[Tango-L] Tango Diversity under one big tent: Nuevo & milonguero happy together?

[Alexis Cousein]

melvillefox at aol.com wrote:
> Sorry Mel, but you sound a little paranoid there :-).

He isn't, of course.

Unfortunately for humanity, building a "Feindbild" for a group of
people ("them") has been a tried and tested mechanism to increase
social cohesion in groups of entirely normal (i.e. non pathological,
thus not paranoid) people.

Of course "they" are out to get you. If "they" weren't, they'd be "us".
It's only when you think "we" are out to get you that you're paranoid.

Here's a machine translation of the German wiki page for "Feindbild".

Of course, any resemblances with anything discussed on tango-l is surely
coincidental.

--
The "enemy image" shared by the people in a group (own group) is a
widespread negative notion of an outgroup. The assessment of the
outgroup is based to a greater or lesser extent on prejudice. An
"enemy image" is also how the people in a certain socio-cultural
context are pictured by another group of people that are strongly
aware of their separate identity. This negative image is not
checked by rational judgement and is in most cases obtained
outside reality.

The image serves mainly to the psycho-social stabilization and
the group cohesion of the own group (see also "Othering").

Enemy images can occur naturally  - for example, often where
strong social inequalities prevail. Often they are used
deliberately and purposefully by propaganda.

In most cases, already existing prejudices against the
outgroup are used to conceal to a group or individual
the actual reasons behind a real or perceived unfavourable
situation, and to channel the aggression caused by
frustration towards a clearly defined target.

The social psychology describes this process as "scapegoating".
The philosopher and cultural anthropologist René Girard sees
this mechanism as a central pillar of his mimetic social theory.

Especially before and during armed conflicts, the leaders of a state 
deliberately and systematically instill enemy images into the state's
population, to convince it of the correctness of the war and the
wickedness of the enemy.


-- 
Alexis Cousein                                  al at sgi.com
Senior Systems Engineer/Solutions Architect     SGI/Silicon Graphics
--
<If I have seen further, it is by standing on reference manuals>