Felines Unfettered

Employing Terrorism, Guerrilla Warfare and International Conflict To Achieve Social Influence

Reasons To Avoid This Topic Too controversial Traditional social psychology topics like conformity, attribution, aggression, etc. Less time can be spent talking about research from my laboratory There are many topics that I and other persons know more about

Reasons To Examine This Topic The importance of the topic suggests that social psychologists should have been studying this for years Social psychologists have skills and have developed a knowledge base not available to politicians, journalists, historians, etc Chance to talk about where we are going rather than where we have been

Premises We Will Adopt No moral judgment is implied in the labels ‘terrorist,’ ‘guerrilla,’ and ‘state.’ These simply describe activities that individuals and organizations employ to gain social influence. Terrorist, guerrilla and state organizations form a continuum. Larger organizations retain all the capacities of the smaller organizations, but smaller organizations lack some of the capacities of larger organizations.

Premises We Will Adopt Conceptual structures are best formed by allowing permeability between disciplines. Our structure will take from psychology, history, philosophy, art, politics, etc. No new forms of social interactions have occurred since Thus, while we will not avoid discussing the present international climate, analysis of the current political situation is unlikely to yield any new principle of social influence.

Themes Will Introduce Our Topic Author’s account of his own influences: The social environment that led me to this topic Themes illustrate the unpredictability of human journeys: “What a long strange trip it has been”

Path To Creation: A Representative Theme Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron The origin of the Frankenstein story

Three Themes Will Introduce Our Topic Themes introduce some persons whose lives will help us understand terrorism, guerrilla and international war Themes begin a search for a structure to study terrorism, guerilla war and state conflicts as mechanisms of social influence

Theme 1: William Shirer Pioneering foreign correspondent Wrote Berlin Diary Wrote Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

Theme 1: Adolph Eichmann Supervised trains during the ‘Final Solution’ Imprisoned in American POW camp Captured by Israelis in 1961, tried and executed

Theme 1: The Villa

Theme 1: My Friend’s Father What had produced the metamorphosis from executioner to kind father Was the image of the kind father a ruse Did the kind man and executioner co-exist concurrently

Theme 2: Beautiful Art Michaelangelo Jack Kerouac: On the Road

Theme 2: On The Road Hitchhiking as a vocation Blizzards and the failed photo essay Rescue in Ames Exit on Powell Street

Theme 2: Reappearance of Our Rescuer “What A Long Strange Trip It Must Have Been” What social experiences led Kaczynski to renounce a successful career to become a techno-terrorist? Do ‘monsters’ have redeeming qualities

Theme 3: A Contrast of Leadership JFK at the Ambassador’s Residence The impracticality of Pope John XXIII Vatican Deathwatch: The morality of states

Theme 3: Arlington Gawking at the procession Dreams unfulfilled, a lack of closure

Theme 3: Arthur Schlesinger Advisor to President Kennedy A Thousand Days Age of Jackson The Age of Roosevelt

Theme 3: Schlesinger’s Analysis A sit-about Christmas: Schleisinger envisions the 21 st century 20 th Century marked by great ideological conflicts: WWI, WWII, the Cold War Triumph of Democracy: Destruction of empires, colonialism, fascism and Communism

Theme 3: Schlesinger’s Analysis Triumph of democracy creates a power vacuum Power vacuum allows expression of old hatreds Creates an international environment dominated by: Genocide Terrorism