February 20, 2006
Europe, The MSM, and Others Flunk Psychology 101
Intro to behavior modification: If you want to see an increase in a specific behavior, reward that behavior. If you wish to see a decrease in a specific behavior, punish it.
Ivan Pavlov proved this beyond a shadow of a doubt with his experiments in conditioning. Most everyone remembers Pavlov I'm sure. He hooked up a dog to a harness, rang a bell and gave the dog meat powder to induce salivation. In time, the pairing of the bell and meat powder conditioned the dog to salivate and finaly when only the bell was rung, the dog salivated.
A number of years ago, this conditioning was hammered home when I made a trip to the local grocery store. A harried mom with a todler in the basket seat walked down the candy aisle. Suddenly, the kid's eyes lit on the bag of candies, his face screwed up and without another word, mom reached for the bag of candy, placed it in the basket and the kiddo was all smiles. Wonder how long it took the kid to condition mom?
All this comes to mind following a recent entry by Dr. Helen Smith in her Dr. Helen blog in which she states:
You would think that governments as well as people in general would understand that appeasing and rewarding negative behavior doesn't work. It's basic psychology 101--but one that not even most psychology professors understand or put to use. And apparently, this concept is foreign to many of the politically correct persuasion outside the classroom as well--for them, their feeling of moral "superiority" trumps human nature and causes liberals to turn a blind eye to justice and acts of violence.""In Bruce Bawer's new book, While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within,the side effects of the appeasement of Muslims by the Danish government are clear--as their government pumps more and more welfare money into the pockets of disgruntled Muslims, the rate of violence against "infidels" there increases."
One would think that this lesson would have been learned long ago, if not by the efforts of Neville Chamberlain than at least from the effects of non-response to the multiple attacks by the Islamofascists of Bin Laden and company. Time and time again the western response to Islamofascist terrorism has been placating the "Arab Street" which has, in turn, shown it's absolute disdain for western culture by raising the stakes again and again.
This is becoming a sickening ritual. According to Publius Pundit:
The municipal government in Volgograd has decided to close down a local newspaper for printing a cartoon showing Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, and Moses watching a crowd of clashing people while saying, “We never taught them to do that…†The mayor of the city is quoted as saying that the paper was shut down in order to prevent inter-religious strife; meanwhile, the prosecutor-general is looking to file charges." [emphasis added]
For the life of me, I cannot understand why the west is allowing the threat of mob rule to dictate what the west can and cannot do. Islamofascists have no power other than the threat of violence. Using that threat they have bullied the West into believing that any hint of disrespect to any muslim will result in immediate and violent protest; and the West has bought into the threat.
The answer? Stand up to the Islamofascists and slap them down HARD every time. Jail them, deport them, treat them with the same disdain that they have treated us; our constitutional protections do not extend to those who use violence or threaten to use violence as a means of intimidation. As Dr. Helen notes:
Too bad European countries haven't learned this lesson--appeasement of violence doesn't work."
UPDATE: Nicholas Stix writing at The Intellectual Conservative has some thoughts on reversing the Muslim threat.
Posted by GM Roper at February 20, 2006 07:37 PM | TrackBackI have regretfully come to the conclusion that it is really not appeasement . We lack WILL.
It is a void at the centre would intrinsic values should be located. Europe and the West in general does not believe in itself any longer. It is ashamed of its past, forgets how it becamw what it is, and has somehow convinced itself that the 'noble savages' would indeed have been 'noble' had the West simply not been involved.
There is no better or worse; there is simply different. We have no right to proscribe, or disdain certain 'cultural' activity if it differs from 'our' standards. Perhaps our standards are 'wrong'. We must always try to 'understand'. What is the root cause ?
To which I must bow to General McAuliffe --- NUTS!!
Posted by dougf at February 20, 2006 08:50 PM
Realistically, as much as conservatives (and I include myself in that group) love to bash liberals and liberals love to bash back, I believe that most liberals understand the truth of what you say. I think there is more involved in explaining why liberals and even some conservatives want to placate bad behavior rather than deal with it.
I don't know the answer, although I suspect that it's an "I don't want to get involved" moment or perhaps a "I'm not willing to sacrifice my comfort or security" moment or even a "Let someone else handle it" moment.
If you have the time and inclinication, help me understand this better.
Posted by DRJ at February 20, 2006 10:58 PM
The Afghanis have quelled their riots by shooting the rioters. I know it sounds harsh, but it seems to work. You don't see them out there the next day rioting again.
Liberals are welcome to verbally abuse me for that comment. But you won't get an apology.
Posted by Oyster at February 21, 2006 07:33 AM
GM,
1. I gather that you're feeling better and thus can take on those issues (from truly awful to just silly) that plague our world. Well, I am glad you're feeling better.
2. Once again, you've hammered a point that is true in the world generally and also here in the U.S. We reward failure and/or the worst of human behavior and are then shocked that we get more and more of the same. On the other side of the coin, we often go after those that actually stand up and speak up against things that are IN REALITY, either illegal or just awful.
Soon the good guys give up in defending that which is good and noble. Soon the thugs take over. We wonder how it happened.
GM has it down cold. It really is PIG SIMPLE. We DO NOT have to listen to insane killers out of some sense of embracement of "diversity". This is not only asinine, it is suicide.
Keep at it, GM.
Posted by Tad at February 21, 2006 09:58 AM
Great post. This highlights the problem with calling it a "war on terrorism." Terrorism is just a way to commit EXTORTION. "Change your policy, or we will get mad and blow you up." "Change your laws, or we will get mad and blow you up." I don't know why we're so afraid to call a thing what it is. It isn't a religious war/crusade from our side, but it is from theirs. It isn't a culture clash (in the sense of two cultures colliding), it's a culture bash, with them being the bashers. One must never give in to extortion. Even a kid knows better.
Posted by Kathy - At the Zoo at February 21, 2006 03:46 PM
GM, thanks for keeping your eyes on the goal. Regardless of the preceeding events, the goal now is to deal with unacceptable behavior. And like dealing with any acting-out teens (or toddlers or in-between), we need to keep repeating Parenting 101 statements like:
"this behavior is unacceptable"
"you first need to get control of yourself and stop this behavior before we can discuss things"
"continuing this unacceptable behavior will have natural consequences"
"we will not let you hurt us because of your lack of control"
"we will have to take necessary steps to protect ourselves from your lack of control".
Only after our adversaries regain control of themselves and cease their violence and intimidation can we then engage them in a conversation.
Posted by civil truth at February 21, 2006 07:53 PM
It's impossible to reason with the unreasonable. We're pretty much at the 'slap them down HARD' stage.
In the past, when a 3rd world shithole burned down an embassy, they got a 1st world army up their ass. This tended to quiet the area for a generation or so.
As I've seen stated many times on the web, the clash of civilizations requires two of them. We know it, and maybe, just maybe, the Europeans are coming to know it also.
Posted by bjbarron at February 21, 2006 08:11 PM
I forgot to include the most important part...Of course we have to take actions consistent with our words!
Posted by civil truth at February 21, 2006 08:48 PM
