[lbo-talk] Re: how's it feel?

[loupaulsen at attbi.com]

> At 5:16 PM -0400 4/17/03, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
> >That looks like a very convoluted explanation.  The truth is much 
> >simpler - herding behavior.  People support the war for the same 
> >reason they root for the home team - because thay have ben trained 
> >to do so since pre-school.  Being an outcast was always punished by 
> >ostracism or bullying.  For males, moreover, participation in 
> >collective violence (virtual or actual) is a ritual affirming their 
> >manhood in front of their peers - refusal to participate would be 
> >seen as a sign of weakness and lower their rank vis a vis other 
> >males.
> 


> If rooting for "the home team" were the point, folks would be always 
> rooting for it to the same degree.  Attempts at ostracism and 
> bullying have not been zero, but they have not been even remotely 
> close to overwhelming pressures.  The population who are most likely 
> to be subject to pro-war bullying -- Arabs and Muslims in the USA -- 
> have not changed their opinions.  Blacks remained steadfast in their 
> opposition as well (unlike at the time of the first Gulf War): 
> <http://www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr030404.asp>.
> -- 
> Yoshie

I agree with Yoshie.  You can't explain varying phenomena on the basis of 
invariant social mechanisms.  You can say that there is always "herd behavior" 
(or, if you are feeling in a better mood and less contemptuous of the 
masses, "social control", "group processes", etc., but what explains the fact 
that the herds regroup and realign: patriotic, progressive, working-class, 
radical?  Someone can come along and say that Feb. 15 was "herd behavior" as 
well, but why are there pro-war herds one day and anti-war herds another day? 
As for the idea that young men always want to do battle, even if I gave credit 
to this kind of XY sociobiology (although by allowing for "virtual violence" 
you incorporate just about any kind of political activity imaginable, 
including arguing on a list), why do some want to do battle with Iraqis while 
others want to do battle with the police?  

"A man is not an ox"

   --- title of a "Car 54, where are you?" episode

LP