Yesterday the idea of emotional investment popped into my mind from a post on social media. I had a long talk with my daughter who was frustrated by the emotional responses to Trump at her school. A lot of her friends are Muslim and they don’t seem to have any convincing arguments to dislike Trump. I talked about various policies and associations that may make Muslims feel uneasy with Trump. The kids are learning about the US election and globalisation and various facts.

Someone mentioned that an emotional response was quite logical which I agree with but I needed to round out the argument and create a bigger picture. It was hard because clearly I am biased against Trump and I had to be fair in my arguments. So lets say it was a long talk. But what popped into my mind was the emotive nature of suicide bombings and that brand of terrorism. There was no honour or glory in a western sense just the emotional sowing of doubt and fear.

Doubt and fear that seem to breed dissolution and dissatisfaction which seems to be the point of the act. I had read an interesting comment from Ziźek where he mentioned that suicide bombers compare themselves to westerners as lesser than. That they see themselves as inferior so they are happy to kill themselves and others in their acts. This has lead to me think that they also make this act an emotional investment to sow their own doubt of themselves into the acts they perpetrate. And into the wider world.

It seems to be a rather logical argument which would explain so much of the dissatisfied world we seem to live in.