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The Politics of Inversion

A fundamental feature of extremist regimes is the absolute requirement of an adversary. If a real or perceived enemy loses its opponent status then a bogeyman (under the bed) mentality is cultivated until the negative effects of that strategy (fear, loathing etc.) can be successfully superimposed onto a suitable ‘candidate’. The ‘successful’ candidate would then immediately attract the fear, loathing and violence of the extremist society (or group) in question.

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http://cleaves.zapto.org/clv/newswire.php?story_id=138

Kingfisher
Homepage: http://cleaves.zapto.org/

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Perhaps good, perhaps circular

10.12.2005 17:42

The "circular" problem comes in because just how do we recognize that a society is behaving in an "extreme" fashion unless they are doing something like that? Would there ever be some sort of "absolute" crtieria for "extreme"?

What I am saying here is that what has been said SEEMS to be reasonable. We do tend to see "extremist" socieities defining themselves and their desired way of life in terms of contrast to some "others" > But the question I have to consider is were a society to be "extreme" but not doing this behavior would I/we notice? Would we not perhaps simply classify that society living by a QUIET extremism as simply weird, quaint, peculiar, but not "extremist"?

Or taken in the other direction -- is it perhaps precisely when we see a society defining themselves in contrasting the "vast difference" between themselves and some other group, that other group being composed of persons we do not greatly distinguish from ourselves that we consider the society "extremist".

Mike
mail e-mail: stepbystpefarm mtdata.com