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Terrorism For Self-Glorification: The Herostratos Syndrome

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In 356 B.C. Herostratos destroyed one of the seven wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus by arson. While we know little else about him, his name has come down as a word defining those who would destroy something just to get their own name remembered.

There have certainly been enough examples of people like this from Mark Chapman (John Lennon), Lee Harvey Oswald (John Kennedy) , Arthur Bremer (who first was bent on the assassination of President Nixon with no animosity towards him, but as he was too well protected, shot George Wallace instead). The real interest of the moment, however, are the militant fundamental Muslims of the middle east who become suicide bombers or fly planes into the world trade center.

This book is an important contribution to the study of terrorism as it presents a way for us to better understand the risks that we are facing. It is commonly believed that the Muslim are convinced purely by promises of the afterlife. Mr. Borowitz points out that the names of the suicide bombers are known to everyone in the Middle East. The factor of fame here on earth may be more important than we realized.