When discord, inequality, and dissatisfaction permeate a society, the people’s sense of political community is undermined, creating the context for alienation from the centers of economic and political power. This can erode compliance with social norms and laws that are the basis for social order in a state. This loosening of the bonds between people, groups, and their commitment to common moralities is the root source of social disorder (Durkheim). In the midst of social disorder, individuals and groups seek identity and self-esteem within subcultures of ethnicity, religion, language, and perceptions of common enemies. Fanatical commitment to these subcultures can breed hostility toward those outside the subculture, resulting in targeted violence and organized terrorism. Terrorism can be a violent effort to promote and defend a particular subculture based in a set of beliefs or ethnic identity perceived by terrorists as being under attack from what they view as a dominating, competing culture. Inequalities in a national and/or global society thus trigger defensive, antagonistic ideologies of deviant subcultures that adopt terrorism as a tactic of survival and promotion of their values. 28 references