MAKE FRIENDS = DEFEAT TERRORISM
If asked, could you recall the name of your neighbors? More than likely. you could not. Would you get involved or make a report if you witnessed strange or suspicious behavior in your neighborhood? Depends. Is the fabric of American society, the neighborhood, a thing of the past? Could the connections among our friends, families, and neighbors that helped us prepare for the potential annihilation of society during the Cold War be restored to help in the fight against domestic acts of terror? Social Networks are a key component of our lives that begin to develop at childbirth. But these invisible links that connect us to the other members of our community have diminished and, as a result, so has our collective resiliency.
As the nation mourns the June 10th tragedy at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, concerns about of our safety and security once again dominate many coffee shop, dining room, and workplace conversations. Embedded within these discussions are those questions that seek to understand how the community missed the activity of Omar Mateen. In a June 13th Washington Post article, Mateen’s classmates describe his unusual behavior in response to the 9/11 attacks. The FBI investigated Mateen based on concerns over his activity but the results didn’t reveal that anything that warranted further action. Although Mateen did not live in total isolation, his actions were suspicious enough to initiate a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR). One can assume he had some form of connection with his local community. Someone had a relationship, common event, or joint activity based tie that placed him or her in Omar Mateen’s social network and eventually resulted in communication with the FBI. How many other people had the same experience?
How Networks Form
Early man was not threatened by terrorism but faced survival challenges. Hunting was dangerous. Prey had larger bodies and fierce weapons, such as claws, teeth, horns, and powerful legs. A tribal effort was required to find food, provide shelters, and maintain the safety necessary to thrive in the hostile natural world. Social networks are still relevant to our survival and well being even though we have long moved away from a hunter-gather society. Now is the time for us to evaluate the strengths of our social networks and collectively face our modern day enemy.
Author John Bruhn writes in his book The Group Effect: Social Cohesion and Health Outcomes that although the survival needs of modern man are not the same, man’s “need for social interaction and positive ties with others has persisted.” Bruhn provides clarity as to the reason why belonging to a social group and the associated interaction remains important for all individuals, “It is close social ties that give individual lives significance. From our birth onward, it is our socialization experiences with others that help shape our identity.” Membership in a social group helps to establish an individual’s identity. It also provides individuals the ability to accomplish tasks beyond their capabilities. How could an improved social network have impacted the significance of Omar Mateen? In reality, the question should be, how was Omar Mateen’s identity impacted by others and was this the support network that provided him the belief to carry out his heinous attack?
Now What?
In 2000, Robert D. Putnam, Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University, released his book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community and alerted the nation to the expanding loss of social capital within our communities resulting in a bankrupt livelihood. Putnam defines social capital as the social networks that are “…norms of reciprocity, mutual assistance, and trustworthiness.” Since the 1960’s, our busy lives have shifted inward making the connection to our neighbors less prominent and decreasing our participation in community groups such as a Tuesday night bowling league or other civic organizations. Putnum specifically points out that crime within highly connected neighborhoods, residents that participate in collective activities and know each other, is lower than those that are more fragmented. Could stronger neighborhood ties revealed Omar Mateen’s plan?
Shortly after Bowling Alone, Putnum provided a guide to restoring our communities in his 2003 book Better Together. Here he discusses two important types of social networks:
1. Bonding Social Capital — Networks comprised of people that are “inward looking”, aka community glue.
2. Bridging Social Capital — Social networks that are social in nature, “birds of a feather flock together”.
The challenge is that bridging social capital is difficult for us to build but it is an “essential element for healthy public life, especially within our highly diverse society.” This failure to bridge social gaps has left us without the necessary social networks required for trust, resiliency, and the connectedness that helps us survive. Its hard, but the effort required to shift from inward to an outward social network is potentially the key tool in preventing further lone wolf terror incidents.
Our social networks are extremely powerful and influential in our lives. These interlinked connections pass resources and information among the associated individual. Unfortunately, the exchanges that occur within them may not always be beneficial to society as a whole. However, by placing an importance on our connections, we can improve our collective power and defeat threats to our safety. Take a moment to get to know your neighbors, dig your bowling ball out of the attic, and think about how your connections may impact those that are marginalized within our society. The only way that we are going to win against isolated social networks that strengthen the ideology of individuals such as Omar Mateen is to become more powerful through the development of stronger connections to each other.
For more on the importance of social networks check out the following:
