Politicisation of Grievances Stage 2 Politicisation of Grievances

Most people brush over this bit in essays – but it is really vital, and should be explained properly. Terrorism could not happen without this.

As we have discussed – all of the background factors may be present in any country at any time, but the majority of people will not turn to terrorism because of it. Terrorism is an extraordinarily rare response to social, economic and political problems in a country. Basically, most people just try and get on with their lives as best they can.

In order for a group to become terrorist, there are another 2 stages that they must go through. The second stage is politicisation of grievances.

When people get politicised they are starting to get angry about the issues, starting to meet up or communicate with people who feel the same way as them about stuff. When we do this, we share views and our own views become more entrenched, because we back each other up, and feed off each other’s anger.

The important thing that has to happen here is that there has to be someone, or some group of people who can be blamed for the problems. If people are noticing all of these social, economic and political problems, but don’t see it being the fault of anyone else, then they are unlikely to start a political movement. They have to see it as something which can be changed.

It doesn’t really matter if the person or group being blamed are really to blame for the problems (often the groups who are blamed are in no way at fault – like the Jews in Nazi Germany) – it just matters that there is a group that is blamed. Politics is often an emotional response to an issue and may not be based on factual evidence – it can be more about a person’s gut instincts or feelings on an issue.

Horizontal Inequalities Politicisation of grievances can be more common in countries where there are distinct national, religious or cultural ethnic groups who are somewhat separate in society. If one group is much better off than another, or if a minority feels humiliated or alienated from society, then they can bond together much more quickly and politicise

People are likely to feel bonded together with people from their own ethnic or religious background when they are a minority in a country. So even if they are wealthy themselves, if they see people from the same background who are suffering poverty and social inequality, then they can be more likely to feel empathy towards them and politicise on their behalf. This is why we often find young, middle class, well-educated people becoming involved in political movements.

Modern Technology has made the politicisation of grievances much easier – now people can easily communicate with like-minded individuals, they don’t have to be local any more

There has to be a sense of unfairness about it all. As soon as we say something is unfair, then we are making a political statement. When we meet other people and start organising ourselves in a fight against this unfairness we are “Politicising our grievances”