Informit article: Something worth dying for?

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Abstract:

Perhaps the most challenging thing about the foreign fighters – those people who disappear from their suburban homes and reappear on Facebook in Syria or Iraq carrying a grenade launcher or wearing a suicide jacket – is that they have evidently found something they think is worth dying for. Probably most of us would lay down our lives for our immediate family. Beyond that – Anzac Day parades and endless military posturing by political leaders not – withstanding – it is difficult to imagine most people in this country genuinely willing to put their life on the line for democracy, Australia, socialism, the Liberal Party, Jesus or anything else. Most people would probably fight like hell to hang onto what they have, but would they be willing to put their life on the line for an idea?

Details / PDF:

The full-text PDF of this article can be purchased from Informit.

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