| Notes |
shunning"Shunning has been used for centuries as a paradoxical technique of collectively disciplining a person to bring him or her back into the group. This method may be the lesser of evils, however. As one my friends keenly observed, shunning is better than death, which has been used in some groups to eliminate the deviant. Given these two bleak choices, most of us would probably choose being ignored, But we should not minimize the pain one can feel from such exclusion. As William james stated, there is no more fiendish behavior than to act as if 'another did not exist.'"
objectificationTo ignore another for whatever reason is to cease treating him or her as a human being and to begin responding to that individual as an object." (p. 106)
submissiveness"Labor unions, faculty organizations and unions, the student protests and civil-rights actions of the 1960s and 1970s, and the women's movement all sought or continue to seek to empower the subordinate.
Such organization and unionization arise from a desire for power parity or an equalization of power. There is an unwillingness to settle for submissiveness. Such acts have led Rollo May to describe rebellion as a central element in one's humanness. 'It is the capacity to sense injustice and take a stand against it in the form of I will be destroyed rather than submit .... [T]his elemental capacity to fight against injustice remains the distinguishing characteristic of human beings. It is, in short, the capacity to rebel.'" (p. 18)
group narcissism"When interest groups emerge in any human community, their presence can be of significant benefit. But when 'party' becomes more important than the pursuit of truth, we have walked into the problem of group narcissism. When groups become intolerant of independent judgment, trouble is brewing for a communicative crisis."
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