1. We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers

Comment #76683 by THWOTH (the blind) on October 6, 2007 at 5:15 pm

Thank you very much for posting this lecture, it is most stimulating and informative. I look forward to more provacations from the AAI conferenc.

Although Andy Thomson's emphasis is on the expression of the ideas of 'retaliation bargaining' and 'male coalitionary' behaviout as motivational factors for suicidality within a fundamentalist Muslim context, they could also be applied as motivational factors in the Bush/Blair project in Iraq - as a mass or social expression of suicidality within the context of what might be called (for want of a better term) Evangelical Christian Endtimeism.

Could the evolved cognitive and psychological structures which predispose males to be subverted by organised religion into suicidal action, and other deleterious behaviours, not apply to political ideologies too?

I'm thinking of a line from 'The Magus' by John Fowles in which the character of a retired Nazi says in relation to the rise of fascism in Germany (and I'll have to paraphrase I'm afraid), "It's not that the German people had the courage to be evil, they just didn't have the courage to be good." This could apply to Stalinism and other charismatically led political, or even criminal or corporate organisations.

What Andy Thomson presents here is extremely thought provoking, not only in terms of extreme forms of religiosity but also in terms of the definition of 'manliness' in general.

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