The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Elusive Trope's picture

    Loser

    By Elusive Trope on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 3:08pm |

    http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/016/a/8/Hello_Loser_by_HaloKitty10461.jpg

    In the aftermath of the capture of the second suspect Boston Marathon bombings, one of the questions being asked in a number of circles is how did these two brothers become radicalized.  Part of the motivation behind the question is just the quest to understand why they did what they did.  Clarity around the motivation may facilitate for some of the victims and others traumatized by the event to a greater sense of closure.   For some this questioning into the 'reasons why' may be driven by what may be simply called academic curiosity.

    Another purpose of this question, however, is posed with the intent to gain some insight into how we in a developed country can help prevent other young adults like these two from becoming radicalized in the future.

    The uncle of the two suspects, Ruslan Tsarni, could very well touched upon a significant facet to that answer. During his press statement yesterday he stated:

    Asked what he thought provoked the bombings, Tsarni said: "Being losers, hatred to those who were able to settle themselves. These are the only reasons I can imagine of. Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, it's a fraud, it's a fake."

    Pressed again toward the end of the impromptu interview, he said he was not calling his nephews losers. "I'm saying those who are able to make this atrocity are only losers."

    As a general rule of thumb, people tend to prefer being a winner over being a loser, a success rather than a failure.  This preference is in part driven out of a desire or need for others to see us as a winner and a success.  It is not enough that we believe our own selves as such.  If those around us don't share in this evaluation then it becomes less real, less satisfying. 

    Of course, not everyone's definition of success, of what it means to be a loser is the same.  The various sub-cultures of modern diverse society not only differ in their definitions, but often have directly contradictory definitions from one another.  One only has to study high school cliques to discover this little bit of conventional wisdom. This diversity becomes  more pronounced as those from other regions of the globe attempt to assimilate and accommodate their (sub)cultural paradigms into the prevailing paradigms.

    It all leads some people who view an act as evil and heinous forgetting that the perpetuators believed they were doing the right thing.  

    When Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev made the decision to commit their act (if they did - they are still innocent until proven guilty) (and putting aside questions about whether  they acted alone), they did not do so because they wanted to be thought of as losers, as failures in life.

    Quite the opposite.  They moved forward with their plan because in part they came to believe that those from within some particular (sub)culture would view them as winners. 

    A significant part of the modern American (and Western) cultural landscape for the youth to some degree rebel against the prevailing culture of their parents and society at large.  There is probably a genetic / biological factor in the equation, but usually this drive to establish one's own (sense of) autonomy  amounts to a choice in music, clothes, and slang.  More often than not, the acts of rebellion amount to going to the mall to buy a t-shirt with the anarchy symbol on it from a retail chain store.

    https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0qKzvnQC0juSFE_DnajDjyEaitQJ54aVK1ItbC-7_U25FDZBCGg

    The point here is that while someone's parents might have thought James Dean was a loser, the kid's friends, the ones whose opinion really mattered in that moment, thought he was cool, and the society who did not understand that fact were the losers. 

    Disaffected and alienated youth are part of doing business in today's world.  Convincing ourselves  that with the right guidance counselors and parenting tips on the web we can create a smooth transition from childhood into adulthood for everyone is nothing more than denial or delusion. 

    Just as delusional is believing we can find a way to prevent every Ted Kaczynski from emerging.

    What is realistic is that the various people moving through the various (sub)cultural circles of this country take it as part of being cool to denounce (each in their own way) the kind of beliefs that make a Boston Marathon bombing an appropriate act.

    This is easier said than done.  But when only losers commit acts of terror, there will be a lot less terror.

    Comments

    Some people, if they self-identify as "losers" will, in fact, act out.  Society sometimes alienates people.  Some of those people will react antisocially.


    by Michael Maiello on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 4:53pm

    True. It is like addressing the problem of kids shooting up their school. Or bullying. It isn't really about eliminating these problems entirely once and for all. It's about facilitating an environment and atmosphere that decreases the likelihood of such events from happening.

    by Elusive Trope on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 6:04pm

    I would add that a big part of the point I am making is that we need to focus on shaping how they act out, not on stopping them from acting out.

    by Elusive Trope on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 6:26pm

    I'm with you on that.  Also, of course, I'm not condoning people acting out with violence.   I'm not even necessarily condoning "acting out," though I do it in my own mild ways every day.  I'm just saying that I get where it comes from, as you do.

    And... it's a tough problem.  If you're the kid who the jocks pick on and you figure out a way to make them wish they'd never started with you... well... whose fault is that, really?


    by Michael Maiello on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 8:56pm

    Thomas Jefferson was considered a loser. in some circles, he also had an arrest warrant issued against him....... In some circles the most recent police assasin who was burned alive, in the cabin in CA was a loser to some and a folk hero to others.  I hope we'll find out, if the Boston bombings were an act of random violence or was there an intended target of high interest? If there was an intended target; Is it a defense, to use the same cover rational, our government attorneys give our leaders? or is it "Do as we say, not as we do"?  If there was an intended target, will we ever know the truth, for fear of copy cats? I hope we dont have another Jack Ruby in the suspects room. I really want to know what motivated this crime.


    by Resistance on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 5:20am

    One could go on all night and into the day giving examples of those who are considered heroes by some and a loser and a villain by others. The point to be stressed here would be that those with the power dictate who get the prevalent label of loser and winner. In high school, the jocks tended to dominate because of the views of what constitutes success (and desirability). And what goes for high school cliques, also goes for governments. The victor gets to write the history. And even if he tells everyone what he believes to be his motivation, the actual motivation buried deep beyond his awareness may never be revealed.

    by Elusive Trope on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 6:33am

    I think "losers looking to go out in glory" is probably the main motivating factor (rather than anti-depressants and other psychoactive pharaceuticals, as maybe you've seen me argue with Orion here from time-to-time cheeky) in most spree/rampage killer attacks over the past couple decades. Goes without saying that they often mental illness problems that contribute to their "loserness." Should go without saying that media and history-book fame is the main result they are often looking for, but we don't remind ourselves enough of that, of our complicity.

    I didn't think that with this case initially. And when by happenstance I saw this tweet from Dan Kervick:

    I first thought: "he's right." But then I read this in the NYT:

    At the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Dzhokhar began to struggle academically. According to a university transcript reviewed by The New York Times, he was failing many of his classes. The transcript shows him receiving seven failing grades over three semesters, including F’s in Principles of Modern Chemistry, Intro to American Politics and Chemistry and the Environment. According to the transcript, Dzhokhar received a B in Critical Writing and a D and D-plus in two other courses.

    San, 22, a former classmate at the university who would identify himself only by his first name, said that Dzhokhar had told him he was having trouble in some courses.

    “He was talking about how he wasn’t doing as good as he expected,” San said. “He was a really smart kid, but having a little difficulty in college because going from high school to college is totally different.”

    And I thought: maybe Uncle Reslan wasn't just being rhetorical but knew very precisely what he was talking about.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 7:21pm

    If one can convince oneself that the academic, social, professional, cultural system that one is failing is not only not a good fit, but also corrupt or even evil, than one is actually redeemed by one's failure. Only in an insane society will the sane appear insane. Or so they say.

    by Elusive Trope on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 7:22pm

    I'm thinking now of "fame! I'm gonna be a famous jihadi, I'm gonna live forevah!" (but it would have to be a rap version, because they both liked rap. ) I'll show you, FBI, I am the man, not a loser, I fooled you:

    The parents' claims appear to contradict a statement by the FBI saying that, after checks on Tamerlan and his family, along with a review of travel records, internet activity and personal associations, it "did not find any terrorism activity". Officials have added that the brothers had not been under surveillance.


    by artappraiser on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 7:37pm

    That they let the driver of car jacked suv go backs up the fame framework. How does the song go? Fame! I'm going to live forever.

    by Elusive Trope on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 7:58pm

    On the loser-killer-makes-the-history-books thing, Gopnik asks does anyone now recall the killer of Gianni Versace? And I admit I don't, but I sure do remember the massive coverage of the story and the popular fixation on it. The name and his persona evade me, except that a memory that he was a loser type. One could google it, but why would one want to?


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 6:44pm

    I actually don't recall anything about Versace and Cunanan.  This may have to do with the fact that at the time it happened, my girfriend and I did not own (or rent) a television.  I wasn't really reading newspapers either.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 7:07pm

    Woody Allen famously said that he'd never want to join a club that would accept him. That said, it's a long way from there to blowing up all the clubs that wouldn't....


    by erica20 on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 2:48am

    Maybe we should be inquiring into just how long of a way it really is. There is some evidence out there to say it isn't that far

    by Elusive Trope on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 4:39am

    The uncle also clarified, however, that he didn't think his nephews were losers, just that the sense of loserdom could lead to such acts.  My current take, based on nothing but news media, is that the family is very thoughtful.  But thought can lead to doubt and questioning.


    by Michael Maiello on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 9:13pm

    Moving forward, he may wish he'd paid a little more attention in that American Politics course.

    Sigh.


    by erica20 on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 2:50am

    Connect these two idiots with James Dean or other 'counter culture' legends? No. Dean is and was a legend. These two are losers, legends in their own minds, until reality crept up on them.

    A characteristic common to losers is they can't forecast the negative consequences of their dumb, futile, sick or perverted actions.

    In their sick little Chechen minds they learned how to make a bomb, made some, and then wondered what would happen if they blew them up. In a crowd. So they concocted a scheme to drop them at the marathon, to see what would happen.

    That appears to be as far as the thinking went.

    They didn't try to escape, didn't think they would be caught. When their pictures were put up they panicked and we know the rest of the story, the younger one even drove over and finished off his brother in his escape.

    I would put these guys in an orders of magnitude far psycho end of the loser category of David Grumman. A tragic loser case, but only for himself.

    He had an idea, a gun, and a decided lack of ability to foresee future consequences. In his case, the interaction of a gunshot with a multi-ton saguaro and gravity. The Austin Lounge Lizards immortalized his fate in a song Saguaro. Concluding lyrics:

    ..He was slightly disadvantaged by the angle of the sun,
    but after all the cactus wasn't packing any gun!
    His finger twitched, he made his move, he drew his guns did bark,
    and echo with the laughter as the bullets hit their mark!

    Well the giant cactus trembled, and came that warning sound!
    The mighty arm of Justice came hurling toward the ground,
    and the gunman staggered backwards, he whimpered and he cried...
    the Saguaro.....crushed him like a bug, and David Grumman died...


    by NCD on Sat, 04/20/2013 - 9:12pm

    There are a couple of things to respond to here. The first would be of another shooter comes to mind, one who in glare of the sun, fired a gun and took a life on a beach.

    by Elusive Trope on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 12:26am

    I wasn't connecting Dean to these two, rather I was using the difference between generational views of Dean to illustrate the notion that the definition of loser is not the same for everyone. Moreover, Dean starred in movies that were part of the cultural affirmation of rebellion against the prevailing culture. Dean was not a rebel without a clue, he was an actor who played a rebel without a clue. Through those roles, he was able to connect with a segment of the population and his portrayal helped shape a redefinition of constituted a loser and a winner. Maybe what we need among the many needs is for a Muslim James Dean to emerge, one who will help change the definitions of winner and loser

    by Elusive Trope on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 11:49am

    Good points.

    I haven't noted anyone anywhere calling these scumbags winners.

    Perhaps if they lived in Arizona they would have settled for blowing up saguaros instead of people. Although illegal, it's unlikely to draw a multi-thousand agent manhunt, and unless one falls on you, not likely to result in premature death.


    by NCD on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 2:27pm

    First, I can't help but think that Dzhokhar was heavily influenced by his brother.  He seemed to be acclimated and socialized, but has been described as shy and I'm guessing his outgoing older brother could manipulate him pretty easily.  People who knew him say he was smart, so his troubles in school seem out of character.  (I haven't heard any interviews with former teachers.) I can imagine that if I were being pressed to blow up as many people as possible that my mind wouldn't be on my studies.  But.... We may never know.


    by AmiBlue on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 5:29pm

    Second, (I pushed the save button too soon after "First")  I've wondered about the driver of the Mercedes they stole.  Why didn't they kill him, and why haven't the media interviewed him? 

    Third, where did they put all the ordnance they threw out of the car if it was the car they stole.  It sounded like a lot of heavy stuff to be carrying in backpacks - more than they were carrying at the marathon. 

    Fourth, why didn't Dzhokhar kill the boat owner when he looked into boat and saw  him if he had a gun?  He supposedly exchanged gun fire with law enforcement from the boat.


    by AmiBlue on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 5:40pm

    I'm skeptical about the quantity of  gunfire once tsarnaev was in the boat. I was following things on reddit but was very tired by that time.  But I definitely had the sense that the firing was mostly a hail of bullets and /or flash bangs from the police. Tsarnaev seemed pretty much laid out in the bottom of the boat. It was hard to know how they would get him into custody and much of the discussion centered around whether he was wearing a suicide device.

    i have not heard definitive confirmation about whether or not there was actually a gun in the boat. 


    by Erica (not verified) on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 9:11pm

    I think you're probably right, Erica.  But it doesn't make much sense for them to be showering him with bullets when they wanted to take him alive.


    by AmiBlue on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 1:44pm

    No, it doesn't. I think these things don't always make sense, and there are always tradeoffs. During the night, there was an effort to get everybody kitted up with "less-lethal shotguns," I guess because LE were in a neighborhood and didn't want to kill anybody if they could help it.

    It will probably come out later how many shots were fired (or exchaged, if there was an exchange). Again, my memory was that the perplexing problem was how to get the suspect out of the boat without getting him or anyone else killed in the process. I also think that "alive if possible" was probably the thinking at that time, but since alive did look pretty possible, they ought to try for custody rather than death....


    by erica20 on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 3:08pm

    I would posit that if law enforcement knew for certain that he and his brother acted alone, he would have not survived the night.  It wasn't a desire to see the individual have his day in court and let justice be served.  It was a desire to learn more about other individuals and groups  who might still be out there as potential threats. 


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 3:15pm

    (1) The guy in the Mercedes is a key witness in the case. Since the authorities have not determined for certain as to the existence of other terror suspects at large, his life would be at risk if he revealed his identity now.

    Anyway, right now it would only serve to boost the ratings of our crappy corporate TV news.

    (2) Scumbag #2 might have been nearly dead when the boat owner found him. Otherwise he might have killed everyone in sight, launched the boat, and set sail for Dagestan (a landlocked province, 'smarts' not a loser's strong suit).


    by NCD on Sun, 04/21/2013 - 10:17pm

    Yeah, once again, super-killers who don't seem ready to kill.

    Probably another story lurking in there, but by the time our social media has stamped a verdict on it, we won't hear another version.

    My guess is if any of this is true is that Dzhokhar isn't such a cold-blooded killer, so simply wouldn't be likely to gun someone down face-to-face. (guy by boat)

    But the bit about the driver of the Mercedes just doesn't make much sense.

    Things coming out sound like action movies. Think there must be 20 scripts running at this point.


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 12:54am

    " Probably another story lurking there" ..... I for one, would like to know, who the third guy in the picture was/is.  What's in the briefcase? You see the two brothers follow one another, a few feet apart and immediately, you see the feet of another person carrying the briefcase, directly behind them.....  I saw a movie once with W Snipes, where the buyer nods at another, as a sign of are you Ready to exchange and the perpetrators, walk across the street, where they hand off and exchange the attache case.  Upon seeing the activity Federal agent Gerrard?  tells his men to back off, and they follow both leads. ...In this incident, all I saw on the news, were pictures of the two brothers and the anonymous feet with briefcase  ....... Where did the brothers get the money?  Was it a case of once the bags were placed at the site and the plan executed, the money would be transferred by briefcase?


    by Resistance on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 1:27am

    Things coming out sound like action movies

    Of course they do.  What have any of these 'losers' done that isn't just a variation of things we have read or seen thousands of times before? And it isn't just the losers.  Didn't the images of Boston's finest look like a scene from The Shield? (at least from its trailers, I have never watched the show).  We all do it and if you read or watch much fiction, a lot of what happens in real life calls to mind an allusion, e.g. piezoelectric sheep ;/

    As Oscar Wilde once wrote in an essay, "Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life."

     


    by EmmaZahn on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 8:31am

    This is a quite good analysis of the known details of the carjacking victim part of the story: How a Stupid Mistake Led Police Straight to the Boston Terrorists, by Michael Crowley, Swampland @ TIME, April 21, 2013; makes it clear that we really don't know whether they let him go or he escaped or something odd happened that could be a bit of both....ends up conveniently reminding us of a bunch of examples of many "terrorists" being "losers" at times in their own very special way.....

     


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 8:51am

    Angelic intervention? A miracle?


    by Resistance on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 10:06am

    'Stupid mistake' pretty well sums up the modus operandi of these two, not 'empathy'.


    by NCD on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 11:24am

    Thanks AA.  The article offers a scenario that works, except they still don't know how or why the merc driver got off free.  It's conjecture at this point.


    by AmiBlue on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 1:53pm

    Maybe he was Canadian. Everybody likes Canadians.


    by erica20 on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 4:00pm

    We now have clear confirmation that the hijack victim is a key witness in the government's case, name not given; he can testify that Dzhokhar confessed to him:

    'Did you hear about the Boston explosion? … I did that'
    By Ed Pilkington in New York, guardian.co.uk, Monday 22 April 2013 16.41 EDT    

    Charge sheet against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contains mass of new detail and reveals how CCTV footage was used to build the case

    [.....]  The court papers also reveal new details about how the two bombing suspects carjacked a black Mercedes SUV, which they used to try and make their escape before ending up in a shootout with police in the Boston suburb of Watertown. The car owner, who is not named in the complaint, told investigators that he was sitting in the vehicle when a man approached and tapped on the passenger window.

    When the driver rolled down the window, the man forcefully entered the car and pointed a gun at him. "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? … I did that," the man said. The driver appears to have been incredulous, because the man then removed the magazine from his gun and showed him that it was fully loaded, then re-clipped it and said: "I am serious."

    The charge sheet records that the driver of the Mercedes reported to investigators that the initial carjacker was joined by second man, and that they spoke to each other in a foreign language. The pair allegedly forced the driver to hand over $45, and tried to get more money out using his credit card at an ATM. Later, they stopped at a petrol station where the two men got out of the car. Contrary to earlier reports that they voluntarily let the driver of the stolen vehicle go, the charge sheet says that the victim managed to escape. [.....]

    Obviously we have not heard from him because he has agreed to be in the hands of prosecutors who do not want him to speak publicly both for his own protection and for the protection of the case.


    by artappraiser on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 8:16pm

    If the movies tell us anything it is that good will triumph over evil because even if the leader of the evil hordes is a genius, his or her minions are morons. 

    It is the nature of things that our minds create dualistic oppositions and then install a hierarchy that privileges one term of each dichotomy.  Winner is privileged over loser, smart is privileged over stupid.

    No wonder it feels right when those who we deem losers, especially violent losers, also prove that they are also stupid.  Winners are smart, losers are stupid. 

    When we confront a contradiction -- e.g.  an intellectually smart person who is financially or socially a loser -- we have to seek some reason for the discrepancy in the world of privilege and not-so privileged.

    Ted Bundy turned a number of people's world upside down when it turned out that the smart, funny, charming guy could also be a serial killer.

    One facet of this dynamic is that we also privilege power over weakness.  One of the keys to understanding in particular the male psyche is the issue of a sense of power and efficacy.  The ability to intentionally control the forces outside oneself, to control one's destiny and the destiny of others lingers in the quest to have the privileged term applied to oneself rather than the other term.

    To take off from a comment from above, just far, really, are each of us, each of our communities from being just another chapter in the Lord of the Flies.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 3:09pm

    Oh Trope, this image made me laugh so hard!

    (And good point, too.)


    by erica20 on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 4:04pm

    A lot of people aren't very good at figuring out where they are on the scale.

    Think of poor Charlie Sheen: "Winning!"


    by erica20 on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 4:03pm

    Charlie Sheen could be a poster child for this blog because there are those who see the individual who was able to be the highest paid actor in television in 2010 and then start a new series Anger Management which "broke a ratings record with 5.74 million viewers on its series debut night and ranks as the most-watched sitcom premiere in cable history" and to do so while doing lots of substances makes him a winner.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 4:19pm

    You have a point. Like the Grammys and the People's Choice Awards, there are plenty of categories, and being a loser in one sometimes practically guarantees winning in another.


    by erica20 on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 4:59pm

    just as for some kids in some social circles being a loser in your parents' eyes practically guarantees being a winner in the eyes of their peers.

    There was a song on the radio I heard once lamenting that one had to be a Republican just so one could ensure that one's kids adopted the right political views.


    by Elusive Trope on Mon, 04/22/2013 - 5:13pm

    Interesting finds from Dzhokhar’s Twitter account; thought I might as well include his comments on topic on your thread along with everyone else's:

    “Never underestimate the rebel with a cause”

    “No one is really violent until they’re with the homies."

    from

    News Analysis: Unraveling Boston Suspects’ Online Lives, Link by Link
    By Michiko Kakutani, New York Times, April 23/24, 2013


    by artappraiser on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 2:47pm

    And tweet from the link: gain knowledge, get women, acquire currency. A sort of recipe for success for too many guys (and some gals).

    by Elusive Trope on Wed, 04/24/2013 - 3:27pm

    Another one for ya:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/25/world/americas/ottawa-canada-gunmans-r...


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 3:49am

    and yet another:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11186983/New-...


    by artappraiser on Sat, 10/25/2014 - 4:16am