Doc,
There is, of course, always a little or a lot of hipocracy in the words
and actions of our govt officials. And yet, I thought At was making a
different point. It may be I am wrong about this. I am actually saying
that I don't think our govt officials are any smarter than the rest of us,
and therefore, I think there is less "mainipulation" going on than there
is just plain shared values.
Racism -- as only one example -- is clearly no less prominent among
politicians or policemen than among the vast majority of Americans (I
cannot speak for all other countries, but direct experience in Africa,
Britain, France, and the far east lead me to think it is universal). Nor
is prejudice toward people on welfare or other have-nots.
I do agree with you wholeeartedly that we tend to choose the same groups
to discriminate against that our parents chose. I don't know if it is
because of our parents' influence, or because these groups are so easily
identified as 'different'. I tend toward a combination of the two, but I
do not dismiss the latter -- differentness -- as a potent component of our
decisions.
Regarding the end of the cold war, the world clearly became a more
dangerous place for a while, and remains in a more dangerous state in some
ways. The reasons are all subject to a lot of interpretation and many
opinions. At least one cause of the increased insecurity was simply that
everyone clearly understood the rules of the old game, so they could play
it with confidence. The new game is still being developed.
I do see serendipitous scapegoating all the time. It's the Marketing
Dept's fault, or Operations, or Finance's and so on. The causes are
similar to the more traditional form. It is relatively easy to see simple
solutions from a distance, but once you get close to the issues, the
simple solutions are not real solutions. So Marketing's failure to fix a
situation seems like a failure from any distance. Everyone has a higher
opinion of their own department than of any other. Everyone has a higher
opinion of their own school system than any other. (Curiously, every
state claims to have above average students). Polarized relationships
among departments in corporations are the most common form of
relationship. In my mind all of this "my neighborhood is better than
yours" perspective is the underlying cause of subconscious scapegoating.
--Rol Fessenden L. L. Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com
1 - Challenge the process. 2 - Inspire a shared vision. 3 - Enable others to act. 4 - Model the way. 5 - Encourage the heart.
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>