Weaponize Ridicule

This clip about bumbling jihadis in the new movie The Four Lions is hilarious . . .

It comes via J. Michael Waller whose Political Warfare blog has a great series of posts on how comedy can be used to help defeat radical extremist movements.  Osama Bin Laden has previously stated that he isn't afraid of dying but that he's afraid of being humiliated.  According to Waller, one way to make his worst fears come true is by making fun of him and those wishing to mirror his actions.  

"Ridicule," says Waller, "strips the terrorist of his power.  If we stop being afraid, we turn the icons of fear into objects of contempt."

While mockery won't solve the problem of terrorism, which is essentially blowback resulting from specific U.S. government actions abroad and can only be solved through a smarter foreign policy and less meddling in the affairs of other nations, it can be used to draw support away from extremist organizations seeking support from the masses. 

Satire has a long and established history of being used to subvert the beliefs of those who it is directed against.  If we hope to influence the minds and wills (hearts don't mean anything . . . so what if someone likes you if they're not willing to do anything to support you) of the populations who provide the sources of support for violent extremists, we'd be much better off churning out more films like The Four Lions. 

Chris Blattman’s African Poverty and Western Aid

For those who don’t know him, Chris Blattman is a Professor at Yale and a blogger who works on development issues (he’s also a consultant at the World Bank and UN Peace Fund).

He’s got advice for you on everything from getting a job in development and the consequences of child soldiering to the great debates surrounding the role of evaluations in international development.

I mention him because I’ve just discovered he’s teaching a course right now on “African Poverty and Western Aid” that is partially open to the general public.  He won’t be grading your papers and you won’t be sitting around with him and the other students discussing the subject matter, but you will learn a thing or two, especially if you’re like me and didn’t discover you wanted to work in post-conflict stabilization and international development until later in life.   

If you’re real hardcore you can probably set up some sort of study group with colleagues or interested friends.  That will offer the chance to further discuss the readings and you can even do the papers and then have each other read and evaluate them.   

There’s also available an already completed course on The Political Economy of Civil Wars and Terrorism that he taught last fall and which should be of greater interest to those studying post-conflict stabilization and COIN in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.