Late May 2024, I published my Dutch language blog: Is radicalisation a consequence of feeling powerless? Today’s blog is an open rather than a closed question. The trigger for this blog was a discussion with a friend, who lives abroad for at least a decade. I suppose that “detail” is relevant.
I have made a diagram that is – ultimately – based on the diagram as used in my blog: Victim roles: individual versus collective.
I suppose that any radicalisation is based on external attacks on our identity, like: age, descent, dismissal, education, films, friends, living/working abroad, men vs women, nationality, neighbourhoods, parents, religion, school, sexuality, skin colour, sports (eg, soccer), and – perhaps worst of all – social media.
Radicalisation in working-class neighbourhoods has been an issue for decades. Such neighbourhoods have a (very) diverse identity. Money can buy you access to “privileged” neighbourhoods. Those neighbourhoods have a common identity that will often fail to understand such radicalisation.
In my view, the governmental measures following Covid-19 were (also) deemed as external attacks on our identity. Hence, the radicalisation by some people. Most others accepted such attacks because they assumed the government knew what it was doing. Examples: curfews, face masks, maximum occupancy.
Soccer clubs are (often) an example of a collective identity. A soccer game can thus easily become a (violent) clash between collective identities. Even as a teenager in the 1970s, I preferred to be safe from harm.
Safe From Harm (1991) by Massive Attack
band, lyrics, video, Wiki-band, Wiki-song
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.
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