The whole subject is embarrassing. 18 people, including an innocent
Ambassador, have been killed for nothing.
Yet people who do crazy things are not necessarily crazy. Although the riots
in the Arab world may appear strange to us - after all what has a stupid
YouTube film of an odd Egyptian to do with Americans - they do not mean that
people are crazy. This is what Aronson's First Law (from the psychologist
Elliot Aronson) says: "People who do crazy things are not necessarily
crazy".
The idea is that if we are unaware of the social circumstances that prompted
their actions, we are tempted to conclude that they are caused by a
deficiency in character like stupidness or insanity. But in some situations
people may do crazy things, because they are compelled to act in crazy ways.
It is the abnormal situation that drives them to extreme behavior.
The question is what makes such behavior seem reasonable to those who carry
it out in this case? Preachers under pressure who blame Americans for
everything?
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: Owen Densmore
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2012 12:29 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fwd: America and the Middle East: Murder in Libya |
TheEconomist
My interest is not the extremists, but the fact that the leaders and
majority do not protest against them, do not make themselves heard.
So it is about religion, but it could equally be about the NRA or racism or
human rights or whatever. Where the majority is silent. And the leaders do
not lead.
Not that I don't understand the religious issues, and your clear points
against them (and with which I am sympathetic), but that I'm looking at
another, broader issue that seems to appear not only in religions but many
other areas.
Is it not striking to you that the leaders and majority are silent? We know
many Muslims here in Santa Fe who are sane and gracious. They deplore the
extreme events. But they have not yet found a platform for inserting Islam,
the Good Parts, and their deploring the extremists, into the public
discourse.
-- Owen
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