Radicalization is understood as a social and psychological process through which a growing commitment to an extremist political or religious ideology is achieved, that is, radicalization means adopting political or religious beliefs that are not shared by most people, but how does radicalization occur?
There are three psychological forces whose combination can explain radicalization, which form the three Ns of radicalization. The first of these forces is related to needs, to the deficiencies that lead to the motivation to act to achieve something, the second strength is the narrative, the ideology that brings beliefs that define the world and establish how to behave. the social network, that is, the people around us.
- Mary has an unconditional love for animals and is not supported by cruelty.
- He is interested in several animal rights groups.
- But warns that they have little impact on society.
- One day.
- He feels the desire to participate in political action.
- Then he joins.
- An environmental group and falls in love with its leader.
His thinking gradually polarizes and ultimately everything becomes permissible to protect the lives of animals. Together with the rest of the group, Maria sabotaged the government, research and industrial facilities that she said violated animal rights.
Vicente, from a very young age is interested in philosophy and sociopolitical issues, through friends discovers a movement of international social protest that takes place in the main cities of the world, join the movement with friends. Weeks later, during one of the protests, Vicente and his companions were arrested for throwing stones at policemen who rejected a wave of demonstrators demanding social justice.
On a sunny January morning, Abu crossed the Turkish border into ISIS territory. It felt like a man who had nothing to lose. He had recently divorced his wife and was battering severe alcohol and cigarette addiction. He wasn’t fit and certainly not fit to fight, but the prospect of bureaucratic work with IS in the caliphate meant he could cleanse his “sinful table” and become a good Muslim.
For radicalization to occur there must be a need, which is identified as the search for meaning. People want to make a difference, be important, be someone, in this way, when an opportunity arises to gain importance, awakens the search for meaning, however, the importance can be achieved in many non-violent ways.
In our examples, Mary loses importance when she feels powerless in the face of animal abuse, Vicente tries not to lose the importance when her friends join the movement, so she joins them, for her part Abu seeks to gain importance with the conditions offered by IS.
To gain the importance of opting for violent means, it is necessary for the narrative or ideology of the person to authorize violence, of all the options that subjects are considering to make sense, violence must be the first and, moreover, it must be legitimized by their beliefs. If ideology does not allow violence, other means are chosen to gain importance and radicalization will not occur.
Returning to our examples, Maria radicalizes her thinking after joining the group to accept that violence is the only way to defend animals. The movement joined Vicente in line with illegal actions in favor of social justice, which he finally accepted. For Abu, the ideology of ISIS allows violence to establish an Islamic caliphate.
Finally, what the three characters in our examples share is that they are not alone, to be important others need to make you feel important, the group is what, in a way, gives importance to people, therefore, the last ingredient of radicalization. is the social network In most cases, people become radicalized with other people.
Mary fell in love with a radicalized man, Vicente became radicalized with his friends and Abu joined a terrorist organization. Everyone has become radicalized differently, but they all have something in common. They all tried to be important, hosted a narrative justificaba. la violence and had a group that accompanied them in this radicalization.