[lbo-talk] re:Margolis: Why There is No WMD Outrage

[Shane Taylor]

andie nachgeborenen wrote:
> I agree with whoever it was to said this a while ago,
> that what's going on has to with cognitive
> dissonance and framing. People are remarkably ill
> informed, but facts don't have independent weight
> even for th4e better informed. They fit into frames
> or preconceptions, or they don't fit at all. Facts that
> don't fit into frames will simply be rejected as
> anomalous adat points. The basic frame is the
> America is Good and Means Well for Others. This
> gets hammered with with all the identification
> ('our forces") and flagwaving and of course attacks
> on doubters. Oh, you don't agree? Then you Hate
> America, and you are Not One Of Us. Against that
> background, the abence of WMD is not evidence
> that we were lied to, it is an anomaly that has to be
> explained away, if at all, in terms that fit the frame.
> Cog Diss kicks in: It Doesn't Matter Because (fill in
> the blank, as long as the blank attributes Goodness
> and Virtue to the US). 
> 
> You don't need to attribute special ignorance or
> viciousness to American, just the same cognitive
> processes that work in everyone. Btw, in us too.
> The FBI apologized to the ACLU for illegally
> detaining people. did I think, Oh, good, Our
> Officials are finally coming round? No. In my frame
> and yours,  on which the US govt is presumptively
> Up To No Good, the assumption was that this is
> meaningless appeasement or the reflection of
> political pressure. 

Exactly.  That's the problem with the Joe "just the facts" Friday school
of activist pedagogy.  Bombard people with enough facts and the frames
won't matter -- if their existence is even acknowledged.  The facts will
make your case for you.  It's as if the facts are themselves inscribed
with a *self evident* framework.  Meanwhile, the contested frame is
off-limits, left undisturbed.

For example, I've been working with a local Bill of Rights Defense
Committee.  We've got smart lawyer who is an experienced activist and
well versed in the world of progie NGOs.  Great guy, valuable asset.  The
plan is to press the Dallas City Council to pass a resolution against the
PATRIOT ACTs more unsavory bits.  The organization is doing well, with
killer turnouts at our meetings.

The peculiar thing is our lawyer said yesterday that we're focusing on
"uncontroversial" issues of constitutionality -- as if the main base of
support for the PATRIOT ACT is that people just don't know it's
unconstitutional.  Clear that up, that's all we need to do.  Also, it's
oft said that "liberty" transcends party boundaries and is nonideological
-- as if "liberty" had one agreed upon, politically neutral meaning and
reverence for the Constitution were nonideological.

-- Shane

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