The importance of being noticed

“In some groups of young Muslims," say Dutch intelligence sources, "the wish to take part in jihad appears to be part of youth culture,” reports Breaking News:

The [Dutch intelligence] agency said that some Islamic-interest web sites frequented by young men appeared to be “fascinated with violence.”

“It definitely can’t be ruled out that some of these youths just want to make an impression on their peers with radical behaviour and statements,” the AIVD said.

Comments blogger Charles Johnson: "We’ve been documenting for years that the fascination with violent jihad is by no means limited to the web sites of the Netherlands. The same thing is found here in the United States, on sites like Clear Guidance (which keeps popping up in new places), Sound Vision, and many, many others."

Dr. Peter F. Rowbotham's 1992 essay "The Importance of Being Noticed" * (Update: Now available online.) may shed some light on these behaviors:

We search for honor in favored venues and in chosen social institutions. We avoid those places and those social groupings which inhibit our search, which do not advance, and may even set back, our moral careers. As Harre (1980) has pointed out:

"Recent studies of adolescence have shown many young people to have an almost obsessive interest and preoccupation with the maintenance of dignity and the careful scanning of the social environment for occasions and acts of possible humiliation."

In this context, the unorthodox bonding rituals of, for example, Hell's Angels and British soccer fans -- and now the deadly rituals of adolescent jihadi recruits -- may be seen as examples of a "system of honor that is an alternative to mainstream moral orders."

Forget about so-called "shame-and-honor cultures."  We all do it.  The search for honor and avoidance of shame, however defined, is fundamental to being human.

*Rowbotham, Peter F. 1992. The Importance of Being Noticed. Person, Place and Thing:  Interpretative and Empirical Essays in Cultural Georgraphy, ed. Shue Tuck Wong. 1992. Geoscience and Man 31:403-425.  Dept. of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA

Comments

[mrsizer]

Well, duh. I hope no tax dollars went into discovering that profound insight. It's called boys becoming men.

There are two differences that you fail to notice by saying "everyone does it":

1. It can be done productively rather than destructively. The success of a society depends on chanelling that. Gang culture in the US is a good example of a failure.

2. American culture has, in many ways, moved beyond "face". As a whole, we're not afraid to admit mistakes and learn from them. We haven't, and probably never will, move beyond being motivated by "face", but we're willing to learn from the results.

[Sissy Willis]

Hey, mrsizer -- Thanks for dropping by.

I agree with you it's all in how societies channel the energy, and there was nothing in my post to suggest otherwise. But "face" is fundamental to human nature, and to move beyond it is a Utopianist's dream.