It IS religion “what really fuels the Jihad”, though perhaps not religion as we know it,

I think religion and ideology do play a significant part, but they have to tap into some worldly consideration to attain force. One of the attractions of the Jihad is precisely that it allows a person to kill, steal, dominate and rape licitly, or even as a “sacred duty”. The most powerful cults are those which legitimize behavior which is banned by the deepest social taboos. Give me a religion that will justify anything, and I will give you a cult that will sweep the world.

This was a powerful driver of revolutionary Marxism in the early 20th century. It conferred a license to do anything at all in the name of revolution. That was heady tonic, especially for young people. It freed you of parental authority, tribal customs and anything else in the name of a higher cause you had to serve. The Weathermen, for example, were bound by nothing but their own desires. They preferred it. And why not? You could rob banks, groove on Charles Manson, have “free love”, hate your country, lie, cheat and scheme and yet feel absolutely self-righteous about it in the bargain. It was a self-licking ice cream cone. The Jihad, like Legion, has many names.

I was surprised, but not too surprised to discover in later life that people I had met; people who were well spoken, sane, barbered and apparently sober; good chess players and cultured individuals, guys who could discuss Sarte and Heidegger and all the rest of it later killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people. You wouldn’t think it. But it is now well established that in the mid and late 1980s, the Leftists, furious and perplexed at being “robbed” of their seizure of power by the 1986 People’s Power Revolution, came to believe their failure must be due to infiltration, their own ideology and strategy being flawless. The plan was perfect. If it wasn’t working it could only be due to capitalist roaders, wreckers and all the assorted demons that Marxists conjure from their private hell. And armed with supreme freedom and self-righteousness, these cultured souls launched three massive purges — exorcisms really — with charming names like Operation Garlic (Ahos), Operation Missing Link and Operation Olympia against enemies they called “zombies”. I’m sure the nomenclature only coincidentally evoked the nether regions, but it was suitable all the same. And they killed and killed without the slightest hesitation. And I doubt whether to this day any of them feels the slightest twinge of remorse.

I’m convinced that what attracts people to the leadership of extreme ideologies is the desire for fame, power or money. They may call it “belief”, but it is really a form of obsessive insanity. It was once said the British Empire was a form of “outdoor relief” for the British upper classes. One day it will be discovered that extremism is what happens when small minded academics play out their fantasies. It is the Walter Mitty dream of mediocrities. Their Monster From the Id. That’s why revolution will always be more popular on campus than among “the people”. That’s not to deny there are pure idealists. There are some, but they are mostly useful to their leaders dead. Martyrdom is money — for the revolutionary cause. The best place for a John Cornford or Bobby Sands is in a coffin where they can be kept quiet yet used to raise money and give legitimacy for causes which are quite frankly, crimes, with apologies to crime. The most evil thing about extremisms and the cults they spawn is that they are the ultimate betrayers of idealism. They twist flowers into wreaths to the point where you begin to wonder whether humanity is capable of goodness at all; that maybe even our impulses to charity are despicable urges in disguise. Sometimes that path leads to despair; at other times to faith because it implies we are incapable of saving ourselves unless it were through undeserved grace.