I recommend that everyone listen to National Public Radio's "All Thing's
Considered." If you listen to it through a memetic filter, it is an
invaluable resource for generating concrete examples of the abstract
phenomena we talk about in this forum. Several months ago they had a
series of interviews with Hammas (sp) members who recruit young men and
prepare them for suicide bombing missions as well as with many of the
young recruits. They spend months painting vivid mental images in the
minds of those young men; images of the heavenly rewards which await the
heros who give their lives in the service of Allah. By the time those
men drive trucks packed with explosives into buildings or get on busses
as human bombs, they are far more focused on the martyr's reward which
awaits them in heaven then on the likelihood that their actions will
affect some political change.
Take care. -KMO