Who bears the responsibility to counter the aggressive and hateful tones that have peaked the questionable interests and unacknowledged fears of society?
Applying models and tools of epidemiology and public health to propose a unified field theory has the capacity to create pathways to comprehensive solutions to the health (mental, physical, and spiritual) related problems of clusters within society. In physics, a unified field theory attempts to describe all fundamental forces and the relationships between elementary particles within a single theoretical framework (Sutton, 1998)
Using these tools to examine how rhetoric and incitement contribute to negative behavioral patterns offers a nuanced perspective on the factors influencing the health of individuals, group clusters, and society at large. Health, in this context, is the multi-faceted make-up of holistic well-being of the collective.
Widespread and prolonged exposure to divisive rhetoric and violent incitement as a form of radicalizing indoctrination increases the susceptibly to harmful behavior patterns and effects on overall health. Put simply, the exposure to hate speech has the capacity to radicalize an individual, cluster group, or society which produces a negative effect on the health and quality of life.
The consequences of divisive rhetoric and violent incitement, like a lot of the problem we face as a society, are man-made and self-imposed. This raises a crucial question: who bears the responsibility to counter the aggressive and hateful tones that have peaked the questionable interest and unacknowledged fears of society?
The judgment of Julius Striecher, a high ranking Nazi official who wasn’t convicted of conspiring to commit genocide, but for his notorious incitement of its outcome, exposes the negative effects this has for the population. Month after month, week after week, year after year, he preached hatred of oppressed peoples and incited the German population to the active persecution of its Jewish population. The growing violence in his rhetoric led to the call for the wholesale annihilation of Jewish people as early as 1938. This judgement demarcates the detriment that hate speech and divisive rhetoric has on the health of the individual, group, or society as a whole; it also exposes the implications this has on the overall mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of a populace.
Through understanding concepts like “preparatory set” we introduce understanding and increase the awareness of factors that are harmful to the environment. Persistent and pervasive fear, as well as, prolonged exposure to the fight or flight responses are detriments to the overall health of the collective. Recognizing the link between indoctrination and brainwashing calls for a critical re-evaluation of the norms within a society. Noticing the realities of these propositions, one can draw connections and conclusions that help society tackle pervasive yet destructive pathologies that keep it from reaching the worthy and progressive ideal it deserves.
Sutton, C. (1998, July 20). Unified field theory | Einstein’s theory of relativity. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/unified-field-theory
The Avalon Project. (n.d.). Judgment: Streicher. Yale Law School. https://avalon.law.yale.edu/imt/judstrei.asp
Mowrer, O. H. (1940). Preparatory set (expectancy) - some methods of measurement. Psychological Monographs, 52(2), i–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093469
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