Prof. Tim opined:
> This is the "Lathe of Heaven" theory--override the minor US/THEMs by
...I wonder. The idea of a bigger THEM uniting us has been used time
and time again - give everybody something big to work against and
they'll set aside their differences for the time being. There's even
been research done [I seem to recall from my schooldays] that common
struggle unites people.
> creating a larger THEM. But it doesn't work long term. At best it
> sublimates the smaller UTisms for a time, but it doesn't ever remove
> them. And they come back just as soon people have ajusted to new
> framework.
>
> For instance, did WW2 end the "THEM" statis of African-Americans,
> Native Americans or Asians when they all banded together to fight a
> common enemy? Or did it simply side-step the issue in some branches
> of the service until that particular crisis was over? (Not that it
> even "side-stepped" it that well at the time, to be sure.)
...What I'm wondering though is this - is the dynamic of working
[against THEM] different from the dynamic constructed around working
FOR a common goal. Proactive instead of reactive?
...if so, what sort of goal could that be?
-psypher