Essay about A Sociological Study of Timothy Mcveigh

Joseph Jordan Sociology 3/19/2006 A Sociological Study of Deviance: Oklahoma City Bombing The Oklahoma City Bombing was a very special event in American history, it was the biggest act of domestic terrorism until 9/11. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was an office complex in Oklahoma City, was bombed and 168 people were killed. Timothy McVeigh, the subject of my paper, was behind the bombings, and later executed. On April 15, 1995 Timothy McVeigh rented a Ryder truck in Herington, Kansas under the alias Robert D. Kling. On April 16, he drove to Oklahoma City with fellow conspirator Terry Nichols where he parked a getaway vehicle several blocks away from the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. After†¦show more content†¦He wanted to get vengeance for the FBI/ATF’s firebombing of a ranch in Waco, Texas, that killed 79 civilians. WHY DID TIMOTHY MCVEIGH DO THIS? Timothy Mcveigh’s personality can be explained sociologically as being both ritualism and rebellion. Timothy McVeigh was part of what can be seen as the pinnacle of conformism during the years before the bombing, the military. McVeigh, by all accounts, was a soldier who won praise by taking orders very well and following all the rules, his medals won during the Gulf War prove this. However, like many other people who join the military (gang-members, racial nationalists, survivalists) Timothy McVeigh had perhaps not-so â€Å"patriotic† motives for joining. Nowadays people join the military for reasons other than because they believe in a countries value system, people like McVeigh join for the military training and knowledge of things like explosives, survival, discipline, etc. They in a way use the system against itself. At face value Timothy McVeigh did follow the means towards achieving societies goals, but he wanted nothing to do with the ends. He saw himself as a freedom fighter whose destiny was to overthrow the US Government. McVeigh, before joining the military, already had a long history in the survivalist movement. The Survivalist movement is well known by the federal government for its anti-government activities and beliefs, McVeigh shared these beliefs and was set off after theShow MoreRelatedIs There a Fundamental Difference between Religious Terrorism and Secular Terrorism?3859 Words   |  15 Pageshuge and consequent envy may have prodded desire to extinguish the West and knock Western superiority. In a similar way, Critical Security Studies (CSS) argues that much of the rage and violence of Islamic terrorism is a result of Western treatment of Islam. Using Frankfort Critical Theory, as seen through the lens of the Welsh School Critical Security Studies, Torros and Guning (2012) (in Jackson, Richard, 2012) ) suggest that terrorism is a socially constructed term that may be used to serve political