As you might have heard, three London girls appear to be on their way to Syria to join up with ISIS. “They’re looking for excitement,” Steven Pomerantz, a former chief of counterterrorism at the FBI, told CBS News. “They are looking for adventure. They are looking for social acceptance.”
This rings true, and it’s nothing new. I’ve shared this before, but it is once again apt. Many years ago, Douglas Hyde, a seasoned Communist who converted to Catholicism, penned a short book called “Dedication and Leadership.” His goal was to teach Catholics how the Communists attracted support. As you’ll see, it’s pretty appropriate to our conversation today.
Here’s an excerpt:
“[Y]outh is a period of idealism. The communists attract them by appealing to that idealism, and they have been very successful in this. Too often, I believe, we have failed to appeal to the idealism of youth, and we have failed to use it. And we are the losers.
… I have travelled in nearly every country of the world, and everywhere I have gone, I have found that young people are idealistic. I can only conclude that that is the way God wants them, and I do not believe that it is good sense, quite apart from charity or justice, to sneer at the idealism of youth. Young people will have their dreams; they will dream of a better world; they will want to change the world and if we have no patience with them or make them feel that this is some kind of infantile disease, they will still pursue their idealistic courses; they will do it outside the family instead of within it. [Bold mine.]
Vulnerable people have always been susceptible to propagandistic and utopian promises. Charles Manson knew how to pick victims to join his “family,” for example. That’s certainly part of this. But I can’t help also thinking that modern Western Civilization — with all its materialism, secularism, and sterility — might make them easy pickings for romantic young people who want to make sacrifices and change the world. We need to remind our young people that they have a calling and a mission, too.
I don’t have to tell you how tragic this is. Young people do stupid things, but most of us have the luxury of living long enough to regret our mistakes. Maybe you followed the Grateful Dead for a year, before deciding that the lifestyle was pernicious.
For these three girls, though, this is one “youthful indiscretion” they might be stuck with for life.