[Arisbe] prestige and anonymity

[t.gollier at att.net]

Jon,

   > when needing to stay a part of the group causes
   > one to distort his or her perceptions, and to do
   > things that he or she would once have considered
   > reprehensible.

Commentators attribute this to a certain "distancing" (from 
reality, their own humanity, etc.) that members of such 
groups are able to accomplish. But Peirce, I think, can 
come to our assistance here.  For with him we can zero in 
on:

   1. The reality being distanced from, namely Secondness,

   2. The means used to accomplish that distancing, namely
      the Thirdness (without Secondness) of the group's 
      semantics (with or without the abuses of euphemisms, 
      double-talk, and such as that),

and this exactness, in turn, provides a model applicable
to all groups, not just the worst. For all group semantics,
the inter-relationships of the categories employed, produce 
a distancing from Secondness. Even when the group possesses
the power to apply its antecedents, it remains distant from 
those who suffer their consequents.

What I find interesting from our own experiences is the way 
groups tend to betray themselves when confronted with 
something that does not fit their semantic model. For rather 
than rising to the challenge and attempting to extend their 
semantics to incorporate this conflicting reality, they 
retreat into that semantics, demanding more distance in the
form of a more rigorous "consistency" and the exclusion of 
any and all that does not fit. Eventually, we see these groups
taking actions which make absolutely no sense with regard to 
the  realities they confront, but which make perfect sense 
within their increasingly sterile semantics.

The only problem is how long the self-destruction can take.
Secondness doesn't oppose such semantics, or even the actions
taken. It more lies in wait.

Tom

-------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Jon Awbrey <jawbrey at att.net>
>
> o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
> 
> Tom Golier wrote:
> > 
> > Jon,
> > 
> >    The recent revival of interest in Hannah Arendt got me looking
> > at *Eichmann in Jerusalem*, the "banality of evil", and wondering
> > how many bureaucrats today might be convicted of crimes  similar
> > (in kind if not quantity) today.  But I think you hit a key point
> > in all this when you say:
> > 
> > > it's  one where being in the club -- the "cabal" -- and carrying
> > > the club does not depend  on much of anything but the readiness
> > > to defend it, right or wrong.
> > 
> > There's a huge difference between organizations that are concerned
> > with accomplishing specific objectives (there are a few still out
> > there, I think) and organizations whose overriding objective
> > is their own survival or enhancment. That subtle change in
> > orientation changes, or should I say "ruins", everything.
> > 
> > Tom
> 
> yes, the critical transition point at which that
> "subtle change in orientation" occurs is exactly
> the thing i've been trying to come to grips with.
> the best that i can tell, an important factor in
> the changeover is the point when needing to stay
> a part of the group causes one to distort his or
> her perceptions, and to do things that he or she
> would once have considered reprrhensible.  it is
> always hard to realize the power of the need for
> affiliation until one sees its effects occurring
> time and time again, in otherwise decent people.
> 
> jon
> 
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