The “Coolification” of Terrorism

Wondrous as it may seem, our planet interacts in real-time much like the giant brain described by British science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke four decades ago. Globalization actually began in the 15th century when Columbus discovered the “New World”, but Bill Gates and Steve Jobs –with their worldview of the Earth as a computerized democracy– have crafted an interconnected humanity. There are now approximately 7,200 million minicomputers in the world, including iPad-type tablets, smartphones and traditional portables. For the first time in history, there are more personal electronic devices than people (slightly more than 7 billion) on our planet.

This planetary hyperactivity is a spectacular revolution, but it also involves a constant exposure of the Western way of life. From any country not included in the so-called “Free World” (out of which are all the Islamic nations, with notable exceptions such as westernized Albania, Malaysia, Tunisia, Morocco and Emirates) anyone with a smartphone can free-ride through the Western media outlets and personal webs.

In Europe and the United States, cyber-terrorism seems to be uncontrollable. Three Pakistanis have just been arrested in Spain (Lleida, in Catalonia) for publicizing terrorism on media profiles that shared propaganda related with ISIS, Taliban and other Pakistani groups. The three arrested men –25, 29 and 31 years old– vindicated Islamist decapitations and executions on their social media accounts, demonstrating how terrorists take advantage of Western globalization and use it to infiltrate the world they want to destroy. Due to the frenzied interaction of formats on social networks, younger generations are finding it difficult to distinguish reality from fiction, both of which they tend to classify rather simplistically as more or less “cool”. ISIS capitalizes on this with an astute cyber-strategy used to structure and manipulate the group, to attract new members and to “coolify” its image.