Homeland Security Exploration

Homeland Security Exploration
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Homeland Security Exploration
The world is structured in a manner that there are always dualistic opposing views among people from different backgrounds, race, culture, and religion. According to articles by Alexander (2018), “L’eau Est La Vie Camp” (2018) and “Common Dreams” (2018), extremism surfaces from the fact that some people are insecure about their existence defined by the personalities and beliefs. All the extremists and terrorists inclusive of racists, conspiracy theorists, and dogmatic atheists share common features based on their statements and comments on issues that affect them. First, their statements reflect unquestioned certainty about their views. Silke (2014), Bouchard, Joffres & Frank (2014), Lake (2002) and Scarcella, Page & Furtado (2016) claim that extremists find their opinions on issues entirely valid and are always ready to defend it at all costs. It is evident from the statements given by the terrorist and extremists that their comments come for the fact that they are afraid that showing any form of doubt in their opinions will result to loss of self-identity hence the reason being their existence (Von Behr, 2013). According to Lentini (2013) and Canetti-Nisim et al. (2009), people who are secure with their permanence are hardly extremists. Secondly, extremists and terrorist statements are meant to demonize anyone who disagrees with their opinions. The statements are characterized with vile language towards those with opposing views (Aliot, 2018).

Richards (2015) states that extremist and terrorist tend to make comments blaming the contenders of their misfortunes in the world. Lastly, extremists and terrorist tend to believe in the existence of inevitable “Final Battle” which will eliminate all contenders of their opinions and beliefs. Decker & Pyrooz (2015) state that the “Final Battle” in this case will result in the onset of a new era where everyone is united and finds truth in a single view.
One feature that strikes me about extremists is the fact that they do not allow themselves to perceive interest, desires, and hopes of their contenders as of the same value as theirs. As a result, extremist and terrorists prevent any existence of compassion in the society since it would propagate the fear of doubt they all strive to prevent from happening. Surprisingly, a community is rather not complete without extremists. In one way or the other, we are all extremist, and we fight for what we believe in as it defines why we exist. I am a Christian extremist, and any religion with different ideologies from my Christian practices are false and misleading. The existence of my extremism and those of others encourage diversity of opinions that form the basis of the societies status quo. In line with Loza (2007) perceptions of extremism, extremists provide us with merits and demerits of various things around us and provide a comprehensive view of the world we live in.

References
Alexander, K. L. (2018, July 07). Federal Prosecutors Abruptly Dismiss All 39 remaining Inauguration Day Rioting Cases. Retrieved July 8, 2018, from https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2018/07/07/federal-prosecutors-abruptly-dismiss-all-39-remaining-inauguration-day-rioting-cases/Aliot, L. (2018, July 03). Combattre les dangers du véganisme et de l’antispécisme. Retrieved July 8, 2018, from https://www.rassemblementnational.fr/interventions/combattre-les-dangers-du-veganisme-et-de-lantispecisme/Bouchard, M., Joffres, K., & Frank, R. (2014). Preliminary analytical considerations in designing a terrorism and extremism online network extractor. In Computational models of complex systems (pp. 171-184). Springer, Cham.
Canetti-Nisim, D., Halperin, E., Sharvit, K., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2009). A new stress-based model of political extremism: Personal exposure to terrorism, psychological distress, and exclusionist political attitudes. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 53(3), 363-389.
Common Dreams. (2018, July 06). Anti-Pipeline Activists Block Oil Tanker for Two Days in Vancouver. Retrieved July 8, 2018, from https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2018/07/06/anti-pipeline-activists-block-oil-tanker-for-two-days-in-vancouver/Decker, S. H., & Pyrooz, D. C. (2015). “I’m down for a Jihad” How 100 Years of Gang Research Can Inform the Study of Terrorism, Radicalization, and Extremism. Perspectives on Terrorism, 9(1), 104-112.
Lake, D. A. (2002). Rational extremism: Understanding terrorism in the twenty-first century. Dialogue IO, 1(1), 15-28.
L’eau Est La Vie Camp – No Bayou Bridge. (2018, July 06). Lock Down Stops Bayou Bridge Pipeline Construction in Louisiana. Retrieved July 8, 2018, from https://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2018/07/06/lock-down-stops-bayou-bridge-pipeline-construction-in-louisiana/Lentini, P. (2013). Neojihadism: towards a new understanding of terrorism and extremism? Edward Elgar Publishing.
Loza, W. (2007). The psychology of extremism and terrorism: A Middle-Eastern perspective. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 12(2), 141-155.
Richards, A. (2015). From terrorism to ‘radicalization’ to ‘extremism’: counterterrorism imperative or loss of focus? International Affairs, 91(2), 371-380.
Scarcella, A., Page, R., & Furtado, V. (2016). Terrorism, radicalization, extremism, authoritarianism, and fundamentalism: a systematic review of the quality and psychometric properties of assessments. PloS one, 11(12), e0166947.
Silke, A. (Ed.). (2014). Prisons, terrorism, and extremism: Critical issues in management, radicalization, and reform. Routledge.
Von Behr, I. (2013). Radicalization in the digital era: The use of the internet in 15 cases of terrorism and extremism.