The Answer to Why Westerners Keep Getting Recruited Into ISIS

The media is consumed with the question of why so many westerners are being successfully recruited into ISIS. It’s usually framed as:

Neat question. I have a theory:

1. Their parents aren’t raising them, because they have no time for them after working three jobs

2. They’re getting a crappy education in primary and secondary school

3. They aren’t going to college because their parents working three jobs can’t afford it

4. As adolescents, they are basically waiting in line for borderline poverty, with no tangible hopes of becoming anything

Then here comes someone saying that someone does love them, someone does see their potential, and that there is a cause worth not only fighting for, but dying for.

And somehow they find that attractive.

This should fail to surprise even the slowest among us. Teenagers want a purpose. They want to belong, and they want to matter. And if they’re not getting this from their parents, their education system, or from society as whole, they’ll get it from someone else.

When we discard our education system and the middle class we don’t just affect employment numbers: we create a fresh harvest of rudderless youth that can be wielded against us by our enemies.

At some point we’re going to realize that education funding and corporate tax loopholes are less about fiscal policy and more about national security.

Notes

1. It’s important to note that religion isn’t without blame here. The belief in the supernatural opens a door, and many of the things that walk through are often undesirable.

Related posts:

1. Why I Believe Steven Pinker is Wrong About How Good Things Are (2018)

2. Safe Schools Are the New Luxury Item Because Now Only the Rich Have Stable and Present Families

3. It’s Becoming Easier to Fail and Succeed

4. The Relationship Between Hardship, Struggle, and Meaning