Why Martyrdom

From ATOL:
Suicide Bombers: Allah's New Martyrs
by Farhad Khosrokhavar

"Khosrokhavar's psychoanalytical exegesis, drawn from numerous interviews of hardcore Islamists, is compulsory reading for persuasively rationalizing the irrational actions that dot the terrorist map of the 21st century. It provides madness a much-deserved reason and context."

Here's my doggerel summary of what I've heard on the subject:

Why do suicide bombers suicide bomb?
1. They hate freedom.

who knows how you started hating freedom
perhaps you were Muslim
beset with a modern reality of futility and meaningless in the wake of hegemony
overcome by life's indifference and ambiguity
a derelict human being
suffering from divine neglect
facing military superiority, material superiority
facing pervasive cultural decadence, shamefully tempting
by many measures, you are inferior
as a result, you are humiliated
you are in extreme crisis
you are extreme Islam
you find recourse in moral superiority
succor in self-assertion
restoration of dignity through offensive martyrdom

I am reminded of a book I read a few years ago.
The True Believer
by Eric Hoffer

In other news, I saw Kung Fu Hustle on Friday and I swam in a refreshing 88 degree pool yesterday.