Selvmordsbombning = virus

Douglas Rushkoff har en interessant vinkel på spredningen af selvmordsbombninger:

What we're witnessing is viral contagion - the beginnings of what some hope will spawn an epidemic of suicide attacks. These would not be conducted by "foreigners" crossing borders with plastic explosives kits, but locals, spontaneously acting in concert with others around the globe. It's a scary thought to those who only understand simple cause and effect, but this isn't magic or supernatural at all.

As numerous studies have shown, airplane accidents tend to be clustered - one pilot error leads to a catastrophe that becomes big news. Shortly later, one or more other "human error" airplane crashes occur. On college campuses, student suicides rarely happen in isolation. News of one suicide leads to another. When a famous person or large group commits suicide, many copycat events occur shortly later - beyond the statistical norm.

It's not that one event causes the other; rather, suicidal people are waiting for a cue, or a pilot who is already careless or flying under the influence of alcohol finally ends up crossing the barrier that, subconsciously, he had been dangerously testing all along.

It is the mediaspace that allows for these clusters of sympathetic repetitions. Were a murder or suicide not covered in the paper, there would be no copycat events.

Umiddelbart en interessant vinkel. Han tilskriver senere selvmordsbombernes motivation at være vrede over uretfærdigheder. Han glemmer at sætte spørgsmålstegn ved om disse er retfærdiggjordte, men det ændrer jo ikke ved at ideen er interessant.

Henrik