Technological innovations have revolutionised the art of political murder. Human beings have the capacity to carry out the most gruesome murders. The National Socialists perfected mass murder on an industrial scale. The nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima at the end of WWII resulted in the instant indiscriminate murder of tens of thousands of men, women and children. Although human beings have volunteered for suicide missions on a regular basis, the suicide bomber is a relatively new phenomenon.
We normally have an aversion to killing, let alone mass murder. It takes a carrot and stick approach to train people as torturers and political murderers.
The difference is a suicide bomber knows full well when they press that button they will not only destroy themselves but those around them. It takes a lot of effort to train, deploy and detonate a suicide bomber. How you cajole, bully, encourage someone to give up their life for a religious/political cause is the 64 million dollar question.
You need more than brain washing to create a suicide bomber. It helps but it is not the sole reason for someone killing themselves and the people around them for a religious/political cause. Changing technology has made it easier for people to take their lives and the lives of those around them.
Walking into a Coptic Christian Church in Cairo on Palm Sunday and blowing yourself up takes a lot of planning and mentoring. A long training process involving many people is needed to carry out such a barbarous act. It’s not just a matter of strapping on a suicide vest and pushing a button. The human bomb needs to be psychologically primed to negate their own existence and the existence of people they’ve never personally meet. Grooming, isolation, mentoring, sedation all play their part in the creation of an individual who will give up everything for a nebulous afterlife.
Psychological manipulation plays a pivotal role in overcoming human being’s innate aversion to killing themselves, let alone a group of strangers. Suicide bombers are actors in a play that continues long after they have walked off the stage. Those who train them to negate themselves for a cause are the terrorists. Suicide bombers are not martyrs, they are flesh and blood that is used to destroy other flesh and blood for the most inane reasons.
Dr. Joseph Toscano