Comments on: Tribal mindset http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/ a blog by Jim Bliss Tue, 15 May 2012 02:49:13 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Joel http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/#comment-450 Joel Wed, 02 Aug 2006 15:19:55 +0000 http://numero57.net/?p=94#comment-450 I'm sure you were aware of it Jim, but the Israelis who use the leafleting as somehow getting them off the hook, or indeed any who mention the leafleting in such a manner, usually parrot-fashion, either aren't aware of it or have reconstructed their brains to somehow find it an unimportant detail, after all, the Israelis were so kind as to leaflet before bombing. Robots mouthing hollow words. So far more people have died in human stampedes after stoning the devil at Mecca. Give it a couple of days and we'll be bored of the entire thing. I’m sure you were aware of it Jim, but the Israelis who use the leafleting as somehow getting them off the hook, or indeed any who mention the leafleting in such a manner, usually parrot-fashion, either aren’t aware of it or have reconstructed their brains to somehow find it an unimportant detail, after all, the Israelis were so kind as to leaflet before bombing. Robots mouthing hollow words.

So far more people have died in human stampedes after stoning the devil at Mecca. Give it a couple of days and we’ll be bored of the entire thing.

]]> By: Jim http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/#comment-449 Jim Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:35:35 +0000 http://numero57.net/?p=94#comment-449 Narrator... I've got a long and involved theory on the use of psychoanalytic techniques to better explain and understand the motivations and behaviour of large groups of people. Be it corporations, institutions or even entire nations. My theory is based partly on the ideas of anthropologist Gregory Bateson, partly on the ideas of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, and partly on psychedelic revelation. It's still a bit rough round the edges though... not yet rigorous enough to be encased in text. But when you say that "eternal war is not a logical plan for a nation" I'd argue that's utterly irrelevant. Israel, as a nation, is incapable of acting in a rational / logical way. In my view it's suffering from the national equivalent of severe paranoid psychosis (the causes of which can be easily understood). Narrator… I’ve got a long and involved theory on the use of psychoanalytic techniques to better explain and understand the motivations and behaviour of large groups of people. Be it corporations, institutions or even entire nations.

My theory is based partly on the ideas of anthropologist Gregory Bateson, partly on the ideas of cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadter, and partly on psychedelic revelation. It’s still a bit rough round the edges though… not yet rigorous enough to be encased in text.

But when you say that “eternal war is not a logical plan for a nation” I’d argue that’s utterly irrelevant. Israel, as a nation, is incapable of acting in a rational / logical way. In my view it’s suffering from the national equivalent of severe paranoid psychosis (the causes of which can be easily understood).

]]> By: Jim http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/#comment-448 Jim Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:23:05 +0000 http://numero57.net/?p=94#comment-448 Oh, I am aware of that Joel. I was merely addressing this apparently mainstream Israeli view that those who <i>did</i> remain are in large part responsible for their own deaths. The idea that Israeli civilians would leave their homes when instructed by leaflets dropped by the Syrian airforce. And the idea that Syria could not be held responsible for any subsequent Israeli deaths as a result of bombing. Oh, I am aware of that Joel. I was merely addressing this apparently mainstream Israeli view that those who did remain are in large part responsible for their own deaths. The idea that Israeli civilians would leave their homes when instructed by leaflets dropped by the Syrian airforce. And the idea that Syria could not be held responsible for any subsequent Israeli deaths as a result of bombing.

]]> By: Joel http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/#comment-447 Joel Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:17:07 +0000 http://numero57.net/?p=94#comment-447 The thing is, though, that a great many did obey the orders to leave, and then were bombed in their cars and vans on the roads like so many rats forming an orderly queue in a shooting range. I don't know why details like this get lost time and time again. The thing is, though, that a great many did obey the orders to leave, and then were bombed in their cars and vans on the roads like so many rats forming an orderly queue in a shooting range. I don’t know why details like this get lost time and time again.

]]> By: The Narrator http://numero57.net/2006/08/01/tribal-mindset/#comment-446 The Narrator Wed, 02 Aug 2006 14:03:55 +0000 http://numero57.net/?p=94#comment-446 The creation of "the other" is a very powerful thing, and Israel, a state developed by terrorist organizations, has never really learned to "grow up" and act like a nation. So it issues the kind of vague warnings terrorist groups do ("it is your fault, better get out!") and speaks in terms of collective guilt ("all Arabs are at fault") and in phrases of bitter revenge ("if one rocket is fired from a village we will wipe it from the map"). None of this can lead them to "victory" anymore than German WWI occupation policy in Belgium stabilized that situation or German WWII policy in Czechoslovakia stabilized that - it is instead a proven prescription for eternal war - and eternal war is not a logical plan for a nation. Unfortunately it can be a seeming short term good for irresponsible politicians, be they Americans or Israelis. The creation of “the other” is a very powerful thing, and Israel, a state developed by terrorist organizations, has never really learned to “grow up” and act like a nation. So it issues the kind of vague warnings terrorist groups do (“it is your fault, better get out!”) and speaks in terms of collective guilt (“all Arabs are at fault”) and in phrases of bitter revenge (“if one rocket is fired from a village we will wipe it from the map”). None of this can lead them to “victory” anymore than German WWI occupation policy in Belgium stabilized that situation or German WWII policy in Czechoslovakia stabilized that – it is instead a proven prescription for eternal war – and eternal war is not a logical plan for a nation. Unfortunately it can be a seeming short term good for irresponsible politicians, be they Americans or Israelis.

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