The world inside some groups and the world outside some groups are sometimes radically different. We are struggling with these concepts as a nation as we try to navigate a new world that is changing before our eyes (don't blink too long!). We are swimming in an era of increased diversity butting against social exchanges that sometimes utilize very rigid mental filters (Selective Attention and In-Out Group Bias. See Side Note A2. Martiny-Huenger, Gollwitzer & Oettingen, 2014).
 |
| Group bias declines as we look at other outside anchors/perspectives. In extreme cases, that can also lead to the discounting of rights and the value of life. |
What is a Distorted Mirror and Social "Realities"?
What we know about ourselves is based on what the world reflects back to us (This isn't always true if we grow up to develop appropriate outside anchors and references matched with internal self-awareness. Its an internal embedded sense of self through repeated sensory environmental interpretation. Psycho-babble. blah blah!). In the case of this group, their past sports playing recreational activities helped to form the groups core identity and in turn how they view themselves through their local network. Somewhat a self enclosed system and the information they share among members is based more in the opinion of "influencers" than anything particularly tangible. See Social Influencer Facebook Games.
This wouldn't be a problem in most social scenarios but when information is designed to appeal to a particular race, religion, activity, and dominated by a distorted personality(ies) it can sometimes lead (not saying it has reached that level here) to an entire dysfunctional group (i.e. hate groups, gangs, terrorists, anarchists, ultra-nationalists, etc...). The far majority of people don't act on distorted views but it takes one disgruntled lone wolf to change the dynamics. We should remember these lessons from our past and how groups who thought they were "right" have done some horrendous things only to be shocked in hindsight when society condemns them (i.e. distorted mirrors and perceptual reality change.).
To gain a better understanding you might want to look at The Looking Glass: Perception is Reality and a study on Racial Identity and Looking Glass
Fixing the Distortion with Shock Exposure!
Because this group formed their identities through a small social network within in a homogeneous community they see their friends as an extension of themselves (i.e. shared identity from a consistently similar environment and people.). Their boundaries are lower than healthy groups and members are often required to prove their worth to other members through attention seeking behaviors (Most of the time its good fun but other times it can be directed at individuals and families.)
To understand why its important to encourage members of this group to break out of their mold is because of shock therapy! (Wait....🌟 What? No mice please!) Thus far members have shown an overriding willingness to follow their leadership inching ever so close to sinking into the black hole of hate (Its important to keep in mind not a single member of the group can really say me or my children have done anything to them. Most of them we don't know and the ones we do know would likely say we are nice people. Boundaries were created because we were on the receiving end of someone else's distorted behaviors that intentionally involved/manipulated children with no regard for their health or safety. The crossing of boundaries and intentional misinformation destroyed any faith in the perpetrators ability to trusted in the care of minority youth.) What we can say is at the moment healthier minds have not yet stood up to self correct their social network (Really? Hating a father and kids just because someone told you to do it? 😲 Seriously, you owe it yourself, kids and community to take a more mature stance. Grow up!) Sorry...I digress.....
To understand why people blindly follow others we have to look at a study that explores the concepts of the psychological propensity toward group aggression and genocide. The researchers set up a study to see who would follow another's direction to kill another person. What they found is that the vast majority (something like 92%) would press a shock button until a lethal electric shock led to death. Only a small few from the subject pool had a healthy enough self concept to say "Nope! I won't do it! I'm accountable for my own behavior and am a healthy mature adult🙆 ). See Miligrams Study.
Particularly, I like this quote, "The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.'
Kantian Senses and Philosophy of Perception
No one can predict the future 100% accuracy (statistically impossible) but we are able to draw inferences from other group behaviors experienced at other times and places through gangs, cults, extremist circles, etc... There are some shared characteristics between groups but it would be hard for members to see these similarities because of their limited perspective of "other" and themselves. The toxic environment often encourages the "bad apples" of the bunch to move beyond sociably acceptable behaviors and into what could be criminal in nature.
What we can say is that there has been intentional rumor spreading (looks like emotionally manipulate to encourage loose canons to act. A likely prior used offense and defense mechanism of some group members. I have seen what happens when core group members get angry with others. They all jump in like a gang.), false police complaint (corruption of at least one officer), intimidation behaviors (yelling, screaming, middle fingers, public embarrassment, group harassment, yelling out names, calling kids "Nigga Babies" and Muslims "terrorists", ostracizing, and a few other discovered (potential crimes....needs a forensic review.) that may have led to the "cover up" aggression to intimidate/silence the victim(s).
 |
| This is an obvious forgery! I wish it was that easy. 😲 |
You can sort of get the picture that its a toxic social environment that is unhealthy for kids and adults. What the group doesn't realize is that perhaps their leadership has been feeding them false information to excite them to create separation between their support network and the people who have a legitimate complaint? (Maybe...maybe not?) I would suspect if you pulled each of the members out and asked them, "What did this guy and kids do to you?" they would likely say, "Nothing. They are actually nice. We were told by XXXXX to XXXXX because they are Muslim and XXXX"....or something like that. In other words, they would struggle to find a real reason beyond blind support and rumors.
Now...if we were to look at trends of prior patterned behaviors it would appear that artificially heighten emotional states are designed to coordinate aggressive behaviors. Unless members peal off from their designated leadership they will have little reason to change course. See Group Sync. This will likely be easier if the target family refuses to be intimidated and/or simply lives their lives (not to be controlled or intimidated through dishonesty and group aggression) as a helpful presence to the community. (No matter where they go with this. Right is right and wrong is wrong! Standing up to hate and bullying is important for long term social and economic development of the town. I doubt many of the members understand the connection between societies that engage in hate and overall economic stagnation! See Conflict, Human Dev, and Economy).
What is the final result of the group's trajectory........
Immanuel Kant was a philosopher and scientist that discussed the issue of predictive processing based on neuroscience (what we call it now) through perception and cognition......
(1) the emphasis on “top-down” generation of percepts;Continuing the Process of Engagement
Most minorities would be frightened to death by coordinated aggression and leave but why would we hand over our communities and countries to those of miscreant orientation (I'm of the mindset its better to just stick to your values no matter how things turn out. You own yours and everyone else owns theirs. I'm not sure what else there is. )? They are forced to either allow themselves to be ethnically cleansed or stand up to the larger social network that has decided who will and who will not live in their community (now making them a social and legal risk). Refusal to be intimidated and/or have their boundaries crossed will likely be interpreted by some as "arrogant" and "uppity" (Yep...even non-cool people can be uppity in today's world) leading to more anger/rage (I'm just not impressed!😤).
So the plan is to be visible and present within the community so members gain exposure to further encourage them to think for themselves and make choices over who/what they stand for as a people (While some of the members say they "rule" the town I say I prefer democratically elected leadership. While I might not like everyone we elect I can say we did it together through our agreed upon process. Why I don't like those who circumvent it for personal gain. Dictators, warlords, and sniffy socialites need not apply! See Hegel, Freedom and Advancement). It is their choice to determine their values and where those values will lead them in the future (Fate and choice brings me to where I am now and I have something to say about this. It might be inconvenient but I also believe it to be more reflective how disturbed the behaviors was.) Reflecting back to them another way of "seeing" themselves might lead to group insight...and perhaps self-correcting behaviors. See Cognitive Engagement
At what point will the group members become aware of their own behavior (i.e. what they think about the target as a reflection of themselves)? Their perceptual "reality" is distorted by lack of cultural exposure to others and "openness to experience" See Psychological evaluation of Crowd Personality. Perhaps more accurate reflection/feedback loops can bring other groups in alignment with American values and in turn save them from themselves (See Social Animal). I would suspect they are further unaware of who is using them and who is trying to help them (i.e. will the "leadership" care if a member(s) of the group do something dumb because they were hyped up by hate, smoke, and mirrors? That is called using others and part of mental health awareness.). That is why I'm always open open and respectful dialogue. 💗 Untangling the World Knot of Consciousness
There are two quotes I will leave you with (possibly to be explain later if an interesting topic for exploration.),
“Let’s put it this way: Kant knew nothing about the platypus, and that should not worry us, but if the platypus is to solve its own identity crisis, it ought to know something about Kant.” Umberto Eco (2000), Kant and the Platypus |
| The Treachery of Images |
"The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying!" René Magritte
Within any department there will be different people with different goals and thus some behaviors may move away from the main mission and purpose of the enforcement function in society toward individual/group goals (We get back to selfishness and distorted views later.) 95% of the officers I met are great people. It only takes a one/few to do damage to the entire field and cause lots of trust problems in society. Where they could have stood up they instead stayed silent (That is not officer empowerment!).
Law enforcement leadership should think about the central purpose and goal of law enforcement and how focusing on key central values transcends the needs of specific officers. That anchoring of values will help limit the propensity to shield poor officers from their own behaviors as well as enhance focus on the public good (There is a difference between mistakes and intentional mistakes.). Department leaders would be protecting their communities (main purpose) and improving the functioning of the entire department in a way that impacts recruitment, public support, and effectiveness. Again, its important to not make too much of a judgement and/or read too far into what I'm saying here as it can lead to false conclusions about a whole bunch of things. Again, get comfortable with a little ambiguity and its application for societal improvement.
Keeping in mind the need to sort of ensure one social "reality" doesn't distort group perception. If we begin to anchor to other values and perspectives outside of our group we might feel a little upset at first but that leads to insight and doing the "sociably" responsible thing. This is one of the reasons why if we suspect there is a problem we investigate it (using different anchors and evidence based management) to find the roots of the problem. We might also do an internal feedback loop to help officers feel empowered to step outside their internal-social networks to report wrong doing. To further the discussion, we can also consider enhancing our internal affairs departments and ensure we "bump up" any serious problems that seem like they have "teeth" to the FBI, Homeland Security, or State Police where appropriate.
Side Note A2 {Martiny-Huenger T, Gollwitzer PM, Oettingen G. Selective Attention to In- and Out-Group Members Systematically Influences Intergroup Bias. Social Psychological and Personality Science. 2014;5(8):936-943. doi:10.1177/1948550614541296
What we find with this study is that the more we pay attention to a diverse set of people the more likely we will begin to count outside values as important. We self select our friends, perceptions, and the world around us leading sometimes to lesser outside anchors and limited perspective.
This can become a bigger problem if we are dealing with groups. When social networks do not accept outside anchor points and other perspectives they begin to devalue others. The more different someone, the more likely their values and rights are discounted. Not only their opinions and lifestyle, but even their very life leading to all types of potential abusive behaviors.}
Side Note A3: There are two publications I want you to look at. One is on racial aspects of religion. See Race & Religion in the U.S.. The group members have misperceptions of Muslims as Arab, terrorists, etc... without understanding that the U.S. has many White Muslims. I'm actually Muslim-Catholic but that might be confusing and further ambiguity angst. In other words, they don't know what they don't know. See Changing Nature Demographics 2021.
The only real way to make it fair to everyone is to create universal justice system whereby everyone is treated by the same principles. We can also use big data of the Information/Digital Age to better ensure we are treating different groups fairly. Its not individual decisions that would be of biggest concern as there are appeals processes but the larger scale data that indicates consistent bias in some law enforcement circles (i.e. acceptable variance in decision making with an eye on metadata outcomes. This is a general comment about the issues we face as a society and not specialized to any specific department. I have departments I love because of their leadership and culture and at least one bad apple that would raise concerns on another.)
Side Note A4: In Plato's Allegory of the Cave the freed prisoner goes back to save as many unaware souls as possible. However, they do not know what the do not know and in turn seem to rid themselves of a new way of seeing the world. Human development and our social structure is a little like that. Most cannot step out of their social circles and chart their own course in life and thus only see the shadows of their limited perception. Let's quote the story,
"And the final outcome: SOCRATES: And if they can get hold of this person who takes it in hand to free them from their chains and to lead them up, and if they could kill him, will they not actually kill him? GLAUCON: They certainly will." It could be real and it could be metaphorical. Either way, its sort of the way people are sometimes..
When we use terms like "nigga" to describe Black people and "terrorist" to describe all Muslims we start seeing a bigger picture of the problem. Sometimes we have to spend some time looking at our own reflection in the mirror to see who is and who isn't a slave still locked in chains . You can't truly be free until you can think for yourself. Do you kind of get the point? 🤷 All good Karma! Cheers! 🍻
No comments:
Post a Comment