Algorithm of hate
It is June 29, 2016 here in the United States and in some parts of the world, such as Australia, it is June 30th. Regardless of which time zone we found ourselves in when we woke up we eventually heard the news of yet another bombing by individuals most are calling terrorists. The reaction ranges from sadness and fear to outrage and a determination to be more violent and hateful than those who set off the bombs. Perhaps describing individuals who believe that they are doing the work of or for Allah as hateful is not accurate. Certainly most citizens of the United States, for example, would not describe our military personnel as promoting hatred. Yet, we certainly teach that the overriding emotion one must have toward the person we label as an enemy is hate.
In the wake of behavior by the radical men and women who fervently believe that Allah wants them to destroy the infidels, it is easy to blame the group with whom the radicals identify themselves – the Muslims. It is equally easy to blame all Christians for some of the hateful behavior of Christians who believe that those who believe differently than they do are the servants of Satan or the devil.
While at the gym this morning I was watching and listening to the news which included a rebroadcast of the reaction of one of the presumptive presidential candidates in the United States. Mr. Trump questioned the tactics the American government was willing to use compared to the what terrorist groups have already done. He said, “We can’t do waterboarding — which may not be the nicest thing, but it’s peanuts compared to many alternatives.” So we can’t do waterboarding but they can do chopping off heads, drowning people in steel cages. They can do whatever they want to do.”
“They probably think we’re weak,” he added. “We’re stupid. We don’t know what we’re doing. We have no leadership. You know, you have to fight fire with fire.” (breitbart.com June 29, 2016)
Later, I read on the front page of the June 29, 2016 Tampa Tribute “Study: Hatred of Islam on rise” by Tony Marrero. He reports the results of a 80-page report titled “Confronting Fear by the Council on American-Islamic Relation in Florida” that “There are now 74 groups in what the report calls the “Islam-ophobia network,” an increase from 69 in 2013…Anti-Islam bills have been passed in 10 states, including two in Florida.”
I also read an article by Drew Sheneman in the Tampa Bay Times entitled “Revolt of the Masses.” He discussed a new book, Hillbilly Elegyby J. D. Vance in which Vance details some of the characteristics of the culture in Kentucky and Ohio. Included are:
· Intense group loyalty.
· Dislike of outsiders - people who are different.
· Value for physical toughness.
· A celebration of people who are willing to fight for their honor (“guns are about a family’s ability to stand up for itself in a dangerous world”).
· Collective pride including in sports teams and nationalism.
Lastly, I listened to a Ted Talk by Mariano Sigman entitled “Your words may predict your future mental health.” In this talk, physicist and neuroscientist Mr. Signman talks about the research which examines the writing of individuals in an attempt to predict who might develop psychosis:
“More specifically, it was not in which semantic neighborhoods the words were, but how far and fast they jumped from one semantic neighborhood to the other one. And so we came up with this measure, which we termed semantic coherence, which essentially measures the persistence of speech within one semantic topic, within one semantic category.
And it turned out to be that for this group of 34 people, the algorithm based on semantic coherence could predict, with 100 percent accuracy, who developed psychosis and who will not. And this was something that could not be achieved -- not even close -- with all the other existing clinical measures.”
Now, after the above list of factors which stimulated my thinking this morning one might think that I have just documented an example of the lack of semantic coherence and, thus, the possibility that I will develop psychosis. Of course, in my mind all these factors are examples of what I am calling the algorithm or the formula for increased hate and violence.
Violence leads to fear leads to assignment of blame leads to hate leads to justification leads to more violence. To wit:
V=violence
F=fear
A=assignment of blame
H=hate
P=Peace
V+F+A+H =V+F+A+H+V =P
We could also include in this formula the fact the fear feeds on some core beliefs with which it is difficult to argue, i. e. loyalty, protection of family/group, honor and pride. Add in charismatic leaders such as Mr. Trump and leaders of radical groups and we have the perfect algorithm for feeding terroristic violence and the response to same. Obviously each side can use the reaction of the other side to feed their response. It may seem as if there is a logical semantic coherence in the rhetoric of each side, but a closer examination will reveal that the formula does not lead to peace and the eventual absence of fear.
Charismatic leaders are effective because it seems as if they are presenting a logical sequence of words or concepts. Although some may have what Dr. Sigman calls an intuitive feeling that something is off it is not until we trust that intuition and then more scientifically examine the sequence of words and concepts that we can detect where the process breaks down and why one does not want to fall into the trap of using the same, illogical formula to respond. It is obviously tempting and easy to label someone or some group as an enemy, dismiss them as crazy or radical and then stir up fear which will lead to assignment of blame which will lead to hate which will lead to violence which will not lead to peace.
Written June 29, 2016
It is June 29, 2016 here in the United States and in some parts of the world, such as Australia, it is June 30th. Regardless of which time zone we found ourselves in when we woke up we eventually heard the news of yet another bombing by individuals most are calling terrorists. The reaction ranges from sadness and fear to outrage and a determination to be more violent and hateful than those who set off the bombs. Perhaps describing individuals who believe that they are doing the work of or for Allah as hateful is not accurate. Certainly most citizens of the United States, for example, would not describe our military personnel as promoting hatred. Yet, we certainly teach that the overriding emotion one must have toward the person we label as an enemy is hate.
In the wake of behavior by the radical men and women who fervently believe that Allah wants them to destroy the infidels, it is easy to blame the group with whom the radicals identify themselves – the Muslims. It is equally easy to blame all Christians for some of the hateful behavior of Christians who believe that those who believe differently than they do are the servants of Satan or the devil.
While at the gym this morning I was watching and listening to the news which included a rebroadcast of the reaction of one of the presumptive presidential candidates in the United States. Mr. Trump questioned the tactics the American government was willing to use compared to the what terrorist groups have already done. He said, “We can’t do waterboarding — which may not be the nicest thing, but it’s peanuts compared to many alternatives.” So we can’t do waterboarding but they can do chopping off heads, drowning people in steel cages. They can do whatever they want to do.”
“They probably think we’re weak,” he added. “We’re stupid. We don’t know what we’re doing. We have no leadership. You know, you have to fight fire with fire.” (breitbart.com June 29, 2016)
Later, I read on the front page of the June 29, 2016 Tampa Tribute “Study: Hatred of Islam on rise” by Tony Marrero. He reports the results of a 80-page report titled “Confronting Fear by the Council on American-Islamic Relation in Florida” that “There are now 74 groups in what the report calls the “Islam-ophobia network,” an increase from 69 in 2013…Anti-Islam bills have been passed in 10 states, including two in Florida.”
I also read an article by Drew Sheneman in the Tampa Bay Times entitled “Revolt of the Masses.” He discussed a new book, Hillbilly Elegyby J. D. Vance in which Vance details some of the characteristics of the culture in Kentucky and Ohio. Included are:
· Intense group loyalty.
· Dislike of outsiders - people who are different.
· Value for physical toughness.
· A celebration of people who are willing to fight for their honor (“guns are about a family’s ability to stand up for itself in a dangerous world”).
· Collective pride including in sports teams and nationalism.
Lastly, I listened to a Ted Talk by Mariano Sigman entitled “Your words may predict your future mental health.” In this talk, physicist and neuroscientist Mr. Signman talks about the research which examines the writing of individuals in an attempt to predict who might develop psychosis:
“More specifically, it was not in which semantic neighborhoods the words were, but how far and fast they jumped from one semantic neighborhood to the other one. And so we came up with this measure, which we termed semantic coherence, which essentially measures the persistence of speech within one semantic topic, within one semantic category.
And it turned out to be that for this group of 34 people, the algorithm based on semantic coherence could predict, with 100 percent accuracy, who developed psychosis and who will not. And this was something that could not be achieved -- not even close -- with all the other existing clinical measures.”
Now, after the above list of factors which stimulated my thinking this morning one might think that I have just documented an example of the lack of semantic coherence and, thus, the possibility that I will develop psychosis. Of course, in my mind all these factors are examples of what I am calling the algorithm or the formula for increased hate and violence.
Violence leads to fear leads to assignment of blame leads to hate leads to justification leads to more violence. To wit:
V=violence
F=fear
A=assignment of blame
H=hate
P=Peace
V+F+A+H =V+F+A+H+V =P
We could also include in this formula the fact the fear feeds on some core beliefs with which it is difficult to argue, i. e. loyalty, protection of family/group, honor and pride. Add in charismatic leaders such as Mr. Trump and leaders of radical groups and we have the perfect algorithm for feeding terroristic violence and the response to same. Obviously each side can use the reaction of the other side to feed their response. It may seem as if there is a logical semantic coherence in the rhetoric of each side, but a closer examination will reveal that the formula does not lead to peace and the eventual absence of fear.
Charismatic leaders are effective because it seems as if they are presenting a logical sequence of words or concepts. Although some may have what Dr. Sigman calls an intuitive feeling that something is off it is not until we trust that intuition and then more scientifically examine the sequence of words and concepts that we can detect where the process breaks down and why one does not want to fall into the trap of using the same, illogical formula to respond. It is obviously tempting and easy to label someone or some group as an enemy, dismiss them as crazy or radical and then stir up fear which will lead to assignment of blame which will lead to hate which will lead to violence which will not lead to peace.
Written June 29, 2016
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