1. "What's the bottom line?"
The middle class rebel/terrorist seeks relief from ambivalent feelings. He cannot hold the tension of opposites. Those feelings are, for the most part, unconscious. They are the ultimate source of his fervor, the mask of desperation.
For a cure, he turns to an absolute -- the opposite of ambivalence. That absolute can be a religion, a political ideology, whatever. Indeed, he can make an absolute out of a straight line, and it is that propensity, rather than any specific absolute, which matters. That propensity is the telltale heart.
On a practical level, any interrogation of a terrorist, any effort to lead a terrorist to co-operate or change sides, any program to reintegrate terrorists into society -- all should focus on the terrorist's deep ambivalent emotions. Otherwise, not just failure but counterproductive results will be frequent, if not commonplace.
2. "How does a middle class status create ambivalence?"
A condition of dependency always creates ambivalent feelings. No middle class can escape from that condition. It cannot be autonomous because it does not exist without something above and below it. To clarify: if everybody were middle class, then nobody would be middle class.
The middle class rebel/terrorist seeks relief from ambivalent feelings. He cannot hold the tension of opposites. Those feelings are, for the most part, unconscious. They are the ultimate source of his fervor, the mask of desperation.
For a cure, he turns to an absolute -- the opposite of ambivalence. That absolute can be a religion, a political ideology, whatever. Indeed, he can make an absolute out of a straight line, and it is that propensity, rather than any specific absolute, which matters. That propensity is the telltale heart.
On a practical level, any interrogation of a terrorist, any effort to lead a terrorist to co-operate or change sides, any program to reintegrate terrorists into society -- all should focus on the terrorist's deep ambivalent emotions. Otherwise, not just failure but counterproductive results will be frequent, if not commonplace.
2. "How does a middle class status create ambivalence?"
A condition of dependency always creates ambivalent feelings. No middle class can escape from that condition. It cannot be autonomous because it does not exist without something above and below it. To clarify: if everybody were middle class, then nobody would be middle class.