Terrorism and Glamor and Facebook (read to find out how I connect)

Virginia Postrel writes about The Baader-Meinhof Complex, a movie glamorizing the West German terrorist group from the 1960s.

Forget the movie for a moment (which I will be seeing) -

These contradictory reactions reflect an uncomfortable fact about terrorism and political extremism: To the right audience, they can be very glamorous. They promise purity and meaning, attention and fame and a sense of belonging. Evil does not always appear ugly and unappealing. It can even be sexy.

This is most certainly true and helps to explain the appeal of extreme political violence. It is equally clear that there is some connection between the conditions of modern life - hyper consumer and sexual culture, scientific and technological progress, etc - that encourages an extreme reactionary/terrorist impulse. In short, the terrorist seeks virtue and a spiritual purity and generally eschews the comforts and expectations of the modern world.

I will not argue the terrorist has a point. He does not. He is delusional and seeks a simple answer. His answer is wrong, but his questions are not (at least not entirely). His discontent with the modern world is not his alone.

The modern world provides many things - entertainment, longer/healthier lives, good and plenty food, shelter, in short, many material comforts. It does not, however, give meaning. It does not help us answer the question: what is the point? And while it does provide some tools, those tools are no more sophisticated than those of our forefathers. Especially if you consider the rate at which scientific technology progresses, the rate of say, moral progress is actually quite pathetic. We're not much further in those terms than in the 1800s, after the American/French revolutions and Marx/JS Mill/Kant, ie the harm principle, the categorical imperative, and Marx's critique of capitalism.

Facebook is the ultimate expression of this meaninglessness. It is a world reduced to small talk...an endless cocktail party of nonsense and pointless babble. It is the movie equivalent of watching un-edited dailies over and over to the point of nausea. It is picture after picture, message after message, data after data of all the small and petty and worthless moments of every day life. It is the repetition of running daily errands and brushing teeth and doing online shopping. It is completely and totally unsatisfying. It is filling up on snack food and watching only commercials and topping it all off with sour patch kids. It is not interpersonal relationships. It is advertising. It is "selling" yourself to others. It has nothing to do with friendship and everything to do with "friendship," as a marketing tool. It takes what should not have a monetary value and attempts to monetize it. It is shameful and frivolous. Users are part customer, part billboard model. It promises meaning and connections and does not actually try to deliver it. It's only goal is to collect enough data on you to sell you stuff one day. That's it. If it provided what it advertised, you would cease to use it.

It is the flipside of the terrorist seeking virtue. It is a spiraling descent into complete meaninglessness whereas the terrorist believes one act of virtue will render himself heroic and pure and give all that which came before him (and after him) meaning.

I abhor both. In my perfect world, all the terrorists would endlessly play with themselves on facebook.