Omegaphobia and Stochastic Terrorism

[libertarianhawk]

A friend wrote:

I'm a little worried that "memeplex that enables self-radicalisation in the name of rationalisation of impetus to violence" is a thing of its own, and that by focusing on the tankie/ethnat/islamist variants individually we risk missing a forest for trees, with suboptimal results.

(Unpacking that for folks unfamiliar with the jargon: When someone goes off on a murder spree, we should consider that becoming a murderer is the goal, and whether the killer is advocating Takfiri Islam, white nationalism, or eating the rich is just a pretext the murderer seized on to rationalize the killing.)

I believe those are all different manifestations of a primal drive: wanting to be solidly integrated into a Dunbar-number sized group, and not the expendable low-status hanger on who could be kicked out of the hunter-gatherer band to starve.

If someone fails at forming family/work/bowling team bonds they feel pressure to do something, anything, to not be the "omega" at risk of being expelled from the group.

A guy suffering "omegaphobia" will join a group of other losers (insert your most hated political rock-throwing faction) or tag along with some famous movement/religion/rock band or . . . try to become famous.

The media makes everyone committing a mass murder famous, so encourages omegaphobes to pick up a rifle and plan a high-body-count attack.

Milder cases try to boost their social status by joining online mobs (cf Kevin D. Williamson's The Smallest Minority). Sufferers with actual social skills can integrate into a group, be secure, and are not longer omegaphobic. A stable marriage can be enough.

I don't see an obvious good solution to the problem of omegaphobia. An atomized, high-mobility, liberated society generates it. I showed a couple of not so good solutions in the Torchship Trilogy.

Comments

[ndrosen]

That’s an interesting way of looking at it. Not making murderers famous might take away the motivation to Be Somebody by shooting up a school or grocery store or movie theater, but I hesitate to let the government decree that the media cannot publicize certain people or events; given that kind of power, politicians will try to expand it to suppress other news they don’t like.

[libertarianhawk]

The aspect that worries me most isn't "media making spree killers famous" as much as "atomized individuals so desperate for attention/acceptance/recognition that they'll murder someone just to be noticed."