Oh God, yes. Rene Girard speaks of mimetic scapegoating. ObL and Shrub are classic examples. What $ would direct mail actually generate without demonization?
-cb
----- Original Message ----- From: "/ dave /" <arouet at winternet.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 6:55 PM Subject: Re: Tee Vee
> Chip Berlet wrote:
>
> > More recent social science demonstrates that demonization is a habit found
> > across various sectors of society among people who are no more prone to
> > mental illness than the rest of society. The "banality of evil", as Arendt
> > observed, is that ordinary people can become willing--even
> > eager--participants in brutality and mass murder justified by demonization
> > of scapegoated groups in a society, (1963).
>
> Which also goes a long way toward explaining the establishment and
> behavior of political parties and sects thereof, no?
>
> --
>
> / dave /