent and relevant. A torturer does not set out to inflict this pain without any regard to the consequences. It is a conscious decision and they are fully aware of what they are doing. Their actions are intentional and are most certainly done without the consent of the other person. Many would question how such a person could inflict such damage, when the reality of their actions is staring right back at them in the form of a victim who is in obvious and prolonged agony of an unspeakable sort. That is, however, exactly why we are having this discussion. Torturers set out to use various tools at their disposal in an effort to either gather information or to gain a confession. They may also do these actions out of a need for revenge or to create fear in others, in hopes that they will then step in line and support the ideology or actions of the torturer. In other words, similar to the suicide bomber, a torturer has a clear objective in mind and they will go to any lengths they deem necessary to make sure that goal is met. The most common methods that a torturer utilizes to accomplish their purpose include beating, electric shocks, stretching of the body, submersion in liquid, suffocation, burning, rape, and other forms of sexual assault. None of these methods are considered common to most individuals, so the mindset of the torturer must truly be unique, and something must trigger the response necessary to cause a person to commit such atrocities against another person. Torturers can also inflict harm in a psychological manner. In essence, this involves altering the mindset of the victim into being submissive (Zimbardo, 2007). These actions have long-term consequences for the victims. It includes them being isolated, threatened, humiliated, subjected to mock executions or amputations, and actually being forced to witness the torture of others. 4. The Mind of the Suicide Bomber Suicide bombers often believe themselves to be the voice of a particular cause of ideology. The work to commit acts of destruction that are often unexplainable to the general population, yet upon deeper reflection are often rooted in some type of ideological, religious, or societal issue facing their specific population or demographic group. Most, if not all, of the victims of a suicide bomber are innocent bystanders, which prompts society to question what would prompt a person to kill themselves, and those around them, for the sake of some cause that they will not even be around to further since they have just killed themselves. To simply dismiss such individuals as crazy or mentally imbalanced actually misses the basis of the larger question. One must determine how a suicide bomber is made in the first place, because if they were truly crazy then society would root them out long before they could commit the violent act that is in their mind. On the contrary, many suicide bombers believe in their cause with all of their heart, similar to any individual who truly believes in what they are doing. Suicide bombers, however, take their ideology to the extreme and bring others down with them through their violent acts. This is the mindset that must be conquered and understood in order to even have a hope of making progress in minimizing the effects of the bombers themselves (Baron-Cohen, 2012). 4.1 The Suicide Bomber Explained through Ideology Perhaps the most common explanation alluded to when describing the suicide bomber is that of ideology. Many focus on ideology in their attempts to explain the mindset of the suicide bomber because it helps to illustrate how certain doctrines accumulate over time, leading to the manifestation of their beliefs as they set out to bomb a specific target. One scholar has pointed to a four-stage process that illustrate how individuals develop the extremist beliefs that results in the making of a suicide bomber. This process first involves either a group or an individual identifying with some sort of social condition that they firmly believe is undesirable and must be rooted out. This then leads that individual or group into developing a mindset that the events or conditions present in society are truly unjust and that it is upon their shoulders to do something about it. The third step in the process would ben be to blame the injustice that they are experiencing on either another individual, group of people, or a specific target. This anger can also be taken out on an entire nation, such as occurs frequently within the State of Israel. If these three steps are actualized, then the fourth stage is almost inevitable. This involves the suicide bomber demonizing the target in their mind to the point that aggression is not only justified, but is the only course of action that should be taken (Borum, 2003). This process truly does hep explain why many suicide bombers themselves suffer in adverse circumstances, and that they do not consider themselves to be evil people. They truly believe that they of the victims of mass injustice in the world and that it is their responsibility to work to end that suffering in others. This slowly creates the mindset in the suicide bomber that they are the victims, and that the target the seek to bomb are actually the evil ones. It is a type of mind reversal that, once it occurs, is often and nearly impossible to right. Ideology can come in many forms, but most associate the concept with religion. This would tend to support the idea that many suicide bombers whole-heartedly believe that God is sending them on a holy mission, and that there are actions are truly His work. To motivate themselves to carry this through, their ideology most often purports the idea that they will receive a reward in the afterlife. They also tend to believe in the idea that by detonating their bomb in the midst of their target, their name will forever be remembered, thus enabling them to become a martyr. In many beliefs, martyrdom is a sure path to heaven and an eternal and happy afterlife. In order to create the mindset in an individual where they could truly believe in such teachings and follow through on the actions required to bomb a target and kill themselves at an early age, most such people begin to be indoctrinated at an early age. They are taught from childhood about the importance of being called to be a holy warrior and that they are truly instrumental in fighting a religious war, with them at the center (Borum, 2003) Suicide bombers, is we take the belief that they are terrorists, generally have a worldview that leans towards the apocalyptic. They tend to adhere to the notion that the world is divided between good and evil and that the cliff if precariously close. They must tip the balance to the good, believing that they are the ‘good’ element, and work to rid the world of the ‘bad’ element. This is certainly a dangerous ideological belief, and one that is hard to overcome. Suicide bombers, from an ideological perspective, truly believe that their values of family, religion, ethnicity, and nationality are actually forces for good in this world. Their values, in essence, are a manifestation of God’s values and it is their role in life to bring those to fruition, even if it means blowing themselves and countless other up in the process (Card, 2002). These values, then, become more important than life itself and must be defended at all costs. Let us consider the Islamic fundamentalist who become a suicide bomber. Common thought would be that, for whatever reason, they begin to see a society that is being threatened by secularism, and the economic power that is now exhibited by many Western countries. Believing this, they feel that their own Islamic values, which take precedence above all other societal concepts, are under siege and it is up to them to take back control. Believing this, they certain do not see themselves as terrorists at all. Rather, they view themselves as defending the Muslim world against evil, primarily because few other individuals will rise up and fight with them. There is also a commonly held belief that religious fanaticism only partly explains why suicide bombers decide to act on creating mass chaos and violence (Card, 2002). In essence, many suicide bombers are victims of succumbing to a leader that mixes their own religious zeal for a deep and more political interest. The bombers get caught in between and they often do not realize it. Over time, suicide bombers in the genre tend to develop an obedience to their leader that most in society would consider extreme and certainly unhealthy. When they are then asked down the road by their leader to become a suicide bomber, they dot question the request, and most see it as an honor to serve the leader and follow through on their desires. Other suicide bombers may be victims of political oppression themselves and, as a consequence, enter the fight of their own free will in an attempt to fight back. They feel that their rights have been grossly violated and that they are justified in taking the fight to streets to illustrate just how they feel. This can be seen in the region of Palestine, where many scholars point out that, “The suicide bomber, unable to develop and express his individuality under occupation and unable to serve his society in constructive ways, turns to a goal beyond this world” (Balless, 2008). The plight of the Palestinian people, then, can be seen to drive individuals to the ideological belief that they have been wronged in some way and that they are justified in becoming a suicide bomber in order to express that oppression that they feel all of society has created. 4.2 The Suicide Bomber is Created through Socialization There are many who would argue that ideology does not play that large of a factor in becoming a suicide bomber; rather such individuals are created as a result of socialization. Many bombers are frustrated with their lot in life and the circumstances that have lead to their meager existence to this point. This frustration boils over to anger at the individuals or groups that they feel are the true source of all of the many problems that they are facing. This theory purports that suicide bombers are most often people who feel completely isolated and confused as to how, or why, they have arrived at the life they have. They are not please with their prospects for the future, nor are they satisfied with the political climate in which they live (Stevens, 2002). These individuals, then, typically feel humiliated about the their lot live, and are mired in poverty and hopelessness. These feelings begin to manifest themselves through thoughts of causing severe destruction upon those that they target as being at the root of their desperation. Not only does suicide bombing provide a way of this life, but they begin to truly idealize the fact that they will become a martyr for the cause that they have perpetuated in their mind. Individuals who have been socialized in the manner discussed in this section are likely to consider jointing a terrorist organization because it gives them an outlet to openly express their frustration with others who feel and think like them. Becoming a member of such an organization can also bring about certain emotional, social and economic benefits. For the first time in their life, they may feel a sense of belonging, and they may have access to more food and money than they could have ever dreamed of in their former life. Since they already have a tremendous dread of what the future has in store for them, they will have little problem joining a terrorist organization that may provide them with a truss sense of purpose, and one that gives them the structure and guidance in their life that they have really be craving and so desperately need (Cohen, 2001). Their self-esteem begins to be emboldened and, in the end, they will do almost anything that their leadership asks them to do out of the feeling obligation that was fostered during this period of socialization. Many suicide bombers also seek the glamour, in their mind anyway, that comes with joining a militant group bent on causing mass destruction. Such a group provide the social connections that they were lacking and craved. It also gives them a change to get back at the various factions of society that they feel have so desperately wronged them through the years. Upon becoming a part of the group, they quickly feel powerful and they develop a clear sense of purpose. That purpose, all to often, manifest itself in a clear vision that they are to become a suicide bomber, with a specific target in mind, and take down as many people as possible. Many scholars feel that the process of socialization, more than any other components, explains they psycho-social attitudes that comprise most suicide bombers. 4.3 Suicide Bombers Seek to Express their Grievances Many terrorist organizations are formed as an effort to express their grievances against certain social stressors that have become all too prevalent in the lives of their members. Many terrorist organizations are formed by individuals who feel that the poverty, unemployment, various epidemics, and criminal elements among us have lead to social instability (Katz, 1988). That instability is what causes members of terrorist organization to band together and perpetuate their message of hate to the rest of society that does not joint them in their flight and plight. Other common grievances expressed by individuals who would join such groups include problems of overpopulation, struggles of a socioeconomic nature, and a lack available career or professional opportunities for the foreseeable future. All of these issues can combine to create feelings that can turn into rage and resentment towards anyone who is outside of the organization (Pinker, 2011). The grievances that suicide bombers express result in them feeling that everyone else in society is treating them harshly and unjustly. In many cases, the thoughts may be justified, but their actions certainly are not. They, however, would disagree with that assessment and contend that, on the contrary, their actions are not only necessary, but they are needed. In some cases, a member of the family may have been attacked by another group in society, or they have been wronged in some way. This creates a feeling of such anger in some that they will willingly join an organization that is expressly against the other group, even willing to become a suicide bomber themselves to get their revenge. Individuals in this genre feel that they are in a war. They might even understand that the deaths they extract as a result of their actions are certainly regrettable, but they have become necessary and are simply part of the war that they are flighting (Sontag, 2004). The idea that suicide bombers enjoy the killing that they are about to do, many scholars, is simply false. They simply feel that the missions that they embark on are a part of winning the cause for their organization. 5. Conclusion This feeling that their actions are legitimate and just with the context of war does not make their actions correct, but it does help us to understand the psyche of the suicide bomber. They begin to develop the mindset of similar to a solider in more traditional types of warfare that society is familiar with. In the end, however, nearly all suicide bombers develop, one way or another, the belief that they have been wronged to such a degree that they cannot be silenced any longer. It has been, for example, “That globalization contributes to the creation of sociocultural and psychosocial conditions from which terrorism is more likely to emerge” (Stevens, 2002). For many, this is a product of the West that has exerted its dominance over the rest of the world and caused others to feel that they are here to just enjoy the leftovers. Over time, this has created that sense of desperation that has resulted in suicide bombers to become more bold and prevalent than ever before. The economic inequality that is present in the world today has drawn people to terrorist organizations, and until the mindset of the individuals that join these groups can be addressed and properly dealt with, that phenomenon will likely continue for quite some time into the future (Staub, 2003). References Bailes, P. (2008). What turns victims into suicide bombers? Retrieved from http://www.redress.btinernet.co.uk.pjballes28.htm. Baum, S. (2008). Psychology of genocide: Perpetrators, bystanders, and Rescuers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baron-Cohen, S. (2012). Zero degrees of empathy. London: Penguin. Borum, R. (2003). Understanding the terrorist mindset. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(7), 8. Card, C. (2002). The atrocity paradigm: A theory of evil. Oxford: Oxford University. Cohen, S. (2001). States of Denial. Cambridge: Polity Press. Katz, J. (1988). Seductions of crime: Moral and sensual attractions of doing evil. New York: Basic Books. Pinker, S. (2011). 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