The paper aims to define the psychological foundations of lone wolf activism. The analysis that facilitated attaining this goal was based on the Nietzschean concept of resentment theory of compensatory revaluating values that explain the relationships between inferiority and fundamentalism, fanaticism, and ideologically motivated violence. Based on a phenomenological examination of the phenomenon, the author demonstrates that lone wolf activism is founded on two psychologically and sociologically determined successive processes. The first one occurs when a sense of personal inferiority becomes the source of an envy-based hostile attitude toward the world. Later on, this feeling, due to personality defence mechanisms, which bring about the falsification of “primary desires” and the generation of “secondary desires”, transforms into fundamentalism. The second process takes place when, as the result of fundamentalist legitimisation that arise on the level of social rivalry, given fundamentalism is destituted, resulting in fanaticism. The author believes that the knowledge of both processes is necessary to recognise and combat the terrorist activity of lone ideologically motivated individuals.
The paper characterises contemporary fighting anarchism from the ideological, tactical, and organisational perspectives. An analysis is carried out that examines the activities of the groups revoking insurrectionism, which today entails three ideological trends, namely social, individualistic (illegalism), and ecological. In the author’s intention, the characteristics should serve practical goals, i.e., forming a prognosis regarding the phenomenon's future and drawing possible ways to counteract its proliferation in a further perspective. Contemporary anarchism, due to its intellectual allure (liberationist individualism), broadening the scope of its goals (with the liberation of non-human beings), adopting loose organisational forms, as well as employing the leaderless resistance strategy and swarming, is a phenomenon that has significant development potential. The development of anarchism, due to ongoing socio-political processes (the collapse of the existing mechanisms of social control and political representation, globalisation, informatisation) and the widely spreading ideology of individualism will lead to, as it seems, progressive radicalism, both in ideology and used methods.
This paper discusses the threats related to the development of the phenomenon known as lone wolf violence. Its main goal is to analyze lone wolves' activities, particularly their tactics in carrying out actions that pose a threat to aviation safety. The primary method used for the main argument of the paper, interdisciplinary modeling of the determinants of violence, allows for formulating forecasts on the development of lone wolves phenomenon in the most important context for those predictions, i.e., changeability of used means. This inventiveness comes down to disorganized forms of functioning (leaderless resistance) and the methods used in fighting, both of which stem from considerable power disproportions between lone wolves (terrorists) and states. The development of violence among lone wolves is analyzed from the perspective of this constantly changing tactical and technological means. This paper is of both explanatory and prognostic nature. It consists of five parts. The first is dedicated to providing theoretical background and depicting case studies that serve as a starting point for the following analyses. The second section is dedicated to a brief description of used methods. Next, the types of lone wolves' activities are characterized and examined. In section four, the current and potential tactics employed by terrorists are analyzed. This paper concludes with the author's prognosis regarding the future development of this phenomenon.
Th ere are few other ethical issues which bring about such contention as the abortion question. In European countries, the main controversies arose in the seventies, when abortions laws were liberalised, but the confrontations engendered between opposing views were not particularly vehement. It was a diff erent story in the USA, liberalisation of abortion law met especially aggressive opposition from the already well -established pro -life movement. Th e most visible expression of protest was seen in the emergence of anti -abortion violence, which is a serious social problem to this day. In Poland, abortion became the subject of open debate at the beginning of the nineties, when, following pressure from Catholic groups, the Family planning, protection of the foetus and conditions for termination of pregnancy bill (Ustawa o planowaniu rodziny, ochronie płodu ludzkiego i warunkach dopuszczalności przerywania ciąży) was enacted. Even though the law – colloquially known as the “Anti- -abortion act” – was very restrictive for women, especially compared to the 1956 act, many radical anti -abortionists believed it to be too liberal. However, their real objections followed from the failure of the police to enforce it and the belief that they were neither able nor willing to deal with the rising number of “back -street” abortions. An eff ect of this dissatisfaction was the appearance of anti -abortion extremists in the Polish pro -life movement, whose ideas were, and still are, very similar to those in the USA, where there is no hesitation in the resort to the most radical of weapons, viz. terrorism. Are Polish extremists willing to use the same methods? Th e attempt to answer this question is the purpose of this article.
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