RE: [xmca] moral denial

[Peter Smagorinsky <smago@uga.edu>]

This topic is beginning to remind me of something we call The Banality of Evil in the US. I've got a small collection of examples and instructional materials at http://www.coe.uga.edu/~smago/VirtualLibrary/Unit_Outlines.htm#BanalityofEvil (note that my field is teacher education). p

From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Glassman
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2011 8:56 PM
To: ablunden@mira.net; eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] moral denial

Hi Andy,

You probably already know this, but if not Bandura's theory on moral disengagement speaks directly to this topic (I think Bandura thinks he has something in common with Vygotsky at least - not sure where I heard that thought).  The original research was really interesting, with executioners in prisons.

Bandura, A.  (1999) Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities.  Personality and Social Psychology Review, 3.3.

Michael

________________________________
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu<mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Andy Blunden
Sent: Tue 12/27/2011 7:36 PM
To: Huw Lloyd
Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] moral denial

The avenues you mention are all approaches we are looking at, Huw. Just
want to know if there is other work published on exactly this topic.
 From the facts of the matter, it seems that some kind of cognitive
dissonance is going to be the most fruitful.

Thanks to Artin and Colin as well for suggestions, all of which I will
follow up.

Andy

Huw Lloyd wrote:
> How about the relations of coal mining communities to coal dust, etc?
> Googling for chat and coal mining seems to come up with some results.
>
> Perhaps a combination of cognitive dissonance and
> identification/social esteem through personal sacrifice?
>
> Not that I think workers who come into contact with asbestos
> particular lean upon it in this way, but I do know that generations of
> builders commonly have an 'acceptance' of the way of life that
> regularly brings them into contact with harmful substances that are,
> for example, known to be carcinogenic upon frequent exposure.  Smoking
> would be another one.  Or how about deep sea divers paid for the
> additional known long term health problems.  Weird and scary sense of
> exchanging ones health for pay -- perhaps the ultimate statement, when
> willingly performed, that 'this is where I belong'?
>
> Is this always denial though, or is it more a case of other parallel
> considerations along the lines of "I do not live the life of a bean
> counter, I take it as it comes"?
>
> Huw
>
> On 27 December 2011 03:47, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net
<mailto:ablunden@mira.net%0b>> <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote:
>
>     I am considering doing some work with an historian who has written
>     the history of an asbestos plant and its community. Does anyone
>     know of any work done, preferably in the CHAT tradition, on the
>     opposite of a moral panic, what we could call, I suppose, "moral
>     denial"? There is lot about management cover-up, even stuff about
>     panic over asbestos, medical evidence, and "living with asbestos,"
>     but nothing about how a whole comunity can keep on working with
>     asbestos when the lethal nature of the material was already public
>     knowledge, until half the town had died of or contracted
>     asbestosis. We have lots of ideas, but like to know if anyone else
>     has looked at this.
>
>     Any hints?
>     Andy
>     --
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *Andy Blunden*
>     Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
>     Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/ <http://home.mira.net/%7Eandy/<http://home.mira.net/~andy/>>
>     Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
>     <http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857>
>
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--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hmca20/18/1
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857

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