We’re pleased to introduce a new website feature: the PsySR Blog, a forum for PsySR members to share their timely thoughts and analysis on social justice issues of the day from a psychological perspective. To contribute, send your brief essay (400-800 words) to blogs@psysr.org (along with your email address and few lines about yourself). We hope to add new essays every few weeks, so please check back here regularly. An archive of past PsySR Blog entries is available HERE.
What Hit Us? Behind the Financial Crisis by Marc Pilisuk
Congress has approved a $700+ billion taxpayer-financed bailout deal for Wall Street. The amount, according to the electoral reform group, Public Campaign, represented a generous 35,000 percent return on investment for the $2.1 billion in campaign contributions that financial services and real estate industries have directed to congressional and presidential races since 1990. An additional $3 billion was spent in lobbying. The same people whose sub-prime scheming, mortgage-backed security trading, and self-interest accounting produced this financial breakdown have commanded the government's immediate attention. They invested in government to assure deregulation and lax enforcement of existing rules -- the very practices that got us into this crisis. They are reaping this investment to secure their advantages in the actions taken to get us out. The major mechanism of taking over their worst debts with tax dollars, inadequately addresses the fact that average Americans are facing foreclosure, losing jobs and health coverage, and watching their retirement savings dwindle. Read More »
Selling An Indefensible Status Quo by Roy Eidelson
Stocks plummet on Wall Street. Home foreclosures mount across the country. Shameless finger pointing and disavowals swirl in the nation’s capital. And a recent Gallup poll finds that a record-low 9% of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States.
The frightening numbers and front-page headlines certainly cry out for immediate short-term solutions. But they also raise a crucial question with long-term implications: How is it that our country’s powerful and self-interested defenders of the status quo so consistently succeed at suppressing popular outrage and combating calls for broad-based, progressive social change?
In part, the answer can be found in the insidious use of psychological manipulation to build public support for status quo policies that benefit the few while creating hardship for so many. Some of today’s top peddlers have embraced a rigid ideology that seemingly blinds them to the tragic human costs of their agenda, while others are driven by a simpler unyielding pursuit of personal wealth and power. Regardless of their motivation, their persuasion strategy often depends upon exploiting specific psychological "soft targets"--namely, five core concerns that profoundly influence how we make sense of the world. These concerns, central to the daily experiences of individuals and groups alike, revolve around the issues of vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Let’s consider the manipulation of each in turn. Read More »
An Archive of Past PsySR Blog Entries is Available HERE.
We welcome contributions of new material and recommendations of new links from PsySR members. Please send an email to info@psysr.org and clearly identify the issue being addressed. Contributions received may be edited for space or combined in summary form with other contributions on the same topic.