Important understanding, read carefully and objectively! Whatever we do we must continue to provide positive reinforcement and encouragement. Remember that intelligence agencies through their FB accounts are deliberately creating and reinforcing siege mentality among our people to terrorize and instil fear. Consequences of the Siege Mentality; (some basics for you understanding, there is much info on the net for further research) Siege beliefs have emotional and behavioural implications that can have serious consequences for the society, as well as for the international community. 1. The threatened society with siege beliefs develops negative attitudes towards other societies, which may be accompanied with feelings of xenophobia and chauvinism. 2. The society becomes extremely sensitive to any information and cues transmitted by other societies that may indicate negative intentions. This developed sensitivity is based on lack of trust and suspicion that society members feel toward other societies which, in their view, have negative intentions. 3. The society develops internal mechanisms to cope with the threat by increasing pressure among society members towards conformity, unity and mobilization. This pressure can take various forms, like calls for unity, calls for patching-up or concealment of disagreement within the group, as well as threatening (and carrying out) negative sanctions against those who disagree within the group. 4. Finally, a society may take a course of action without consideration of international behavioural codes. A society that feels endangered may decide that its need to survive is so paramount that all means can be used. As a result, it may decide to take a course of action considered extreme and unacceptable by the international community. In this situation, society members may disregard any unfavourable reactions from these other groups, which they consider as their adversaries anyway. The described four consequences of siege mentality suggest that siege beliefs can have a serious effect on the attitudes and behaviours of the societies that hold them. These beliefs dictate a particular way of life. In the cases we have looked at, they constitute the core beliefs of the societal ethos. It is possible then to characterize the societies of Albania and South Africa until several years ago, and of North Korea, Israel, and Iran today as having an ethos of siege because siege beliefs in these societies played or still play a very important role in the psyche of the society members and their leaders. Thus, any understanding of the behaviour of these societies must take into account their siege mentality.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 23:01:45 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015