Religious extremism: the good, the bad, and the deadly

December 20, 2005 8:32 AM

Religious extremism: the good, the bad, and the deadly (pdf) is an academic paper offering an alternative analysis of economic self-interest as a motivation for terrorism. A University of California San Diego economics professor is among the world's leaders in a small but growing field of study that uses economic principles to gain a deeper understanding of radical religious groups.
posted by redneck_zionist (15 comments total)

I loves me crazy economists. I know Freakonomics has been over-played, but those guys have done some pretty startling research. Good to see more interest in doing economic analysis of non-traditional subjects.
posted by GuyZero at 8:42 AM on December 20, 2005

Of course, this is pretty conventional for cultural materialists, who basically have the run of the place in most of America's anthropology departments. Economic anthropologists do stuff like this all the time.
posted by jefgodesky at 8:55 AM on December 20, 2005

It's all Adam Smith's fault. Again.
posted by three blind mice at 8:59 AM on December 20, 2005

There are "Economic anthropologists"? Colour me ignorant.

Where do I find such creatures? And how much would they be willing to pay for high-quality wing-tip loafers?

Seriously, are there non-academic publications from these people that would be accessible to people outside the discipline?
posted by GuyZero at 9:06 AM on December 20, 2005

Unfortunately, not so much. The Freakonomics phenomenon has amused me, because everyone's talking about how "rogue" it is--while I've thought of that approach as pretty typical for some time now. But I suppose it's entirely understandable, since Freakonomics was probably where most people first heard of such a thing. The Society for Economic Anthropology is a bit on the, well, useless side, frankly. This is the kind of stuff that's hard to find online, but relatively easy to find in journals and your local university's library.
posted by jefgodesky at 9:18 AM on December 20, 2005

It's all Adam Smith's fault. Again

It's actually the fault of those who misinterpret him - or worse, use partial theory to rationalize their criminal intent. The same goes for Jesus, Marx, Mohammed, Rand and anyone else who's words and ideas have been bastardized to hold influence over the masses.
posted by any major dude at 9:23 AM on December 20, 2005

I blame the media.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:33 AM on December 20, 2005

Jesus, Marx, Mohammed and who!!!??

You almost had me there....
posted by PeterMcDermott at 9:40 AM on December 20, 2005

Yeah, I'm currently reading Atlas Shrugged after years of hearing right wing free marketeers use her philosophy has rationalization for an unregulated free market. She would be disgusted by our crony free market system as it exists today.
posted by any major dude at 9:49 AM on December 20, 2005

"Crony free market system???!!"
posted by ZenMasterThis at 9:57 AM on December 20, 2005

So let me get this straight. 3 exclamation points followed by 2 question marks denotes incredulousness and 3 question marks followed by 2 exclamation points denotes confusion???!! Is this the new slang?
posted by any major dude at 10:08 AM on December 20, 2005

Also amazing and relevant is Landscapes of the Jihad... Review here (and no, i am not the author, nor related to him in any way)... Devji argues that Al-Queda and other such groups are much like offshore capital; in fact they mirror capitalism's evolutions in may ways, such as fluidity, risk-taking, subject to whims of nation-states but not attached to them, etc. fascinating take, and not just adam-smith rational-actor bullshit.
posted by yonation at 10:09 AM on December 20, 2005

It's actually the fault of those who misinterpret him - or worse, use partial theory to rationalize their criminal intent. The same goes for Jesus, Marx, Mohammed, Rand and anyone else who's words and ideas have been bastardized to hold influence over the masses.

Hitler and Swayze and Trump and...

TRAVOLTA!
posted by theorique at 10:46 AM on December 20, 2005

Also amazing and relevant is Landscapes of the Jihad... Review here

Related post here.
posted by y2karl at 12:21 PM on December 20, 2005

There's good religious extremism? That'd be scientology, right?
posted by Decani at 6:37 PM on December 20, 2005