Terrorists as "influencers"

 

I mean it's hard to use this set of words but the concept of an influencer comes to mind. Terrorists are "influencers" and "horror movie producers" who use despicable, filmable bloodshed to compel peoples and governments for specific political goals. Producers of horror movies are "terrorists" who don't hurt the actors! Actors, actresses, writers, producers, politicians, and social media experts are influencers for their products, for soft power, for beliefs, and for behaviors. I will note that our Western culture has normalized behaviors that are considered unacceptable in Islamist discourse, to the point that Sayid Qutib in 1950's Colorado thought that men and women were too close to each other during a school dance! We've widened the gap between us and the Muslim world much further than that in the last 60-70 years. There is even a gap within our own country on behaviors, and we wonder why we have such difficulty pacifying places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and so many other places that make our conservatism seem liberal. All they see is the glitz, haram sexual behaviors, and what they consider immorality, that there is nothing better to do but to rise up against the immoral occupiers, no matter how pious or how much in agreement they may be on certain issues of shared concern.

 

It's like the Batman movies, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which I most recently watched. They are a wonderful discussion about how to fight terrorism in an urban environment, and in fact, The Dark Knight Rises was the basis of a recent homeland defense exercise called Gotham Shield (Links to an external site.). In The Dark Knight, the Joker uses violence, well-produced movies, and advanced knowledge of psychology to turn the city against the police, the mayor, and the US military. One example is when he threatens to blow up a hospital but won't do it if only the citizens will gang up and shoot the new police commissioner. With a wife in the hospital, the very police officer who is guarding him almost pulls the trigger but is stopped by the police and Batman. But then Joker takes things to another level: Using his past violence in killing Rachel and burning Harvey Dent, he manipulates and breaks Harvey Dent into becoming the villain Two-Face, and sends him on his way to kill those that betrayed him by hurting Rachel. It is only when Batman uses his all-knowing tool, the mobile phones (NSA, hint hint), that he manages to stop the violence about to be perpetuated by Two-Face and the Joker. Then he gets rid of the tool.

 

In The Dark Knight Rises, Bane and Miranda use the same kind of adroit use of media messaging. They turn the Stock Exchange against itself, they execute people in a scene worthy of the French Revolution, they divide the boardroom at Wayne Enterprises. They free Harvey Dent's prisoners for life in their orange uniform, and give them guns, to show the immorality of the Dent Act, and the order it gives people. But here's the cool thing: Batman uses the same kinds of tools. He flares the Bat-signal, to show Bane and his army who is boss, and that he is back. He saves the detectives from an icy death in exile. He frees the cops and gives them an opportunity to fight. By wearing their police uniforms and armor, such as the police commissioner's General Uniform in opposition to Bane's militiamen/mercenary forces dressed like the Capitol rioters/soldiers, they are providing a signal that order will be resolved. We can despair about terrorists. But we can, if we are wise, use many of the same tools against them, and win, by giving people a sense of order, and more importantly, hope.