How to Overcome Secular and Religious Terrorism and Reach Sustainable Prosperity!

We cannot just face terrorism with military forces because violent approaches have proven to lack efficacy. Facing terrorism with brutality is like screaming for silence. It creates an even more hideous reality. Judiciously, we need to scrutinize the rationales of terrorism if we hope for definite success.

Terrorism is a symptom of chronic political and socio-economic decadence, and we can eradicate terrorism only when we address the underlying causes of the emergence of violence. In reality, political movements that embrace violence to accomplish a suspicious political or social agenda are an instrument in the hands of policymakers. There are multiple geopolitical and economic objectives to the rise of modern extremism, and I have elaborated on the geopolitics of extremism in another piece.

Tyrannical regimes expose the public to the social and economic turmoil that makes a segment of the population rebel against the political and social structure. The tyrannized are consistently disposed to exhibit violent conduct against the oppressive system if natural forms of expression become outlawed. I wanted to underline the distinction between oppressed political resistance and terrorist movements, a blunder to consider both with the same measure.

Despotic political practices are the fertile soil for extremism; debased politicians employ media to disseminate mass ignorance, deception, and disinformation in every society. In an ocean of falsehoods, finding facts has become a real challenge in today's world because people have not obtained an education on critical thinking or the proper use of the capacity of reasoning. People replicate what others say without thought and act like they have no brain to sift in and out information. Existing education systems create cohorts of conformers that become striking at follow-the-herd mentality and constitute the best cogs for the economic structure. Present political and social construct acclaims automaton conformity and obedient people because they are controllable.

The subversion of schooling systems is not a coincidence. Politics and media exploit the public's inability to distinguish the truth, and they invoke fears because scared people are easier to mislead; the reasoning capacity declines under continued unease. Consequently, authoritarianism in religion, science, and politics has become increasingly accepted, not because many people explicitly believe in it but because people feel individually powerless and anxious. Therefore, qualitative education is pivotal in fighting misleading information and is the only protection from pernicious ideologies.

We need to repair the schooling system, and besides the usual curriculum, we must introduce a new set of topics to the syllabus of every age group. Schooling must prepare youngsters to use various thinking frameworks and enhance collaborative skills in diverse groups. So that children learn to collectively work for the common good and increase the odds of success for the group. Besides, kids have to apprehend to engage with life in a constructive mode; they must learn that the life of everyone is as significant as oneself. Altruism, competence, confidentiality, benevolence, fairness, integrity, positive intent, tolerance, and valuing differences; imagine the life of a kid who practices all these codes of behavior daily. We need recognized educators to illustrate ethical teachings to the juniors in the formal education systems. Education is the bedrock of social and economic welfare; however, politics is the only obstruction to reforming education systems. Political systems do not appreciate those who think independently, even in Western democracies. Hence, enhancing the schooling system is a long-term political and economic struggle with the corrupted and greedy politicians and business gangs.

The perfect candidate to join a violent group is someone with below-average financial gains and superficial social life. Enhancing the conditions that involve the social and economic facets of life would deplete the human aspect that sustains all forms of religious and laical extremism. Everyone yearns for a decent job that preserves dignity and meaningful social life, nothing more. Indisputably, nobody would leave his well-established life to join a terrorist coterie. Most people go stray because they are either jobless for a long time or have a disruptive social life and seek a life shift.

Comprehensive social and economic prosperity is the shield against the spread of fanatic and extreme doctrines, and it is also the antidote for religious and secular terrorism. Inclusive socio-economic wellness would emerge innately in an even-handed stable democratic political structure. The planet has not seen such a system yet!