{"id":50273,"date":"2015-05-03T23:25:05","date_gmt":"2015-05-04T05:25:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/us-them-and-redefinitions-of-who-is-us.html"},"modified":"2015-05-04T15:40:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-04T21:40:16","slug":"us-them-and-redefinitions-of-who-is-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/03\/us-them-and-redefinitions-of-who-is-us.html","title":{"rendered":"Us, Them, and Redefinitions of Who Is Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not having served in the Marines, I cannot vouch for this article. But it strikes me as feeling real, to the extent that one way you can break down the barriers of Us vs Them is to redefine "Us" — through the literary tropes of Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Himself. Create a more powerful enemy Them (the guys you are shooting at or being shot by being the easiest way), and the previous Us vs Them model begins to fracture.<\/p>\n

To what extent this works outside of the crucible of combat or military discipline (where "Them" becomes the officer class) is hard to say. It does point, at least, to the Protean nature of divides and conflicts, where the enemy of my enemy might actually be recognized as a friend (or a lesser enemy, at least), and the intrinsic nature of differences becomes overwhelmed by circumstances and whizzing bullets. That doesn't make human tribalism any better (indeed, it's a reinforcement of it), but it does indicate that any given tribalism can be overcome …. with a sufficient external threat.<\/p>\n

(Cf. Watchmen)<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\n<\/a>
\nRace Relations in the Military: Why America Should Take Notes – Unprecedented Mediocrity<\/a><\/span>
\nCurrently, the national conversation on race has become a blundering failure in the face of several high profile deaths at the hands of police. However, I have a confession to make. I feel like I am watching this poisonous debate take… Continue Reading →\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not having served in the Marines, I cannot vouch for this article. But it strikes me as feeling real, to the extent that one way you can break down the barriers of Us vs Them is to redefine "Us" — through the literary tropes of Man vs Man, Man vs Nature, Man vs Himself. Create … Continue reading “Us, Them, and Redefinitions of Who Is Us”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,349,740],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-military","category-race-racism"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1179,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/04\/green_army.html","url_meta":{"origin":50273,"position":0},"title":"Green army","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 4-Oct-01 8:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Military readiness vs. the environment Should the military be required to act in accord with environmental laws? An interesting article, especially since the company I work for (and the office...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9968,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/10\/04\/allow_me_a_brief_rant_if.html","url_meta":{"origin":50273,"position":1},"title":"Allow me a brief rant, if you will","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Oct-06 6:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"I listened to an interview with John Yoo this morning on NPR. Yoo is a law professor at Berkeley, He also served as a deputy attorney general 2001-03, and helped...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45479,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/09\/25\/who-to-root-against-who-to-root-against.html","url_meta":{"origin":50273,"position":2},"title":"Who to root against, who to root against?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 25-Sep-14 3:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Big Banks vs Walmart. Hard to decide which one I'd rather see go down in flames on this topic. Walmart checking accounts annoy banks who feel a threat to high fees Walmart wants to get low-income people into its stores by offering checking accounts. It\u2019s made an enemy of banks,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":136116,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/04\/13\/trump-is-his-own-worst-enemy-his-opponents-best-ally.html","url_meta":{"origin":50273,"position":3},"title":"Trump is his own worst enemy, his opponents best ally","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 13-Apr-18 2:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Donald Trump continues to do more to both publicize and lend credibility to Comey's memoir than any other imaginable factor. His tweeting and public rhetoric not only ignores the Streisand Effect, but validates every point that Comey makes about his personality. Comey says Trump is untethered from truth; Trump asserts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/trump-across-the-table.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":660,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/09\/05\/red_of_tooth_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":50273,"position":4},"title":"Red of tooth and claw","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-01 8:48am","format":false,"excerpt":"As I write, we have Israeli military forces firing frickin' missiles into buildings where they think Palestinian leaders or security forces are. 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