An Introduction to Extremism
“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it”
“With these words the anti-Crown, anti-tax extremists declared their intention to overthrow the government and bring about chaos in the colonies,” according to a spokesman for King George.
Violent domestic extremism had found its way into the New World or, had it.
These words are of course from the Declaration of Independence not from a radical manifesto. However, perspective is important and tendencies toward hyperbole make the efforts to quell and, hopefully, eradicate violent domestic extremism more difficult.
Extremism, regardless of perceived political ideology, has only one objective, to disrupt order thus creating fear and chaos. The extremist then hopes the resulting fear can be exploited to bring about whatever worldview they themselves hold. To this end one must understand that an extremist is an extremist regardless of ideology. When a political philosophy has arrived at the conclusion that the ends justify the means, and the means are violence and destruction the philosophy has crossed the line into violent domestic extremism.
Violent extremism or terrorism has a goal, in addition to creating chaos, and that goal is terror. If people are afraid to go to a specific place or city or country or even to leave their house, then the extremist (terrorist) has achieved part of their goal. They have not only disrupted order but have also terrorized people into altering their behavior.
A small group of extremists can “terrorize” a community, a city and even a country. Especially if that small group is willing to commit violence against the population in general. We have seen in cities across the country, people afraid to travel to parts of their city due to the threat of political violence. This has always been the power of terrorism, small groups of people, small groups of hardcore believers can alter the behavior of entire populations.
Therefore, the goal of society and government should be to not only incapacitate the most violent and most active members of these groups. The goal should also be to counter the ideology of these groups, to prevent and dissuade people on the fringes or in the group, but not committed to violence, from becoming radicalized to violent action.
We, as a society, as a community, must be willing to engage the believers and members of these groups in order to counter their beliefs and ideologies. Without engagement and de-radicalization, we will never win this battle.
Future posts in this blog will explore the various groups and ideologies of violent extremists. We will also examine the process of radicalization and explore means and methods of de-radicalization.