I’m not sure why I’ve never written an article on the causes of terrorism, as I’m the world’s foremost expert on the subject.  But I haven’t.  I’ve written a million and a half comments on internet articles, though never extensively as a blog post.  Perhaps because I could go on forever.  I’ve written about Omar Mateen and Elliot Rodger in my blog, so maybe that’s why I didn’t feel the pressing need.

And I still don’t.  So let me summarize: the cause of terrorism is not religion, as we are told.  The claim of religious radicalization is appealing because we have a deep need to debunk religion for some reason.  But it is clear that most of these kids are malcontents and losers and often petty criminals and drug dabblers and latch on to terrorism as a way to prove themselves and kill themselves at the same time (remember – most deaths from overdose are also intentional suicides).  Whether it’s Islam or white supremacism or sex supremacism or ‘alcoholism’ or ‘mental illness’ doesn’t really matter.  Just depends on what you think you can get away with.

Here are some tips to prevent terrorism:

• Don’t name your kid “Storm”
• Don’t encourage your kid to get married at a young age and have children – forcing him to ‘settle down’ can backfire
• Encourage your child to avoid the private security industry
• Don’t send your child into the military or express delight at his weapon handling skills
• Don’t teach your child that addiction and mental illness are science (they are religions)
• Don’t teach your kid that watching just one ISIS video can make him blow up the local arena
• If you were paid by the CIA to fight in a war, don’t have children

From the above list you can get a sense of the real causes of terrorism.

Wars are usually started by the older generation convincing the younger into believing the ‘other’ is an existential threat.  This may or may not be true.  However with terrorism, the younger generation is taking a more proactive role even if they are trying to discredit and lampoon their fathers’ ambitions.   Religion is really only an excuse, much like addicts blame their mischief on the drugs – often concocting quite elaborate and plausible-sounding explanations involving ‘hypocampus’ and ‘seratonon’.