Jelle Van Buuren - Performative Violence

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Terrorism: An Electronic Journal and Knowledge Base

Volume I, Issue 1

Performative Violence?
The Multitude of Lone Wolf Terrorism

Author:
Jelle van Buuren
Universiteit of Leiden

August 2012

Terrorism: An Electronic Journal and Knowledge Base | Volume I, Issue 1 | August 2012
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Performative violence?
The Multitude of Lone Wolf Terrorism
Jelle van Buuren

Lone wolf terrorism - violent acts committed by single individuals with a significant impact
on society - has moved up the public, political and scientific agendas. Without doubt, the
double terrorist attacks by Anders Behring Breivik in Norway last July, which claimed 77
lives, have functioned as an important catalyst in this growing attention. But lone wolves
asserted themselves prior to the Norway attacks. Think for instance of Baruch Goldstein, an
American-born Israeli citizen who was responsible for the death of 29 Muslims praying in the
Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; the Austrian Franz Fuchs, who used letter bombs to kill 4
and injure 15 people; US army major Nidal Malik Hasan, who is accused of a mass shooting
at Fort Hood in which 13 people died and 30 were wounded; and the American mathematician
Theodore Kaczynsky, also known as the Una Bomber, who engaged in a mail bombing
spree that killed three and wounded 23. In addition, there have been several lone wolves who
assassinated political leaders, such as Yigal Amir, the assassin of former Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin; Volkert van der Graaf, who killed the Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn;
and Mijailo Mijailovic, who is responsible for the death of the Swedish Minister for Foreign
Affairs Anna Lindh (Bakker and De Graaf 2010). In The Netherlands we can also notice the
murder of movie director and opinion maker Theo van Gogh by Mohammed Byouri, or the
attack in April 2009 on the Royal Family by Karst Tates, who tried to ran with his car into a
bus which carried the Dutch Queen and other members of the royal family, killing seven
bystanders. In The Netherlands, the responsible authority for counter terrorism NCTb has
warned for the threat that emanates from radicalised individuals (Ministerie van Veiligheid en
Justitie 2011).

These facts seem to give more than enough reason to scrutinize the phenomenon of lone wolf
terrorism more closely. However, some prudence is called for. Whenever a new term hits the
public, political and scientific discourse we have to be aware of the possible fashion fad of the
new concept. In the Netherlands, for instance, we have witnessed political murders (Fortuyn,
Theo van Gogh) perpetrated by individuals, that were never referred to as the acts of lone
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wolf terrorists. At forehand, the lacking label of lone wolf terrorism didnt seem to have had
any influence on the degree Dutch society was able to interpret these attacks, let alone deal
with them. Further, it should be noted that the introduction of a new term does not necessarily
mean that the phenomenon the term is referring to also is brand new. More important
probably is that we should have some restraint in thinking that once we put the right label - or
scientific definition or concept - in place we obtain by definition a better understanding of
social reality. The opposite could also be true: by approaching a subject from a too clear-cut
or abstract definition or conceptualisation important themes that could be of importance in
understanding the issues at stake could get out of our sight. This ethnocentrism of the
scientist leads to substituting the practical relation to the world for the observers theoretical
relation to practice, or, to use Bourdieus formula, to take the model of reality for the reality
of the model (Bourdieu 1987: 62; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992: 69). An exploratory
approach seems for now an appropriate route to follow, as we are far away from any theory
that could explain, let alone predict lone wolf terrorism. In this article we will therefore look
into a triad of issues that have been turned up in research into lone wolf terrorism: (1) How
lone are lone wolves; (2) is lone wolf terrorism a new phenomenon and is it on the rise; (3)
What motivates the lone wolf terrorist? We will end the article with an initial impetus to some
theoretical or conceptual approaches that could be of use in further researching lone wolf
terrorism.

1. How lone is the lone wolf?

What exactly do we mean when we speak of lone wolf terrorism? Its a question that is not
easy to answer to. Some of the confusion surrounding lone wolf terrorism can be seen back in
the different definitions that circulate within literature. A commonly used definition of lone
wolves is that it is a person who acts on his or her own without orders from - or even
connections to - an organization (Stewart and Burton 2008). In the definition of COT (2007:
6) lone wolf terrorism is described as the intentional acts committed by persons (a) who
operate individually; (b) who do not belong to an organized terrorist group or network; (c)
who act without the direct influence of a leader or hierarchy; (d) whose tactics and methods
are conceived and directed by the individual without any direct outside command or direction.
According to Kaplan (1997), lone wolf terrorism may be defined as an operation in which an
individual, or a very small, highly cohesive group, engages in acts of anti-state violence
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independent of any movement, leader or network of support. The latter definition paves way
to a concept of lone wolf terrorism in which more than one person is engaged. This confusion
in definitions has of course its effects on what is counted for as acts of lone wolves. For
instance, the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, which is usually presented as a prototype act of
lone wolf terrorism, is not counted as such in a study of the COT (2007) because Timothy
McVeigh executed the attack indeed by himself, but got some help in preparing the attack by
his friend Terry Nichols.

Other scholars however contest that there is anyhow something like lone wolf terrorism.
Based on their research into 40 terrorist attacks by right extremists in the United Kingdom, all
labelled by the authorities as lone wolf attacks, Jackson and Gable (2011) concluded that the
phenomenon of lone wolf terrorism is mostly a myth. All perpetrators proved to have a long
and clear involvement in organised right extremist networks. Their motivation and knowledge
to carry out terrorist attacks were handed to them through virtual networks that nourished
them both ideologically and practically. Most of the perpetrators used the internet to establish
contacts with like-minded activists, to exchange ideas and to get hold on information how to
get weapons or how to build bombs. The researchers cite a senior FBI officer who stated that
the only genuine lone wolf the FBI ever had come across was Ted Kaczynski, the so-called
Unabomber (Jackson and Gable 2011: 13). Of course, this confusion can be partly explained
by realizing that terrorism is a social construct and that definitions of terrorism typically
reflect the interests of those who do the defining (Spaaij 2012: 15). But it also shows the
complexity of lone wolf terrorism and the danger that a too clear-cut definition of it comes at
the price of a serious reduction of complexity.

A typology formulated by Pantucci (2011: 7-8; 12-32) of lone wolves inspired by a Jidahist
world view also shows that the lone wolf in one way or the other is linked (virtually) to
others. Pantucci distinguishes between Loners (an individual who plans or attempts to carry
out an act of terrorism using the cover of extreme Islamist ideology without having any actual
connection or contact with extremists - beyond what they are able to access through passive
consumption on the internet or from society at large); Lone Wolves (individuals who, while
appearing to carry out their actions alone and without any physical outside instigation, in fact
demonstrate some level of contact with operational extremists); Lone Wolf Pack (similar to
the Lone Wolves, except rather than there being a single individual who becomes
ideologically motivated); and Lone Attackers (individuals who operate alone, but
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demonstrate clear command and control links with active extremists, rather than loose online
connections or aspirational contacts).

Under closer examination lone wolves therefore seem to be to a lesser degree individuals who
operate completely on their own than we would expect on the face of it. It seems most of the
lone wolves are somehow - passive or active - part of broader communities, or at least
understand themselves as being part of a broader community. It therefore seems sensible not
to overestimate the importance of the acting alone of a lone wolf in preparing and
committing an attack, but instead look more closely into the changing dynamics and relations
between individuals and communities. In the literature on terrorism a great deal of attention
has always been devoted to the analysis of group dynamics, on how immediate social
interactions shape and change ideology and sentiment. Current and ongoing debates within
the literature powerfully impact the extent to which group dynamics of some form still play a
role in the processes of lone-wolf radicalization. Some observers note that the viral spread of
extremism online, especially social media, can act as a surrogate offline social network. If this
is the case, it is possible the group dynamics usually described to radicalisation within
terrorist groups also occur within a digital ecology in some adumbrate form (Bartlett and
Miller 2012: 3).

The paradox seems to be that Internet gives rise to the birth of a community of loners
(Pantucci 2011: 6). De availability of extremist readings and how to do instructions can have
furthered the growth of the autodidactic extremist. The loner leaning towards violence can
now easily teach himself the extremist creed, and then define his global outlook along the
same lines, using it as a justification when carrying out an act of violence. (Pantucci 2011:
11). As Matthew Feldman - who doesnt refer to lone wolf terrorism but to broadband
terrorism - states: a few mouse-clicks enable the assembly of everything from radical
doctrines to bombs (2011). Virtual group dynamics therefore may influence, at least to some
extent, individuals who operate autonomously. Conversely, lone wolf terrorists may also
influence wider movements (Spaaij 2010: 866). The case of Breivik shows a combination of
both tendencies. By citing a range of ideological readings from authors belonging to the
international counter-jihad movement, Breivik shows that he understands himself as being
part of this community of belief or ideology of extremism and validation (COT 2007: 7); At
the same time Breivik hoped that his acts would inspire his allies to do the same. He sketched
his - real or imagined - allies how to operate in order not to be discovered timely by law
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enforcement or intelligence: [Their] Achilles heel is their vulnerability against single/duo
martyr cells (Berwick 2011: 934).

2. Is lone wolf terrorism on the rise?

In spite of the current attention for lone wolf terrorism it is not a new phenomenon. The
concept of Leaderless Resistance for instance has been for decades the favourite battle
model for right wing and anti-government militias in the United States (Kaplan 1997).
Historically the phenomenon of radicalised individuals even can be traced back to the 19
th

century when anarchists enjoyed some reputation for their individual Propaganda of the
Deed (Novak 1954: 176). This historical outlook is also of interest for the current discussions
as these examples show that individuals who for tactical, ideological or personal reasons acted
alone in perpetrating their attacks nevertheless were embedded in broader social and political
environments.

The question whether there is a significant rise during the last decades in attacks by lone wolf
terrorist is not easy to answer in an unambiguous way. As far as international data are
available about the threat and violence of lone wolves data that are difficult to compare
because of the differences in definition the results are quit murky. According to the COT-
study (2007: 19) Europe witnessed a peak in lone wolf attacks in the eighties (13 incidents);
in the nineties the amount of attacks equalled that of the seventies (7 incidents). In the first
decade of the 21st century the figure advanced to 11 incidents. In the United States there was
a peak in the nineties (13 incidents) and a decline in the number of lone wolf attacks to 8 in
the last ten years. According to data collected by START (2010: 2-3) there is a watershed in
the amount of lone wolf attacks before and after the 1995 Oklahoma Bombings. In the period
1970-2006 6,5% of the terrorist attacks in the U.S. could be ascribed to lone wolves. Since
1995 however 43 out of a total of 131 incidents seemed to be the work of individuals. In the
light of these figures Spaaij (2010: 866) concluded that lone wolf terrorism counted roughly
for one percent of all terrorist attacks, that the phenomenon especially can be found in the
United States and show an upward trend, but that the same cannot be established for other
countries. Research into the attacks of individuals against public persons in Germany
(Hoffmann e.a. 2010), against politicians in Western-Europe (James e.a. 2007), against
Members of Parliament in Canada (Adams e.a. 2009), against presidents in the US (Megargee
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1986) or against public persons in the US (Fein en Vossekuil 1999) shows similar results:
attacks by individuals are not tied to a particular period but are of all time, but it is not crystal-
clear if we witness a significant upward trend.

The same can be said for The Netherlands. Bovenkerk (2005) conducted research into the
phenomenon of death treats by individuals against politicians and other public authorities as a
result of the boom in death treats against politicians after the murder of Pim Fortuyn. An
inventory by the department of Home Affairs showed that more than thousand death treats
(bullet letters, threats by telephone and hate mails) against politicians were made during the
period May 6
th
2004 to May 28
th
2004. The period after the turbulence in May 2004 also
showed a tidal wave of death threats against politicians and administrators. A special police
squad grounded in 2004 registered during the period 2005-2010 1234 death threats against
national politicians and Members of Parliament with an average of 250 a year.
1
A total of 106
politicians reported death threats. The average victim was threatened eight to ten times a year.
The dark number of course is not known. Politicians and public authorities at the local level
were also the victim of threats. The department of Home Affairs reported in 2009 that three
out of ten local authorities were the victim of aggression by individuals (BZK 2010). The
research of Bovenkerk however also showed that public authorities were the object of
aggression for decades. Respondents came up with examples of death threats from twenty or
thirty years ago. Threats and attacks by individuals against public authorities therefore are
also in The Netherlands not a new phenomenon.

The lack of reliable figures makes it difficult to give a sound judgement about the prevalence
of lone wolf terrorism. The perceived rise in lone wolf terrorism therefore can also be the
result of the so called registration effect (Bovenkerk 2005: 187; for a more general discussion
of registration effects and its impact on crime figures see Wittebrood & Nieuwbeerta 2006).
When law enforcement authorities devote more attention to a specific criminal phenomenon
and start registering all incidents the usual result is an increase in figures that can easily give
the impression that there is a huge problem compared to earlier days. Bovenkerk further
argued that there is a difference in the way public authorities reacted on threats and political
violence. According to Bovenkerk the authorities were traditionally inclined to dispose of the

1
Figures from the period 2004-2008 are retrieved from NCTb 2010; figures from the period 2009-2010 are
retrieved from press statements of the Public Prosecutor; see:
http://www.om.nl/onderwerpen/bedreigingen/@155307/lichte-stijging/
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involved individuals as harmless quarrel mongers and choose deliberately not to give any
public attention to the threats in order not to give other lunatics the inspiration to come up
with the same ideas (Bovenkerk 2005: 51). Nowadays almost every incident hits the press; not
only national incidents but also international incidents thanks to the internationalisation of
communications. This could also influence and stimulate copycat behaviour (see for instance
Berkowitz and Macauly 1971: 238; Kostinsky, Bixler, Kettl 2001: 999).

In connection to this attention should be drawn to societals increasing sensitivity for
everything that is connected with insecurity and risk. Modern societies are dominated by fear,
risk and insecurity and security has become a governmental technique to produce meaning
and order in society. The loss of social connections, identities and public morality has put the
issue of meaning and significance to the foreground and has subscribed a permanent feeling
of existential insecurity in the capillaries of society (Bauman 2006; Beck 1992; Boutellier
2005; Furedi 1997 en 2006). Incidents not only emerge faster and more often into the public
consciousness, the political and societal reactions they provoke are also harsher. When the
Dutch revolutionary group RaRa planted and detonated a bomb that destroyed the house of
state secretary Kosto responsible for asylum policies in 1991, there was a short discussion at
the highest political-administrative levels whether politicians should be better protected. The
conclusion however was that as a matter of principle, public authorities in The Netherland
should not be encircled with body guards (Muller 1994: 378-380). Nowadays personal
protection by body guards is the order of the day. Whether this just reflects the expanded
threat these authorities are facing or that the changed societal context and sensitivity also
comes into it, remains an open question.

3. What motivates the lone wolf?

A last question relates to the motivation of lone wolves. Partly this has to do with the terrorist
character of lone wolf attacks and therefore also refers to definitional issues and in connection
with that the quantative and qualitative reading of the phenomenon. Some definitions require
a terrorist intention in order for attacks to be qualified as lone wolf attacks (COT 2007); other
definitions dont have this requirement or focus on the terrorist effect instead of the terrorist
intention. Of course there are sound arguments to distinguish between the terrorist or non-
terrorist dimension in the attacks by individuals. But for the broad, explorative approach we
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have chosen for this article it seems not sensible to put the terrorist dimension to the
foreground of our analysis; it runs the risk of removing at forehand acts by individuals that
apparently not qualify for the terrorist requirement whereas it could be the case that those acts
provide important information for our understanding. Besides that there is an inherent
problem in determining the motives of individuals: outsiders attribute intentions to the acts of
individuals. The danger of subjective interpretations is constantly lying in wait (COT 2007:
8). This seems especially the case when it concerns acts of terrorism. Terrorists are
containers into which one can project ones unconscious hostility, according to DeMausse
(cited in Victoroff 2005: 33). Victoroff warns against the tendency to explain the terrorist
mind-set by projecting the state of mind supposedly required to act in this way. Our default
reaction is that evil acts must be the product of fundamentally evil or insane individuals. A
comparable critique was launched by Durodi - at the occasion of the 2005 attacks in London
- who stated that all kind of self-appointed experts and commentators projected according to
their pre-existing political persuasions their own pet theory onto the situation with a view to
shaping ensuing policy (2007: 427). According to Durodi the uncomfortable truth could be
that the London attacks were largely pointless and meaningless and in that way reflected the
nihilist sentiments of other disgruntled individuals like the youngsters responsible for the
Columbine high-school massacre (2007: 434) - an analysis which of course could also reflects
particularly preoccupations held by Durodi.

An additional problem - assuming that something can be said about the motivations of lone
wolves - is that scientist some times have the tendency of slicing up social reality into nice
fitting but abstract categories, classifications and concepts that hardly ever can be found in
reality. Generally spoken, social reality - for as far as there is such thing as reality - and
especially the individual agents living in it, hardly show any interest in or behave themselves
according to the definitions, concepts and categories scientists stick onto it. When reading the
motivations of lone wolves it can be of scientific relevance to classify them: is there a
political motive, a personal motive or is the motive diffuse or incomprehensible? However as
soon as a concrete case shows up these classification schemes are hardly tenable. Take for
instance the case of Tristan van der Vlis who killed arbitrary bystanders in a shopping mall in
a small village in The Netherlands before taking his own life. As far as we know, Van der
Vlis was driven by a diffuse anger against society, a personal rage against God and rage
against the municipality. Most scientists will not qualify Van der Vlis as a lone wolf terrorist
because he seemed not to have a political or terrorist intention or goal. The question however
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remains if Van der Vlis in his diffuse anger wanted or could make the same fine conceptual
distinctions between society, politics or political system. The same can be said of
Nordine Amrani who killed six bystanders in Liege (Belgium) before killing himself. Amrani
apparently hated the world, hated the system and thought everybody was against him.
What if he had not chosen his victims randomly at the square in front of the local court house
but had entered the court? Would his act then have been qualified as a terrorist or political act
of a lone wolf? Looking at the fear and panic provoked by the attacks of Amrani one has to
conclude that the result of his actions corresponds to what usually is considered to be acts of
terrorism. The diffuse or incomprehensible rage attributed to lone wolves could therefore
partly reflect the diffuse state of politics and the fragmented character of society in which
guiding ideologies have lost much of their importance, politics and administration are
nodalized and in which it is increasingly unclear who is responsible for what policies or
policy outcomes. Instead of keep trying to classify the deeds and motivations of lone wolves
according to previously defined categories, it could be more promising to take this vagueness
as a starting point and accept that one of the characteristics of lone wolf terrorism is that
society and state are fused together into a single, all-rounding threat (Wieviorka 2003: 16).

Case studies that have been conducted show that there are indeed real problems in attributing
motivations and intentions to lone wolves. Assigning motivations to individual acts of terror is
inherently subjective and open to considerable interpretation. This fact becomes all the more
problematic as individuals move away from explicitly claiming their attacks and prefer
instead to let their actions speak for themselves. A particularly apt example comes out of
Oklahoma City. Timothy McVeigh could have been (and was) described as a terrorist
motivated by religion for his adherence to the Christian Identity movement. However, later it
became clear that McVeigh viewed himself more as a political terrorist acting in response to
the federal raids at Ruby Ridge and Waco and out of his virulent opposition to gun control
measures. Less often cited is the contention that McVeigh acted on ethnic principles based on
his alleged belief in the White supremacy movement (Quillen 2002: 287). Given these
limitations on identifying motivations, the difference between religious and political motives
is also hard to prove. According to Quillen, many of these questions about terrorist
motivations are simply unanswerable. In fact, seeking definitive answers may obscure more
than it reveals (Quillen 2002: 288). A last comment on this subject is that the emphasis on the
diffuse or incomprehensible dimensions of modern terrorism runs the risk of ascribing in
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retrospective crystal-clear and unambiguous motivations to old school terrorists. It can be
questioned if that view is correct.

4. Are lone wolves lunatics?

Two different reactions dominate the debate after lone wolf incidents have taken place. The
first is to classify the attacks as the work of lunatics and to state that these acts should be
judged accordingly. Any possible relationships with underlying societal phenomena are
rejected. The second reaction postulates these acts have to be understood as social or political
acts.

Are lone wolves mostly mentally ill and should we understand and judge their actions
accordingly? The question whether radicalised individuals are insane has been earlier put
forward in the case of old school terrorists. After reviewing the literature on this subject,
Victoroff (2005) concluded there is no robust scientific evidence to support the position that
terrorists suffer from mental disorders. Research into (attempted) attacks or threats against
public figures by individuals however tends towards the conclusion that most of them suffer
from mental disorders. According to Fein en Vossekuil (1999) most perpetrators had a history
of depressions and despair. Most of them once or more had tried to commit suicide and were
known by mental health authorities. Research by Mullen (2007) shows that a majority (65%)
of perpetrators were mentally ill. A recent review of literature by Meloy c.s. (2011) on
attackers and individuals issuing death threats concluded that the vast majority of the subjects
suffered from serious mental disorders. Grandiosity seems to be an important element in the
mental illnesses most subjects suffered from. Grandiosity is analysed as a form of
pathological narcism and entitlement that also can be found regularly with stalkers. This
narcism asks for recognition and reward and, when recognition is not given, is the source for
depression or suicide attempts. Research into attacks by individuals against European
politicians (James c.s. 2007) showed that 13 out of 24 of the perpetrators suffered from mental
disorders (schizophrenia, paranoia, borderline, depressions and obsessions). Ten of the
perpetrators were classified as loners that were socially isolated and detached from society.
Thirteen attacks were motivated idiosyncratically or were the result of fixation on a public
figure (2007: 339).

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However, inside academics the exact role of mental illness plays is being disputed. Fein en
Vossekuil emphasize that mental disorder should not be seen as the primary origin of lone
wolf attacks. Before an attack is being executed an attacker has to go through a rational
process. A target has to been chosen and a planning and an escape plan have to be made.
Evidence shows that attackers and near-attackers evinced a range of sophistication and
attention in their planning. All could think clearly enough and were sufficiently organized to
mount an attack or make a near-lethal approach to a prominent person of public status (1999:
331). Mullen c.s. (2007: 3) however disagrees. Combining their own research results with
other research findings they conclude that mental illness is common under individual
attackers and that there can be established a clear link between mental disorders and attacks or
threats against public figures.

Specific research into the more narrow category of lone wolf terrorists shows that the rate of
psychological disturbance appears to be higher amongst lone wolf terrorist compared to
terrorists in general and that they suffered from a variable degree of social ineptitude: they
were, to varying extents, loners with few friends and generally preferred to act alone (Spaaij
2010: 867). Further, some kind of breach in their personal biography can be noted; a sweeping
and life changing experience that functioned as a trigger (Fein & Vossekuil 1999: 327;
Springer 2009: 79-81). Researchers however emphasize that, even when psychological factors
are present, lone wolf terrorism should be approached as combination of individual, social and
external factors. According to Spaaij (2010: 867) it involves a social process that is inherently
individual in nature and that depends on the specific situation and personal characteristics of
the individual involved and his/her interaction with significant others. The mixture of causal
factors is diverse and unique for each individual. Political and sub cultural conditions are
mediated by social and psychological dynamics in which the individual is directly involved.

5. Social and political motives

According to most researchers, clear political motives are hardly of any importance for lone
wolves. A modification of this assumption however seems to be needed at forehand. Attacks
by lone wolves can partly be the result of conscious tactical choices made by terrorist
organisations or networks to encourage their potential adherents to conduct their own
12

operations (Pantucci 2011: 4)
2
. These terrorist entrepreneurs therefore have a clear political
motive and their adherents are apparently seduced to follow the call for autonomous action.
Whether this political legitimation of their acts is central for their motivation or merely
presents to them the grammar to legitimize their actions remains to be seen. Besides that,
researchers have acknowledged that some kind of a grief is always underlying the acts of lone
wolves (Calhoun en Weston 2003). A grief is defined as a situation that gives occasion to
frustration, anger or dissatisfaction. Perceptions of injustice or dishonesty could be the result
of this. Goldberg (2003: 15) postulates that fanatic violence is an attempt to seek social
justice. The fanatic hatred claims that the state has violated the social contract with society
by treating them unjust. In short, an individual who is treated unjustly can legitimately
declare his contract with the social order null and void and demand that his natural rights be
restored - taking whatever retaliatory actions necessary to protect his own well-being.
According to Goldberg, justice has a deep emotional appeal that goes beyond any legal or
political definition and is related to ones frustrations and resentments. Their hate is therefore
mostly an attempt to be seen and heard (Goldberg 2003: 17).

Fein en Vossekuil (1999) however state that attacks and threats dont have to be motivated by
grieves. The motive can also be to achieve notoriety or fame. Many of the assassins and
would-be assassins simply felt invisible. They didn't want to see themselves as nonentities.
They experienced failure after failure after failure, and decided that rather than being a
'nobody,' they wanted to be a 'somebody. Thats why according to Fein and Vossekuil some
attackers appeared to have clothed their motives with some political rhetoric. They chose
political targets because political targets were a sure way to transform this situation: They
would be known. If the objective is notoriety or fame, that's the most efficient instrumental
mechanism by which to achieve that. Associating with a broader political movement or goal
allows would-be assassins to see themselves as not such a bad person. In this way assassins
are basically murderers in search of a cause and construct a narrative to legitimize their acts.
The importance of being seen can also be found in studies into suicide terrorists. The quest
for significance is interpreted as an overarching motivational mechanism in which personal
frustrations, ideological frameworks and social pressure play mostly a functional role
(Kruglanski e.a. 2009). Spaaij (2012: 38-39) concludes that lone wolf terrorists combine the

2
The Jihad-glossy Inspire published for instance the article How to make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom,
which according to Western intelligence agencies had the purpose of encouraging potential lone wolves to take
matters in their own hands.
13

broad structures of a more prevalent extreme ideology with their own personal grievances.
Lone wolves tend to create their own individualized ideologies from a broader political,
religious or social aims and personal frustrations and aversion. So it seems that what
characterizes the motivation of lone wolves is that they transcend existing categories and
classifications and botch together a narrative that suits them.

6. Discussion

Lone wolf terrorism is a complex and contradictory phenomenon which should be treated
prudently. We have to guard ourselves against easy assumptions or conclusions. As we have
seen, lone wolf terrorism is not something that just occurred recently. Political violence and
threats committed by individuals can be found through history. As reliable figures are lacking
it is hardly possible to make any grounded statement about the suggested upward tendencies
or future trends. It seems that individuals are more than it used to be responsible for carrying
out attacks, but also here some prudence is required. The emergence of the virtual world has
changed the relations and dynamics between individuals and communities. Further it seems
that there are difficulties in reading the motivations of lone wolves which some times are
seemingly diffuse or incomprehensible, some times can resolve into more or less known
extremist ideologies and are mediated by psychological disorders to a varying degree. This
issue is further complicated as it is inherently difficult to ascribe from the outside intentions to
individual perpetrators, as it is to establish whether a motive is ideologically consistent or not.
Lastly, the societal context has been changed. Politics have been polarised, the public
discussion is sharp and - especially in The Netherlands - rude or hateful. Death treats can be
found on a regularly base not only in the political spectre, but saturate all kinds of societal
communications.

For now, the best starting point for further research and theorizing seems to be the interplay
between individual, social and external factors. In the words of Spaaij (2010: 867): it involves
a social process that is inherently individual in nature and that depends on the specific
situation and personal characteristics of the individual involved and his/her interaction with
significant others. The mixture of causal factors is diverse and unique for each individual.
Political and sub cultural conditions are mediated by social and psychological dynamics in
which the individual is directly involved. Besides digging deeper in concrete cases of lone
14

wolves it seems therefore of importance to also explore further the underlying political and
cultural circumstances in which the acts of lone wolves are embedded. We understand lone
wolf terrorism not as an isolated phenomenon but as the product of modern society. Just as
nobody is born as a terrorist, nobody is born as a lone wolf terrorist. We would like here to
further explore two issues that we hypothesize as being of importance for our reading of lone
wolf terrorism and that are both situated at the cross point of political, social and individual
dynamics: the relationship between individuals and communities and the motivational issue.

8. A continuum of lone wolf terrorism

We start with the changing relationship and dynamics between individuals and communities.
The current state of research emphasizes that the degree in which lone wolves act alone
should be put into perspective. In most cases lone wolves are part of broader communities of
belief or at least they understand themselves as being part of such communities. Although we
can postulate that to a certain degree we witness the individualisation of terrorism at the
same time it is imperative to render account of the complex and paradoxical nature of what is
defined as individualisation. Individualisation is a fact of modern life but at the same time
new communities and connections are being configured making those new communications
both more large-scale as small-scale. Digitalisation and virtualisation give rise to new forms
and connections and at the same time change existing relationships. A central issue in these
new (re)configurations is the question of significance. Individuals have loosened their ties
with institutions and close communities but are not totally atomitized. Duyvendak and
Hurenkamp (2004: 15-16; Duyvendak 2004) have labelled these developments as the
transformation into communities light, or neo-tribes (Maffesoli 1998): individuals indeed are
looking for connections with broader communities and want to be part of something bigger,
something that gives meaning to their lives and produce identity and self-understanding; at the
same time however these connections must me be of a more informal or noncommittal
character. Therefore the most crucial transformation can be situated in the make-up of these
connections. Connections between individuals and between individuals and communities are
looser; weak, temporarily and fragmented ties replace the strong and all-embracing ties that
connected people in the era of close defined classes, ideologies and identities. It could even be
the case that exactly these modern possibilities to connect oneself at a distance in a light,
anonymous way with virtual communities are par excellence suited for those individuals who
15

- for one reason or the other - are reluctant or unable to participate in real thick
communities. The lightness of communities and the way individuals are connected with
them does not mean they are of less importance for identity formation, signification and self-
understanding. Quite the contrary.

Instead of focusing on individualization it is better to understand these developments as de-
institutionalization or de-collectivization. This reflects a more general trend in modern
societies and is also applicable to the political level. Stolle and Hooghe (2003) pointed at the
emergence of informal political participation in which attendance in formal and hierarchically
organised participation channels descends but this loss is compensated by an increasing
informal participation. Beck (1993) has labelled this sub politics: politics is no longer the
monopoly of institutionalised political actors. Sub politics interweaves daily and political
worries and therefore withdraws itself from institutionalisation and hierarchy. The common
denominator is that formal institutions loose strength while individual citizens design their
political and societal involvement in different, less institutionalised manners. Sub politics is
especially designed in the new social media. According to Bartlett, Birdwell and Litter (2011:
15; 30) the melange of virtual and real-world political activity is the dominant way millions
of people - especially young people - relate to politics in the twenty-first century. This
nascent, messy and more ephemeral form of politics is becoming the norm for a new, digital
generation. Social media are the new face of politics and political expression.

How and in which ways new political identities, political actions, political communications
and political significance are produced by virtual networks asks for more research, just like
the relationship between on-line and off-line identities and activities. The same can be
postulated for our understanding of the more extremist digital frontlines that emerge. One of
the few articles that devotes special attention to the meaning extremist virtual communities
offer their members is by De Koster and Houtman (2008) who interviewed members of the
right-wing extremist website Stormfront. They concluded that offline stigmatization, creating
feelings of dissociation or detachment underlies virtual community formation by Dutch right-
wing extremists. Stormfront is like a second home for them, a safe place in which they find
refuge and can be who they want to be and freely express their thoughts and identities. It
could be hypothesized that in general individuals who feel stigmatized, humiliated or denied
in real life find refuge in virtual communities of like-minded. A better understanding of the
dynamics between individuals and communities as mediated by virtuality, the meanings that
16

are produced, identities and worldviews that are being articulated and the interplay between
the off-line and on-line world could give us more knowledge of the processes that drive
individuals to convert knowledge, political views and encouragements acquired in the virtual
communities into actions in the real world. Too much fixation on the apparent loneliness
character of acts by lone wolves runs the risk of loosing sight of what is also, or even more
important: the changing relationship, and the changing dynamics between individuals on the
one hand, and groups, networks or environments on the other hand. It seems therefore a
mistake to create an opposite between an individual, and a group or network and treat them as
completely different cases. We should think instead of it as a continuum, in which individuals
are connected in different ways, with different magnitude and with different objectives with
their environments, which we should understand as communities of belief (COT 2007) in
which ideologies of extremism and validation flourish.

9. Performative violence

The second issue that calls for more research is the (political) motivation of lone wolves. As
Sprinzak (1991: 50) stated: Terrorism does not exist in isolation and is a form of human
behaviour that is integrally linked to the normal world. Terrorism is a direct behavioural
extension of non-terroristic opposition politics. Sprinzak analyzed the processes of
delegitimation that convert individuals and organisations from dissatisfied democrats into
uncompromising terrorists. Its a challenge to utilize these insights for modern political
phenomena and to investigate if and how these kinds of processes of delegitimation are still at
work. Sprinzak wrote his article at a time that politics particularly was formed in solid
organisations on the base of coherent, all-covering ideologies. Nowadays the great ideologies
are almost gone, crumbled or fragmentized and partly replaced by new or modified ideologies
like populism that are not easy positioned in established political schemes. Moreover,
individuals influenced by the possibilities new social media offers are constructing their own
copy-paste ideologies and signify their own, sometimes idiosyncratic meaning to the world.
Such a copy-paste ideology is not just a random ideology of a lunatic. It is, for the people
involved, a highly sophisticated worldview that gives meaning to the world, provides a sense
of direction and enables a person to express their position in the world. The Internet plays an
important role here since it makes it very easy for people to assemble and express their own
17

worldview (De Koning 2011)
3
. The diffuse motivation or individualized ideologies that
are often attributed to lone wolves therefore can be read as the reflection of a diffused world
of politics and policies in modern societies. Political centres seems to be displaced,
disappeared or dissolved in hybrid national and international governance networks of an
unprecedented complexity in which it is hardly knowable who is responsible for what.
Discomfort, dissatisfaction, rage, alienation or repudiation will compared to earlier days
conform itself less in collective political identities and institutions and more in personalized
ideologies and political identities. It is not that much the question whether these forms of
discomfort are political but the question whether these hidden transcripts (Scott 1998) are
recognized as politics and by whom.

That way, the cultural embedment and the cultural scripts of modernity should also be taken
into account. Some of the cultural scripts lone wolves apply (Breivik, Van der Vlis, Armani)
are not dumfounded. Larkin (2009) pointed for instance at the cultural script - both in the
matter of form as well as content - the Columbine High School shootings have produced for a
number of succeeding rampage shootings. Rampage shootings were no longer the provenance
of isolated, loner students who were psychologically deranged. Columbine raised rampage
shootings in the public consciousness from mere revenge to a political act. The shooters
Klebold and Harris were overtly political in their motivations to destroy their school. In their
own words, they wanted to kick-start a revolution among the dispossessed and despised
students of the world. They understood that their pain and humiliation were shared by
millions of others and conducted their assault in the name of a larger collectivity. Klebold and
Harris identified the collectivity - outcast students - for which they were exacting revenge.
That is what distinguishes Columbine from all previous rampage shootings (2009: 1320). One
of the cultural scripts that are a consequence of the Columbine shootings is that the shooters
engage in their rampages to make a statement. The body count exists primarily as a method
of generating media attention. Killing for notoriety is the second outcome of the Columbine
shootings. The extent of media attention seems to be closely related to body count. To such
disgruntled students, payback consists of killing convenient targets, making a statement, and
dying in a blaze of glory (2009: 1323).

3
Copy-paste ideologies can also be discovered in the intermingling of ideologies from the extreme left and the
extreme right in what is called the Third Position: a collective interest in opposing the police and state
regardless of differences in other social philosophy or ideals (Borum and Tilby 2005: 209).

18

It is interesting to compare the cultural scripts lone wolves make use of with more general
cultural scripts that can be found in late modernity and that are of importance for identity
formation and the production of significance. Modern times seem to put a premium on self-
exhibition. The importance of individual responsibility, authenticity, wealth, celebrity status
and self-expression the casting society emphasizes paves way to understanding oneself and
presenting oneself to the out world as a brand (the brand Me). The essence of this personal
branding is to recommend your self constantly or to expose the Self one way or the other to
the outer world. This exposition of the Self asks for a reaction, for confirmation by others.
Nothing is worse than placing a message on Facebook and not getting any reaction to it. That
comes close to a denial of existence... Performativity therefore seems to be the essence.
According to Mayer (2001: 366), following Mark Juergensmeyers analysis (2000: 122-126),
the acts of lone wolves are not executed to achieve some political strategic goal but to make a
symbolic statement. Juergensmeyer labels this as performance violence, dramas designed
to have an impact on the several audiences that they affect. This performative violence can
apply to terrorist as well as to self-destructive actions; in the case of lone wolf terrorism a
combination of both often exists. Bovenkerk (2005) also has pointed at a shift from
instrumental towards expressive violence. Most political actions in the sixties, seventies and
eighties were clearly political and societal inspired and can be seen as instrumental to a goal.
Nowadays the political dimensions have moved to the background and working off ones
emotions has gained more importance. Staging a spectacular action allows an individual to
attract the attention of the world and may to some extent be intended to reach that goal. Think
for instance of the videotapes made by the Columbine killers in 1999. They had been eager to
document everything and hoped that movies would be made of their stories: Directors will be
fighting over this story, one of them said (Mayer 2001: 365). Performative violence therefore
foremost refers to itself. It is the construction of identity or position through active expression.
Performative violence is not directed so much against the world, but clamours for attention
from audiences, demands audiences to look intently to the actor/perpetrator and by doing so
recognizing and acknowledging the actor/perpetrator in its very existence and uniqueness.

An understanding of lone wolf terrorism requires attention for both change as continuity, for
the changing dynamics and relations between individuals and communities and the political-
cultural scripts in which identities are being expressed and individuals give meaning to
themselves and the world they inhibit. Some lone wolves will be driven by more or less
established and coherent political ideologies or political-religious ideologies (Jihadism, right-
19

wing extremism), whether or not actively encouraged by terrorist entrepreneurs or the virtual
communities of belief they have converted themselves to, and to some extent originating from
feelings of discontent, alienation, anger and detachment. Other loners will be motivated by
more idiosyncratic factors, more driven by personal feelings of denial, humiliation and
alienation and translated in a variety of motives. All will be drawing on political-cultural
scripts to find the grammar to express themselves both in form as well as content. It should
not come as a surprise that in a heavily personalized and de-institutionalized society such
manifestation of rage and hate will express themselves in the form of personalised
performative violence that transcends established categories and classifications. Whether we
read these manifestations as political or put them aside as the incomprehensible acts of
lunatics tells as much of our ability to recognize the hidden transcripts of politics in a liquid
post-political age as it tells of lone wolves.

20

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