Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [3x]

["nettime's middle class" <nettime-l@bbs.thing.net>]

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   Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]                                   
     =?iso-8859-1?Q?Anders_S=F6derb=E4ck?= <a.soderback@telia.com>                   

   Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]                                   
     dan(iel) mackinlay <dan@octapod.org>                                            

   Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]                                   
     <email@unionizewalmart.ws>                                                      



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Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 11:48:58 +0100
From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Anders_S=F6derb=E4ck?= <a.soderback@telia.com>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]

When I studied psychology a couple of years ago, I read a bit about
"cognitive dissonance". If I remember correctly, it refers to the anxiety
one might experience in a situation where ones actions contradicts ones
set of values. (E.g. a socialist and workers rights activist who gets a
well paid job in administration.) The escape from this anxiety comes with
the construction of a way of thinking that "corrects the error" and
adjusts ones set of values to the situation at hand. (The
socialist/company boss might think something like "I still have the same
values, but I was wrong about the solution. Actually, workers benefit more
from capitalism than from socialism. Socialism is a beautiful ideal, but
it doesn't work in real life.")

The classic example would be the scientist who works with developing
nuclear arms because "it's better I do it than someone who is completely
evil."

/ Anders



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Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 23:01:36 +1100
From: dan(iel) mackinlay <dan@octapod.org>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]

> From: spornitz@mts.net
> I've run into the term "cognitive dissonance" while doing science 
> demos at
> the local science centre; normally it refers to the kind of 
> experience...

I ran into it during management theory, and here is the easiest 
reference to hand:

"Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s, proposed the theory of cognitive
dissonance. This theory sought to explain the link between attitudes and
behaviour... cognitive dissonance refers to an incompatibility that an
individual might perceive between two or more of their attitudes or
between their behaviour and attitudes. Festinger argued that any form of
inconsistency is uncomfortable and individuals will attempt to reduce the
dissonance and hence, the discomfort..."

and a page later:

"What are the organisational implications of the theory of cognitive
dissonance? it can help to predict the propensity to engage in attitude
and behavioural change. If individuals are required, for er example, by
the demands of their job to say or do things that contradict their
personal attitudes, they will tend to modify their attitudes in order to
make these compatible with the cognitions of that they have said or
done...."

  --Robbins et al, "organisational behaviour: leading and managing in 
australia and new zealand"


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Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 16:13:16 -0700 (MST)
From: <email@unionizewalmart.ws>
Subject: Re: <nettime> Fwd: [CTHEORY] Article 136 [2x]

> 
> "E. Miller" <subscriptionbox@squishymedia.com> wrote:
>>The problem is that it's not just the elite supporting the policies
>>that shift even more power and wealth to the elite.  There's a large
>>degree of complacency within the middle and working classes in the US,
>>possibly because the benefits of globalized labor and production are
>>clear to all (hey, cheap TVs at Wal-Mart!) while the disadvantages are
>>much less apparent.  
> 
> 

Labor is not globalised, it is Balkanized by passport and visa
requirements. Sure, products can cross borders, but gun-toting goons in
bulletproof vests deter people from doing so.

> As long as the
> underclasses can be bamboozled into believing in some other scapegoat
> as the source of their problems, they will continue to support those
> who actually keep them down. The scapegoat is one of the primary
> elements of fascism.
> Myth is just so much more comforting than reality. Unfortunately our
> "educational" system is more supportive of myth.
>
Yeah, like politicians stealing trillions of dollars out of the economy
and blaming the resulting unemployment on immigrants. A lot of people keep
re- electing candidates who are in favor of public schools, and then they
whine like crybabies because of all the immigrants enrolling their kids,
blaming the immigrants for the increasing school taxes.

Tom Alciere




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