Epistles from the Apostles
Good post, mate. Your talk of an emerging politicised working class is music to my ears. I wonder what a politicised Aussie working class will decide to do should it mobilise.
Any response from Mark? (Perhaps I ought to take a look at his blog myself since he doesn't seem like the Hillsong-keffiyeh-hating type.)
Something else occurs to me. May be relevant, somehow.
Collective identity and how it is configured is a big part of the psychology of conflict resolution. I've read a bit about it in the context of, say Israel and the OPT or Cyprus (not to be confused with Greece - yes, I'm looking at you, Aurora).
When a group's collective identity is formulated through negation - that is, "we are who we are because we are not them" - bringing a protracted and prolonged conflict to an end is a big task. Essentially, the hypothesis is that coming to terms with an "enemy" over a conflict which dates back several generations will require that the identity of each group be modified so it is not reliant upon negation of the other.
In other words, you can't make peace when one or the other group's identity relies up on the conflict to sustain its vision of itself.
So what's needed in these instances is a process of identity change, which will mean modifying collective conceptions of "us" so that they can accommodate and even accept "them". It means not only humanising the other, but taking a good look at yourself to redefine an identity which is about "who we are", not just "who we aren't".
There's more to it, of course, and I'm not sure how it's relevant here, but I reckon it's bloody interesting stuff. It's certainly useful as yet one more tool to pick up when trying to make sense of conflict where collective identity is factor.
Unfortunately, Mark didn't respond.
I've been trying to get some understand at how conservatives arrive at their more outlandish beliefs, and I might post on it soon.
But I definitely like your train of thought on the collective identity theme. It's probably worthy of another piece altogether.
Some things that come to mind are the very black and white, inflexible style of identity formation we see in some people, especially hardline rightists. A lot of (perfectly normal) things are banished from the identity altogether, and utterly disavowed.
The 'us' and 'them' kind of identity, founded on negation, was discussed by a psychotherapist called Fritz Perls in a book about Gestalt therapy (with same title, I think).
More recently, there have been some good, psychoanalytic discussions of the topic, particularly Jacqueline Rose, who linked Israel's current political positions with psychosis and past trauma:
http://www.amazon.com/Question-Z...10066826&sr=8-
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