Self-sacrifice as innovation

This essay examines martyrdom as a cultural tool used by organizations to elicit predictable behavior from their members, even when this behavior requires the individuals in question to kill themselves in the course of a mission. These organizations have regularized or mechanized martyrdom in order to make an ordinarily rare phenomenon—individual self-sacrifice—predictable and controllable. The purpose of this cultural programming is to provide terrorist organizations with reliable control systems for their weaponry and a powerful source of legitimation. Suicide bombing thus depends on manipulation of martyrdom to provide both strategic and tactical advantages

Business · Epistemology · Legitimation · Military science · Order (exchange · Phenomenon · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Sacrifice · Sociology · Strategic goal · Terrorism · History · Law · Philosophy · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence