I would like to take a few lines to introduce people who don’t already know this writer to James Morrow. As it happens, Jim is a friend of mine. I admire and respect him and I find his writing a delight. He is first and foremost a satirist, of the…
In my quest to better understand basic principles of group behavior, I reviewed Intergroup Relations, by Maryland B. Brewer and Norman Miller (1996) [this work appears to be out of print]. The stated focus this book is to better understand “the causes and consequences of the distinctions between ingroups (those groups to which an individual belongs) and outgroups (social groups that do not include the individual as a member). At the outset, the authors note “the apparently universal propensity to differentiate the social world into ‘us’ and ‘them.’” (Page xiii).
It was my suspicion that basic principles of social psychology would give me a deeper context for understanding many modern conflicts. I was not disappointed. By the way, these same principles appear in all basic social psychology books. Nothing I mention here is tentative or controversial among social scientists.
According to Sherif (1966) “whenever individuals belonging to one group interact, collectively or individually, with another group or its members in terms of their group identification, we have an instance of Intergroup behavior.” (Page 2) Such social categories “tend to be less rational than other categorizations in that the beliefs we hold about social groupings often do not rest on firm evidence of actual Intergroup differences.” (Page 6) Once we establish categories, “we are biased toward information that enhances the differences between categories and less attentive to information about similarities between members of different categories.” (Page 7).
We live in a pluralistic society. Therefore, individuals are simultaneously members in multiple …
A novel in every sentence!
I’ve been collecting quotes for years. Here are some of my favorites. No particular topic. BTW, “The Quotations Page is a good place to get a quote of the day.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis (referring to the benefits of openness and transparency).
If we had been born in Constantinople, then most of us would have said: ‘There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ If our parents had lived on the banks of the Ganges, we would have been worshipers of Siva, longing for the heaven of Nirvana. As a rule, children love their parents, believe what they teach, and take great pride in saying that the religion of mother is good enough for them.
Robert G. Ingersoll, American politician and lecturer
Why should we take advice on sex from the Pope? If he knows anything about it, he shouldn’t.
George Bernard Shaw
“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss in enthusiasm.”
Winston Churchill
“The best time to plant a tree… was twenty years ago. The second best time is today.”
Chinese Proverb
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.
Alfred North Whitehead
The besetting sin of political and media types is that about 98 percent of their public conversation is utterly dishonest. The language is inflated, …
I just can’t help periodically visiting the site of Focus on the Family, at least once in a while. They address many good topics over there—I often disagree with their conclusions, though not always (I almost always disagree with their attempted intrusions into government). They offer some solid good advice on parenting, marriage and career, some of it without much religion. Sometimes it reads like almost entirely like pop psychology.
For instance, in the current article on Mary Cheney, there is no condemnation, no fire and brim stone, only concern. Actually, lots of concern. Most of it about the absence of a father-figure in a child’s life. This is a legitimate concern, though it seems a bit hollow coming from an organization which is quintessentially homophobic. But they keep their deeper concerns about gays and inerrant bible passages in check in this particular article. Certainly, there is no discussion about hell.
Another current FOTF article features “Worldviews.” The ostensible concern is that “The Lion King” does not teach biblical Christianity, “despite a handful of good moral lessons. Again, no rampant condemnation. Instead, the article warns that
the notion of the “circle of life,” that history is circular and the present is heavily influenced by the spirits of one’s ancestors, is closer to Eastern pantheism or native spiritualism than the linear view of history presented in the Bible.
On a lark, I read a FOTF article on “Marijuana — inhaled intellectual impairment.” The gist of the article is that marijuana …
According to this salon.com post by Bill Maher, the worst menace isn't Mark Foley. Not by a long shot. Focus, instead on legions of corporate and government predators. Though this was written in October 2006, I didn't notice it until today. As always, Maher doesn't pull any punches: [Foley] was…