polarization

There is a good article on the minds of terrorists in the New York Times today. I am not going to provide the link because the link in the current paper always changes later, but here is a quote.

"Despite the lack of a single terrorist profile, researchers have largely agreed on the risk factors for involvement. They include what Jerrold M. Post, a professor of psychiatry, political psychology and international affairs at George Washington University, calls “generational transmission” of extremist beliefs, which begins early in life; a strong sense of victimization and alienation; the belief that moral violations by the enemy justify violence in pursuit of a “higher moral condition;” the belief that the terrorists’ ethnic, religious or nationalist group is special and in danger of extinction, and that they lack the political power to effect change without violence.... Paradoxically, anxiety about death plays a significant role in the indoctrination of terrorists and suicide bombers — unconscious fear of mortality, of leaving no legacy, according to new research."

Of course, this is polarization in the extreme. But there are many more benign forms.

Here is a link to an article posted by a friend of mine which I think portrays some of the thinking of many on the left about polarization. Sorry, I don't have an illustrative one for the right, but maybe somebody can send me one. The title of Glen Beck's number three best-seller, Arguing With Idiots, might convey something of the character of what it would be like. Or maybe I need to go to Norman Podheretz' World War IV. By the way, Sarah Palin's Going Rogue is number one on the best-seller list.

Anyway, suppose I do not watch tv all the time or listen to radio prophets, but disagree with you about the character of the past, present and future (though not so much here because I am dubious about humans' ability to predict the future), and suppose I am not an idiot. Would Mr. Hedges still say that I am manipulated and would Mr. Beck say that I really am an idiot? If so, I would continue to be amazed at people's certainty that they know the truth and divide the world into us vs. them.

One other question the article raises comes from Mr. Sunstein on the role of the internet as the new media of choice. Does this lead to more polarization? Does the proliferation of other alternative news sites (on cable and other networks) competing for viewers lead to more polarization?