What Lin Manuel Miranda Can Teach Us About ISIS
In a season in which we seem beset on all sides by conflict and controversial duality — of Hillary and Donald — of LGBT rights and bathroom controversies — of Shi’a and Sunni — of ISIS and the west — Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton provides a moment of lyrical truth.
Why do young people Join ISIS?
Embedded in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s lyrics is a simple truth that helps answer that question. Early in the show, Manuel’s Alexander Hamilton exclaims:
“God I wish there were a war so we could prove that we are worth more than anyone bargained for.”
In this line from the song, Aaron Burr, Sir, Miranda captures the driving force behind much of the conflict and change that we are experiencing at home and around the world. Not the philosophical force…but the psychological force that gives potency to movements seeking to achieve radical change.
It is neither bad nor good. It is merely a truth.
Young people want their lives to have meaning. They want to contribute. They want to be recognized within their “in group” for their commitment and contribution to a common important goal. Particularly for young men, they want action and adventure.
The Desire Among Young People, And Particularly Young Men, for Action, Adventure, and for An Opportunity to Make a Meaningful Contribution to the Group, is Universal.
It is not unique to the poor, or the marginalized, or to people raised in Islamic families.
There are lots of examples like this. The hard truth is that young people the world over have in common a restless desire to do something important. To make a difference. This is why ISIS is able to find a few recruits among comfortable middle class western families. The opportunity to participate in revolution is hard to pass up.
Just ask Alexander Hamilton.
Revolutions are not gradual. They’re not gentle. Often they’re not pretty. But they are transformative. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is itself revolutionary. Hamilton is a production that would’ve seemed preposterous a decade ago. A rap musical about the first Secretary of the Treasury of the United States?
So in addition to all of the other amazing revolutionary things about Miranda’s masterpiece, we can add this. A single verse, from a single song, that encapsulates the call to action, and even to ISIS, and youth’s quest for meaning.
