Tonight, our class started off with a talk from Dr. Paul Gill from the International Center for the Study of Terrorism. His talk was focused on the Psychology of Suicide Terrorism--how do terrorist organization get people to commit suicide bombings. One point he made was that there are no "lone-wolf" suicide bombings. That is there was always a group of people recruiting, training and counting on this "living martyr" It's difficult to stand alone and make a decision and stick with it. But when there are a group of people encouraging you, joining the program with you, supporting you, praising you--it's a lot easier to commit to a task you may not have agreed to do otherwise. It is the communal support that they and their family receives that encourages so many young, educated, well-off people to sign up to kill themselves. This mentality reminded me of two other thoughts I'd like to share. One about my class at the Hebrew school this past weekend and the other about our fan behavior project.
This past Sunday, my class was looking at the deed of loving kindness of honoring one's parents. We discussed the difference between honoring and loving and performed skits that related biblical tales to the concepts we were learning. One part of the day included reading a story about Dama ben Natina who was asked to take the jasper stone from his father's locked box to sell to the Sages while his father was sleeping. ben Natina refused to sell and the Sages decided to give him more money for the stone. Even with the higher offer, ben Natina refused to sell the stone asking "Shall I sell you the honor due to one's father and mother for money?" After reading the story and making sure my students understood what had happened, I asked what they would have done in Dama ben Natina's situation. Would they have sold the stone at the higher price or would they have acted like ben Natina. Of my six students, five responded that they would act like the character in the story. One of my students argued about why she would have sold the stone--claiming that this was a lot of money and could solve a lot of problems if the family was poor. Besides the fact that she was missing the concept of honoring one's parents even in difficult situations, I was impressed that she held her own when her classmates and I questioned her decision. She stuck by her argument, sighting evidence given in the story that supported her case. She didn't cave to the peer pressure around her. Maybe if these suicide bombers were more independent like my fourth grade student, there would be fewer terrorist attacks in this world.
Secondly, in relation to fan behavior. The group mentality idea has been tossed around discussions before--fans act so poorly because they can't be singled out of the crowd. What if our policy was to implement a plan, like the text-a-tip program that enabled fans to single out bad behavior. If the group mentality was taken away, would fans act so poorly? If they knew they could get caught for bad behavior, would it still occur?
Interesting to see a connection between suicide bombing psychology, peer pressure in Hebrew school and group mentality at sporting events.
This past Sunday, my class was looking at the deed of loving kindness of honoring one's parents. We discussed the difference between honoring and loving and performed skits that related biblical tales to the concepts we were learning. One part of the day included reading a story about Dama ben Natina who was asked to take the jasper stone from his father's locked box to sell to the Sages while his father was sleeping. ben Natina refused to sell and the Sages decided to give him more money for the stone. Even with the higher offer, ben Natina refused to sell the stone asking "Shall I sell you the honor due to one's father and mother for money?" After reading the story and making sure my students understood what had happened, I asked what they would have done in Dama ben Natina's situation. Would they have sold the stone at the higher price or would they have acted like ben Natina. Of my six students, five responded that they would act like the character in the story. One of my students argued about why she would have sold the stone--claiming that this was a lot of money and could solve a lot of problems if the family was poor. Besides the fact that she was missing the concept of honoring one's parents even in difficult situations, I was impressed that she held her own when her classmates and I questioned her decision. She stuck by her argument, sighting evidence given in the story that supported her case. She didn't cave to the peer pressure around her. Maybe if these suicide bombers were more independent like my fourth grade student, there would be fewer terrorist attacks in this world.
Secondly, in relation to fan behavior. The group mentality idea has been tossed around discussions before--fans act so poorly because they can't be singled out of the crowd. What if our policy was to implement a plan, like the text-a-tip program that enabled fans to single out bad behavior. If the group mentality was taken away, would fans act so poorly? If they knew they could get caught for bad behavior, would it still occur?
Interesting to see a connection between suicide bombing psychology, peer pressure in Hebrew school and group mentality at sporting events.
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