thomasglee wrote:
> That makes sense, but I have to ask, who do Americans hold a
> visceral hatred towards? Our demographics have changed so much,
> I'm not sure what kind of nation we are called anymore. Are we
> white Europeans? Christian? I think you said once that age doesn't
> play any role in altering a nation generational dynamics, but what
> about changes in race?
I wanted to think about this for a few days before trying to answer
it.
Nothing matters as much as what generational era a society is in to
determine its behavior. Things like religion and ethnicity are
details compared to the generational era.
I don't think that Americans hold a firm visceral hatred towards
anyone. There is some xenophobia towards Mexicans and Muslims, and
you can think of xenophobia as a mild form of "visceral hatred," but
there's nothing beyond that that I can see. This kind of xenophobia
is transitory, and disappears when the reasons for it are resolved.
In order to develop what I would call "real visceral hatred," then you
have to have multiple generational crisis wars, where the initial
xenophobia builds on itself, and is not allowed to become transitory.
This is most common when the two groups are incompatible and
geographically close -- like a divorced couple who hate each other but
still have to work together for the sake of the children. It's this
promimity and intimacy that turns transitory dislike and xenophobia
into visceral hatred. This would apply to two ethnic or religious
groups in the same country or who share a border.
So it makes sense that the Sunnis and Shias in the Mideast hate each
other, that the Arabs and the Jews in the Mideast hate each other,
that the Indians and Pakistanis hate each other, and that the Chinese
and the Russians hate each other. But it really doesn't make sense
that the Americans and Russians hate each other.