Tee Vee

[Jeffrey Fisher]

one of the more pertinent (and trickier) issues in medieval history, it has
always seemed to me, is that of the "rise of intolerance" in twelfth-century
europe. leaving aside the question of what "tolerance" means, for the
moment: was there a "rise"? and what role did intellectuals play in any such
rise? identifiable groups experiencing (hypothetical) increasing persecution
include jews, heretics, and homosexuals. in some ways, it's sort of the
counterpart to goldhagen's question in "hitler's willing executioners."

i don't have time at the moment to hold forth on it (perhaps that's for the
better), but it seems to me to sit alongside the question of "demonization."

j


> From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 20:06:05 -0400
> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
> Subject: Re: Tee Vee
> 
> Hi,
> 
> 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  /
>