tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post5362329006312133890..comments2024-01-01T01:47:59.449+02:00Comments on Yaacov Lozowick's Ruminations: What Can We Understand about Suicide Murderers?Yaacovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12835192312242961481noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-23955237011562074352008-02-06T20:33:00.000+02:002008-02-06T20:33:00.000+02:00So we disagree. While committing suicide to murder...So we disagree. While committing suicide to murder others is clearly not rational, the phenomenon seems too common within some Islamic circles for it to be simply insanity.Yaacovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12835192312242961481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-23042403381077209342008-02-05T03:24:00.000+02:002008-02-05T03:24:00.000+02:00Let me be clear, I am certainly not excusing the s...Let me be clear, I am certainly not excusing the suicide bombers behavior. I am just trying to understand it. I simply come to the conclusion that one who does that is simply nuts. Crazy. Insane. Wacko. There must be other words, but I think the idea is clear. The question is whether a suicide bomber is evil or non compos mentos. I fall on the side of insanity. How and why he or she got there is an issue for psychological research.<BR/><BR/>Joe5348john capistranohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06101932789208221031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-29793684627366495122008-02-04T20:56:00.000+02:002008-02-04T20:56:00.000+02:00Most people are, or once were, young and impressio...Most people are, or once were, young and impressionable. Yet entire and vast groups of people - billions of them, actually - manage to get past the stage without there ever being the slightest danger of becoming suicide murderers - and not because they lived in perfect historical conditions. On the contrary. Many, perhaps the majority, live in unpleasant conditions. Without having researched the matter, I'd even hazard a guess that a significant number of them, perhaps a majority, were even true believers in this or that.<BR/><BR/>On the other hand, there were a number of Palestinian suicide murderers who were in their late 40s, so far as I remember, back in the heyday of the Palestinian killing spree, when the murderers were broadly celebrated for their act.Yaacovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12835192312242961481noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-80928550934355958942008-02-04T12:09:00.000+02:002008-02-04T12:09:00.000+02:00The first suicide bombers of the last century woul...The first suicide bombers of the last century would have to be the Japanese kamikaze pilots of World War II. What suicide bombers have in common is that they are young and impressionable. There is a DSM classification for "fanatacism." In the 1960s a longshoreman named Eric Hoffer wrote a book called "The True Believer." That book is a good first step in understanding the suicide bomber. It is interesting that the leaders who call for suicide bombers never manage to do it themselves.<BR/><BR/>Joe5348Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04754657382129532482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4008006782907969381.post-34934874222433460332008-02-04T03:18:00.000+02:002008-02-04T03:18:00.000+02:00I have been told that the Tamil Tigers were the fi...I have been told that the Tamil Tigers were the first suicide bombers in the 20th century. I haven't checked this out myself. If true, it could explain why that is showing up in Sri Lanka.<BR/><BR/>That being said, it looks to me like by sheer numbers nowadays, the majority of recorded suicide bombings in the past, say, ten years have been by Muslims rather than Tamils or anyone else. That could be verified, of course.Lydia McGrewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00423567323116960820noreply@blogger.com