Fear as A Political Motivator

[Ron Humphrey]

Hi Ron,



I'm not sure I agree with this, Ron. Could we (Anthropologists) help the military produce such a campaign based on fear tactics? Probably, although I suspect that it wouldn't be as good as that produced by a couple of good ole boys from the smoke filled back rooms. As to this being the source of much of the "fear" in academia, I really doubt that. My suspicion is that a lot of that fear is generated more from a concern that they "mysteries" of the discipline will be seen by "profane" hands, and that those same non-initiates will realize that a lot of the "mysteries" are Bravo Sierra.

First thank you very much for the feedback, and secondly no offense taken.
However much I study I never consider myself to know all the answers and thus I partake in such ventures as this in efforts to discover those answers.

I did not mean to associate anthropologists soley with the art of manipulation by fear, nor to even place them within the realm of helping with directed fires (so to speak). I was however referring to the fact that as you say, perception by those on the outside of the community may lead to unnecessary and ill placed kickback against that which they do not understand and thus do not trust.

Again, I'm going to have to disagree with you, at least as far as the use of "any factors" is concerned. This marks a key difference between professionals and amateurs in many fields of endevour (including politics): professionals realize that todays opponent may be tomorrows ally, while amateurs often believe that an enemy is an enemy, period

On this I meant to focus on the fact that any social factors can and will affect the outcome and as such none should be without review.
There is a tie-in between the line drawn and which factors can and should actually be used in any efforts by the military/government.

BTW, let me just make it clear that I'm not saying that as an insult. The observation behind it comes out of a lot of work done on studying how groups operate and how individuals operate in new fields. The short term gain mentality exhibited by amateurs in a field (regardless of their expertise in other fields) often leads to a degradation of that field for all involved. When the field degrades, it has a feedback effect on all people in the field (on the psychology behind this, check out Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi on the Flow experience), and I think this is what you are talking about when you talk about "drawing a line". Marc

This is exactly on mark, I was trying to tie the long term changes ( todays enemies, tommorows allies) into determining which aspects of social existence should be actively pursued in operations.

I think for me the guiding premise might be my personal interpretation of sun tzu's know yourself. I think the key component here is not only should one know their own weaknesses and strengths but also know what their own social issues are. I think if we follow the guidance of Christ in his statement " Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you it helps delineate which factors are the right ones for action when dealing with others.

The measure of intent being good might be found in knowing what would be acceptable behaviour when relating to oneself, and treating others accordingly.

This is however just the thoughts of an Amateur Expert in Training