Are "elites" (whatever they are) the only ones who manipulate symbols? Consider the underground railroad, in which a whole system of symbolic subterfuge was developed to provide roadmaps to the North (e.g., the song, Follow the Drinking Gourd). Or the current appropriation of "the n-word" to take on a whole new set of meanings.
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of David H Kirshner
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2012 12:33 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity
This is a very interesting question, and I hope others will chime in.
In the current political climate in the U.S. of manufactured science, spin doctors, and attack ads, it's very hard not to side with Jay that symbols and ideologies are being deliberately manipulated by elites in ways that directly serve their economic interests. Even though these operatives no doubt rationalize their actions in terms of "the greater good," it seems very difficult to argue that these elites are not deliberately deploying cultural ideas, symbols, and rituals with the intent to manipulate the "dupes."
Where the analysis becomes more difficult to sustain is in the case of "traditional churches and their religions as well as historical and modern ideologies of more secular kinds" which Jay "would emphatically include." First, it is easy to concede that many of these institutions serve the interests of elites. For instance, the Judeo-Christian holy scriptures make frequent reference to eternal obligations of ordinary people to the poor, thereby sanctifying class divisions. And in the Hebrew scriptures, with which I am somewhat better acquainted, there is precise codification of obligations to the Priestly class--definitely self-serving, if one assumes it was exactly that class that wrote/selected the canonical texts. But in the meantime, with the destruction of the Second Temple, there is no longer a Priestly class in Jewish theological practice, so it is not so obvious who the "elites"
perpetrating modern Judaism are, or that their intentions are self-serving.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
On Behalf Of Greg Thompson
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2012 11:27 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: Re: [xmca] Fwd: The Privilege of Absurdity
Jay,
I, for one, am deeply skeptical of how intentional are the "creations of elites." The elites certainly benefit from these creations, but I think that they are dupes just like the rest of us. The elites just happen to be the "lucky" dupes (depending, of course, on what you mean by "lucky").
My sense is that it's dupes all the way down! (or "up," as the case may be).
-greg
p.s. Seems better to look at the structure of the system for the key to the problem.
On Wed, May 23, 2012 at 11:15 AM, Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu> wrote:
And not just cultural mediation, but cultural politics. If we strip
away the rhetoric of sacred and moral values, we find, I think, that
all such grand causes for which people fight and die, or just slave
away, are the creations of elites who benefit from the naive trust in
these ideas, symbols, and rituals by large numbers of other people. I
think the usual term for such people is, unfortunately but accurately,
dupes.
I do not believe that evolution has endowed our species with any
special propensity for being duped by false gods. Our herd comfort in
grand causes and ideals may be real enough, but it is simply the
political manipulation of the underlying human capacity for mediation
by symbols (discourses, images, ideologies, etc.) that gives cover to
the pursuit of their own interests by elites.
The problem is not even so much that all such gods are false. It is
that they are gods made by other people to serve themselves. And I
would emphatically include in this analysis the traditional churches
and their religions as well as historical and modern ideologies of
more secular kinds. It is customary in polite society to simply
tolerate these forms of mass deception for the comfort they give to
those who have little else, but I think we know that this is not the
path to a better world for all.
JAY.
On Tue, May 22, 2012 at 5:25 PM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:
I have a suspicion that cultural mediation may play a role here.
What do you think?
mike
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Scott Atran <satran@umich.edu>
Date: Tue, May 22, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Subject: The Privilege of Absurdity
To: COG-SCI-REL-L@jiscmail.ac.uk
Science and Religion Today
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2012/05/22/how-can-a-better-und
erstanding-of-sacred-values-help-us-resolve-intergroup-conflicts/
Humans define the groups to which they belong in abstract terms.
Often
they
strive for lasting intellectual and emotional bonding with anonymous
others, and make their greatest exertions in killing and dying not
to preserve their own lives or to defend their families and friends,
but for the sake of an idea-the transcendent moral conception they
form of themselves, of "who we are." This is the "the privilege of
absurdity; to which no living creature is subject, but man only'" of
which Hobbes wrote in *Leviathan*. In*The Descent of Man*, Darwin
cast it as the virtue of "morality ... the spirit of patriotism,
fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy" with which winning
groups are better endowed in history's spiraling competition for
survival and dominance. Across cultures,
primary
group identity is bounded by sacred values, often in the form of
religious
beliefs or transcendental ideologies, which lead some groups to
triumph over others because of non-rational commitment from at least
some of its members to actions that drive success independent, or
all out of proportion, from expected rational outcomes.
For Darwin himself, moral virtue was most clearly associated not
with intuitions, beliefs, and behaviors about fairness and
reciprocity, emotionally supported by empathy and consolation-which
constitute nearly the entire subject matter of recent work in the
philosophy, psychology,
and
neuroscience of morality-but with a propensity to what we nowadays
call "parochial altruism": especially extreme self-sacrifice in war
and other intense forms of human conflict, where likely prospects
for individual
and
even group survival had very low initial probability. Heroism,
martyrdom, and other forms of self-sacrifice for the group appear to
go beyond the mutualistic principles of fairness and reciprocity....
http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2012/05/22/how-can-a-better-und
erstanding-of-sacred-values-help-us-resolve-intergroup-conflicts/
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Jay Lemke
Senior Research Scientist
Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition Adjunct Full Professor,
Department of Communication University of California - San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, California 92093-0506
New Website: www.jaylemke.com
Professor (Adjunct status 2011-2012)
School of Education
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Professor Emeritus
City University of New York
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Gregory A. Thompson, Ph.D.
Sanford I. Berman Post-Doctoral Scholar
Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition Department of Communication University of California, San Diego http://ucsd.academia.edu/GregoryThompson
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