Posted on 01/14/2009 9:12:30 PM PST by Lorianne
Young Islamist gunmen from Hamas and their nationalist Fatah counterparts have until recently been killing each other in the streets of Gaza and the West Bank. Granted there are political and cultural explanations for such violent behavior. But the role of demographics - specifically the vast numbers of young men in the Palestinian Authority - must also be factored in if one wants a better understanding of events in the Arab-Israel conflict.
Political scientist Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations, has argued that this huge reservoir of young men aged 15-30 provides a natural pool of instability and violence directed both internally, within Muslim society, and externally.
When 15 to 24-year-olds make up 20 per cent or more of the population, a society shows a "youth bulge," in the words of Gary Fuller, director of population studies at the University of Hawaii.
But it is Gunnar Heinsohn who's lately made waves in Europe with his book S hne und Weltmacht: Terror im Aufstieg und Fall der Nationen - Sons and World Power in the Rise and Fall of Nations, which focuses on the youth bulge phenomenon.
Basically, he says, the young men are violent because no society can provide satisfaction for such large numbers of them, even if there were enough ordinary jobs, even if the quality of life were improved.
They're not violent because they're frustrated or because they have too much spare time and no prospects. Nor are they violent because of their cultural milieu.
in wars, people do kill each other. been going on for a long time.
According to this writer from Political Affairs website, the hypermasculinity that results with youth bulge has been caused by Capitalism and “ultra right dominance”.
Geeze, and I thought maybe the total lack of power of the women might have had a little to do with the testosterone overload.
“Kellner believes, according to the article, that “the male perpetrators [of mass killings] suffered from problems of socialization, alienation and the search for identity in a culture that holds up guns and militarism as potent symbols of masculinity.”
“Clearly, IMO, these are not just problems of culture, i.e. problems of male rage promoted by destructive “Rambo” images in popular culture. This is a problem of capitalism. Capitalism, especially under ultra-right dominance, which promotes war and imperialism as positive masculine occupations, has failed to provide a society in which personal fulfillment, community construction, and satisfactory methods of self-identification are readily available.
Grinding economic insecurity (not to mention poverty) and lack of access to more fulfilling occupations (in some communities intensified by racism and national oppression) are the modern characteristics of contemporary capitalism. To this is added the ultra right’s rejection of any rational notion that these kinds of issues are anything but personal problems.”
http://paeditorsblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/killing-spree-male-rage-and.html
Typical leftist nonsense. This is materialist determinism. While a rising population certain fuels nationalism and a war machine, polygamy and Islam demand it.
Sounds like they are well on their way to solving the problem. Fence them in, and make sure they have plenty of ammo.
Now think about China with it's male "youth bulge" and not enough females to go around.
There is capitalism in Gaza?
Is this article in English? The words don’t seem to mean anything.
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