SCN: Group polarization

[David Barts]

Steve <steve at advocate.net> writes:

> (Alexander Stille, NY Times)---As Cass Sunstein, a professor of law 
> at the University of Chicago, saw himself being skewered on various 
> Web sites discussing his recent book, "Republic.com," he had the 
> odd satisfaction of watching some of the book's themes unfold 
> before his eyes. On the conservative Web site "FreeRepublic.com," 
> the discussion began by referring relatively mildly to Mr. Sunstein's 
> book about the political consequences of the Internet as "thinly 
> veiled liberal." But as the discussion picked up steam, the rhetoric 
> of the respondents, who insisted that they had not and would not 
> read the book itself, became more heated. Eventually, they were 
> referring to Mr. Sunstein as "a nazi" and a "pointy headed socialist 
> windbag."   
> 
> The discussion illustrated the phenomenon that Mr. Sunstein and 
> various social scientists have called "group polarization" in which 
> like-minded people in an isolated group reinforce one another's 
> views, which then harden into more extreme positions. Even one of 
> his critics on the site acknowledged the shift. "Amazingly enough," 
> he wrote, "it looks like Sunstein has polarized this group into 
> unanimous agreement about him." An expletive followed.   

Which all goes to show how little what passes for "conservatism" today
has to do with the values once associated with traditionalist
conervatism.  The extremism and polarizing tendencies that Sunstein
objects to sound much like what I remember Edmund Burke worrying about
whenn I read some of his writings several years ago.  Modern-day
conservatism is a mishmash of tradationalist conservatism, right-wing
libertarianism, and Christian fundamentalism.

-- 
         David W. Barts (davidb at scn.org) / http://www.scn.org/~davidb
      "Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and
     demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of
                     justice and mercy." -- Wendell Berry
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