[lbo-talk] Re: Three Quick Things

[Wojtek Sokolowski]

B:
> I'd be interested in any study that delves into
> whether people feel "safer" acting outraged, strident,
> etc., when voicing opinions they believe the masters
> already hold. People really seem to be comfortable
> waxing pasionate when they think the ruling class
> already believes the same thing. I think at root the
> problem is slavish, worshipfulness of power, of people
> being eager to associate themselves with what is tough
> and domineering.

Plenty of historical and literary evidence to support it - from public
torture and executions of the enemies of the ruling class - which always
attracted masses - to pogroms of unpopular minorities "indicted" by the
ruling classes.  

A good literary example comes from the film "Das Experiment"
http://www.german-cinema.de/archive/film_view.php?film_id=543
based on the Stanford Prison Study (http://www.prisonexp.org/) 
which shows howe ordinary people are transformed, literally overnight,
into fascist monsters when the "ruling class" (scientists conducting the
experiment) give them the authority to control people identified as
"inferior."

Wojtek