[fecklessyouth]

Then what is behind the rise of the Islamic State's recruiting, whose targets aren't suffering any obvious economic strife?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/world/middleeast/from-minn...

Modern liberalism offers no solution to the problem of evil. It assumes that as long as your basic needs are met, and you're mentally sane, that you will behave as a rational, non-violent person. It sees humans as essentially materialist, subject to the same universal desires, which can all be met in similar ways, and which are never distorted to any great degree. So it is stumped by the sort of despair that such jihadists harbor in their hearts, for according to its philosophical principles, such a thing should not be possible.

[heurist]

Modern liberalism leaves no room for evil. The contemporary social conservative-liberal axis reflects personal responsibility. Conservatives believe individuals are entirely responsible for individual happiness and liberals believe society is entirely responsible for individual happiness. If westerners are joining ISIS they are not evil, they have been failed by the collective and are seeking happiness elsewhere. They want variation, excitement, or certain moral standards that western society cannot or will not provide. Is that evil? If we lived in ISIS-controlled territory we'd likely want to escape and would also be branded as evil by those in power.

I'd argue income inequality is very much the culprit in this problem: individuals need not be in economic strife to feel unsatisfied with life. Wealth helps enable empowerment but individuals still need the mental tools to maintain it, and our society vastly undervalues mental health (except among the most fortunate).

[danans]

You statement assumes that everyone who joins/supports ISIS is evil or brainwashed like the people in that article.

Imagine you are a resident of a town just captured by ISIS in Syria. Assuming that they don't kill you immediately for being a Shia, Kurd, Christian or Yazidi, how hard would it be for you to say no to supporting them, when the alternative is death, or to flee to another place only to be forced into destitution due to lack of economic opportunity.

No doubt ISIS seems to have a special capability to recruit people with sociopathic desires, but any army marches on its stomach, and that requires regular, non-evil people, to participate in the effort.

[jules]

This isn't about evil sociopaths, it's about people who are deluded about what's good and evil. ISIS thinks they are doing good.