Christmas cards in Great Britain rarely contain religious images

According to this article from the Boston Globe, Christianity is fading in Western Europe: Nearly 99 percent of Christmas cards sold in Great Britain contain no religious message or imagery. Traditional pictures such as angels blowing trumpets over a stable, Jesus in his manger, the shepherds and three wise men…

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Ingroup v outgroup – a primer

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 …

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The worst menace to American kids. It’s not Mark Foley.

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…

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Rumsfeld again claims link between 9/11 and Iraq invasion during his farewell tour

It makes me wonder whether anyone is buything this line of bull anymore.  I wonder how the families of the soldiers killed in Iraq are reacting to this lie these days.  Maybe it gives some of them solace, because the alternative would be so incredibly crushing. My thoughts?  Good-bye.  Good riddance. 

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Who is to blame for Iraq, Bush’s poor execution or neoconservativism?

Vanity Fair has published an extraordinary article including interviews with many architects of America's foreign policy.  What do they think now that Iraq has been such a miserable failure? Varying degrees of regret can be detected in the people interviewed, but little remose, except from Kenneth Adelman: Fearing that worse…

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