Posted by garnet71 on March 25, 2009, at 10:36:31
In reply to Re: Pathological Extreme Views » Garnet71, posted by Dinah on March 25, 2009, at 9:08:11
I like that you brought up group norms. There is a line between group norms and fascism.
I've met a lot of people from Eastern Europe and discussed government. Maybe its the norm there to put politics in the open rather than make it personal, as a result of their recent history. But how is it that Americans forget our history via being intolerant to individual thought and intellectual criticism of the status quo?
Group norms are the norms until someone starts questioning them--then writing about them. Remember that during the French Revolution, (and many other points in history) there was fear to question the status quo, to go against the norms, and political/religious speech had to be expressed creatively via the arts.
During the Renaissance, you had an emergence of authors who wrote anonymously, adopted pen names, and the proliferation of new literature genres such as satire--stealth criticism; hidden behind unrelated concepts.
Erasmus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ErasmusI feel like we are regressing. It was always widespread economic distress/famine that led up to communism, fascism, the stripping of freedom.
I hadn't paid attention to the news in a while, but recently tuned in again. The whole world is experiencing a drastic economic shift. I hope people do not sleep through this, and are not conveniently distracted and misdirected by such things, for example, as executive bonuses.
poster:garnet71
thread:886693
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20090227/msgs/886929.html