The title above, ↑, is a phrase I've used before when considering the 5GW principle of hands in the field.
The phrase bears a relationship to both, Gated Community Syndrome and the reality (or, potential, if you like) of super-empowered individuals (SEIs).
The latest round of U.S. self-flagellation, i.e. the reaction to the events that occurred in Tucson, AZ, has reminded me of these dimensions of our present reality. Monday morning, the airwaves were awash with well-meaning journalist-commentators and politicians using 4GW methods in an attempt to preempt and prevent similar future conditions: our democracy was under assault; we need to recognize that there is no Us v. Them but only one Us; we must never resort to violence, nor even to the seeming call to violence which metaphors involving violent imagery and ideas introduce into our politics. Tandem with these calls, said commentators did not fail to draw the picture of the type of person likely to utilize violence: he will be deranged, insane, mentally-diseased. And so, there is indeed an Us v.Them, and the audience are being enjoined to recognize their Us-ness while forsaking any possiblity of becoming a member of Them. This united effort is intended to pressure anyone else, that is those who are ambiguously an "UsThem?", to avoid the type of violent activity that the shooter in Tucson chose, and to avoid doing so by joining Us.
This preaching easily wins over the choir. Many people glued to their televisions probably shouted "Amen, Brother!", whether aloud or merely in their hearts.
That the public figures so quickly put their faith into the efficiency of such 4GW methods displays their membership in a Gated Community afflicted with Gated Community Syndrome. In truth, those individuals within our society, or intermixed within our society, or outside our society -- what is the Gated Community? -- who would choose violence are not likely to be swayed. In fact, such individuals are likely to become even more perturbed as the Gated Community preaches ever more loudly their Us-ness. Why? Because with every increase in the volume of "Us-ness!" there is an increase in the volume of "Them-ness!", and those especially prone to be aware of these calls to action or inaction who sense or believe they are not a member of that Other-Us adopt the self-designation of Their-Them.
One can not so easily dismiss the reality of such 4GW misfires by calling those misfires moronic, because our not-too-distant past was configured to produce effective 4GW methods of crowd-control. The creation of a Majority via 4GW methods for the purpose of stabilizing a society actually worked. The Gated Community has its benefits, but the benefits themselves are becoming unstable. The existence of super-empowerment has upset the easy mathematical addition and subtraction effected by 4GW: Your supermajority may be at the mercy of one individual or a handful of individuals.
The 4GW voice of the supermajority, which here I call the One Hand Clapping, permits a powerful Second Hand -- perhaps, with a Third Hand, a Fourth Hand...-- and these other voices may not be swayed by the sound of that One Hand Clapping. If these others, who formerly and historically were known as Them, are not co-opted, and if their activities are not co-opted, then their cumulative voices, expressed merely vocally or via other performative action (including violent action) will utterly silence the One Hand Clapping.
Posted by: |