Jihad -Killings in the name of God
- 1. Art: Nicole Lanza Jihad. Do you like to be killed by a madman?
- 2. I believe that our objective in life is to be happy, and that Spirituality and Jungian psychology, my main areas of interest, can help us in this search for happiness. Roberto Lima Netto, Ph.D. Stanford University
- 3. How can we explain the attacks on American Embassies in North Africa after the strong support the US gave to these people? To understand the problem, we have to resort to psychology.
- 4. Jihad. How can we explain killings in the name of God?
- 5. A study by Martha Stout, published in her book The Sociopath Next Door, claims that 4% of the population is a sociopath, defined as one that knows what is right or wrong, but feels no remorse for his acts
- 6. But the problem is that the distribution of the 4% is not homogeneous. In politics, in big business and in prisons, the percentage of sociopaths is much higher.
- 7. This explains the psychology of Al Qaeda and other similar organizations. Their leaders are sociopaths or madman that explore persons who fall for their fundamentalist preaching.
- 8. But how to explain the attitude of the ones that carry the bombs. Are all of them sociopaths? I don’t think so. They are under the grip of a charismatic leader, and they are prepared to deliver their lives to their causes.
- 9. This possession of human minds by charismatic leaders, sociopaths, madman or just psychological unbalanced people, did happen in the Western world.
- 10. Remember Reverend Jones and the mass suicide in 1978, or the 75 followers of David Koresh 1993, in Waco, Texas
- 11. Fundamentalism, defined by Wikipedia as the demand for a strict adherence to specific theological doctrines, is thriving all over the world, and can be explained by a sense of despair, worthlessness that dominate many young people
- 12. Fundamentalism together with a mad charismatic leader is highly dangerous.
- 13. We are living in a new era when some of the pillars that sustained our lives are crumbling. Modern man is desperately seeking a new footing, a new platform were to stand. Paraphrasing Jung, modern man is in search of a soul.
- 14. In 1925, Jung visited the Pueblo Indians, in Southwestern United States. This people defined themselves as Children of the Sun. Their myth holds that to keep the sun rising every day, they had to pray for the Father Sun. Otherwise, in ten years the sun would no longer illuminate the Earth.
- 15. The Chief Mountain Lake said, with the conviction of one who is saving the world: “The Americans want to destroy our religion. Why don’t they leave us quiet? What we do, we do not only for us, but for them too. We do this for everyone.”
- 16. Do you believe that the sun would no longer rise if the Pueblos stopped praying for it? It matters little for the survival of the Pueblos if you believe it or not. It does matter that they do believe. Saving the world was the central motivation in their lives, their reason for living. And what a strong motivation this is!
- 17. Edward Edinger, a well-known Jungian psychologist and prolific writer, opens his book, “The Creation of Consciousness”, saying: “History and anthropology teach us that human society cannot long survive unless its members are psychologically contained in a central living myth. Such myth provides the individual with a reason for being.”
- 18. Unfortunately, while we search for a new myth to sustain our civilization, we should expect such weird episodes, like Jihad, to continue to happen.
- 19. I invite you to visit my site to find my other videos and for additional information. You can also download a free eBook. “Shortcuts to happiness” www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org
- 20. I wish you HAPPINESS. Thanks for your time and attention. Roberto Lima Netto www.HappinessAcademyOnline.org.