Pep rallies were one of my favorite parts of high school. They were great cover for ditching the building and going for a walk! All that rah, rah crap is a wonderful distraction. I think you make a good point. A Plaestinian said on the BBC today that people can choose peace in a heart beat and they can also choose war. Happy Birthday to you and your wife’s sweetie!!!

I think history has shown that it’s easier to lead people against something than towards it. Look at how many of the “great leaders” of history were military. For that matter, go to a high school “pep rally,” and see how just what percentage is “go us” and what percentage is “our rival teams are bad.”

Then you have to look at each society’s and individual’s “boogieman”. Women as a group are the frequent “boogiemen” in many cultures. Witchcraft is an accepted reality in the cultures mentioned above. Evil Arab Terrorists (or EATs) are a widely accepted reality in the US now, hence recent airline behavior.

I believe social leaders take advantage of chaos and how it effects people. This goes to people’s willingness to torture others in studies and in uncontrolled, real life situations. Unless people stand back and realize they are under stress and thus vunerable to irrational thinking and actions, we will all be more likely to do things we shouldn’t. The only answer to this is more knowledge, both of ourselves and scientific reality.