Fear of Commonplace

In reading the pages about ideology and commonplace, I kept thinking about the following: how ideology and the commonplaces in a given culture or society need to be watched carefully. My reason is almost all of these can lead to extremism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, radicalism.

I can see how commonplaces such as patriotism (especially after 9/11) can be good for unifying a nation, however short-lived it may eventually be. But what concerns me is that once a commonplace reaches its pinnacle, any contrary thoughts are lashed out at and the person(s) who go against the commonplace are marginalized. The extreme grip held by the majority can blind all involved and can lead to some unwanted behaviors (such as the 'herd mentality'). It is amazing the actions that came about after 9/11; the increase in military recruitment, the decision to go to war, reactions of hatred toward Muslims and those of other religions/cultures.

Some of the results of the commonplaces held after 9/11 continue to linger 9 years later. The most recent examples include the reactions (sometimes violent) of individuals in New York City and Murfressboro, Tennesee, including prominent politicians, against proposed mosques in those locations. Another recent example includes the Preacher in Florida who was going to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11 by burning copies of the Koran. Thankfully these have not reached the widespread fervor seen after 9.11.

I haven't done research in to this but the illegal immigrant backlash which started about 3-4 years ago with such prominent figures as Lou Dobbs seemed to reach the status of commonplace and is starting to pick up again recently. For several months, CNN seemed to report almost on an hourly basis about how illegal immigrants were ruining America. It got to the point where it almost seemed like a propaganda campaign had been waged by several media outlets (mostly conservative) and politicians and seemed reminiscent of the Communist scares of the 50s and 60s.

I'm not proposing anything groundbreaking here but I think somewhere in our society, a better job needs to be done by individuals (the media, academia, politicians, etc) in preventing these extreme ideologies from becoming commonplace.

This chapter made me think in great detail about this and I hope this can lead to some sort of discussion whether in class or in comments.