I am old enough to remember the IRA and their bombs and atrocities but at least they usually gave warnings. Today what/who are these terrorists? The main difference is they seem to be loners and suicide bombers. At least they won't do it again and saves us the bother of jailing them.
Today, why is it different. I have a theory. I don't think the authorities and medics have realised yet and they won't like it. Today we have a class of people (not all terrorists thankfully, they are just the extreme end), who I believe have a dissociative disorder. They have brainwashed themselves by viewing things on the internet, using social media and playing computer games. They have little or no family life and probably live alone, (or at least isolate themselves from the rest of their family). They have been loners for most of their teenage years. They feel different and don't relate to/interact with their peers. They have a disorder that allows themselves to exist in a fantasy world but yet at the same time can live with you and me and seem relatively normal. They may go out shopping, may even have a job, but one where they don't need much interaction. The problem is that the fantasy world in which they live can exist in parallel to their "normal" selves.
Unfortunately I blame the rise of technology. This didn't exists in the IRA days. They lived in NI they were fanatical about the situation there, they wanted change and were prepared to go to almost any lengths to get it. Yet it was ALL NI based. Hardly any technology involved. They bombed and killed on the "Mainland". Our so called ISIS fanatical terrorists exist worldwide but what is their cause and what do they want? They haven't really got a country. There are obviously some people here who must get online and find info relating to them and in their fantasy world as described above they "believe" that they must do what they must do to exist in this "ISIS" world. They find info on bomb making and via social media/email/text they communicate with other fanatics (maybe even in the Middle East, they could be anywhere) and because they believe anything that comes over the internet (their version) they enjoy the experience just like computer games. Only this is at the highest level almost real! The ultimate end game is to do what happened last night in Manchester. Only unlike computer games there is not a reset and the game starts again. This time they are really DEAD and other people are dead, maimed, injured and traumatised.
Currently the authorities have no real way of finding tracking and stopping this carnage. You might as well lock up every spotty teenager playing computer games in his bedroom. However this is very real and growing problem. Even if these people don't become suicide bombers we are allowing our children to be perverted into and abnormal behaviour. Look at our teenagers today. They all exhibit the traits described above to a greater or lesser degree, dependence on the electronic communication, games and a fantasy online world. We must tackle it. At the earliest age children are using tablets/phones/computers. Parents see it as an innocuous way to occupy their children. A 2yr old watching Paw Patrol on YouTube is harmless? NO, the eye is a direct connection to the brain. Sitting and being transfixed by a video image for hours on end is conditioning the child in ways we are yet to understand but it’s not what we evolved for. We need the traditional interactions with people, children, the environment. Learning that it hurts when you fall over in the yard and graze your knee but what fun it is to look at the world from up a tree. It’s your Castle? Talking to parents, peers etc. teaches you social interaction not Peppa Pig videos although they could teach middle class ideal family values. Then they look at their dysfunctional family and are confused. This is the start. Later they use the same technology to build their fantasy world to escape from what they don't like. At the same time this fantasy world can exist in their head quite separately from the real" world and even in their head the two worlds don't interact. That's how we end up with suicide bombers.
The authorities need to monitor Internet usage and find the people/sites that these nutcases are communicating with and shut them down. Also somehow we need to be monitoring the rise of online gaming, the effect it has on young people, and control what is available and what can be done with it. It is NOT just a game.
Just reset and all will be fine and we start again.
