I am listening to “The Rest is History” podcast on the start of the First World War, and one striking thing is that the assassins of that period, including Gavrilo Princip himself also tended to be isolated young men. The same was true of the 9/11 attackers. There is definitely a relationship between isolation and the need for recognition through chaos.

The difference now is that rather than hanging out in coffee shops and developing a coherent (if misguided) attachment to a cause young men with this mindset or hanging out online absorbing random conspiracy theories and arbitrary resentments.