International StuffFrank Kalder I had my former manager call me up because he wanted to commisserate. I wonder what he has to commisserate about. They...
People usually do look outside themselves for the source of their dissatisfaction... for someone or something else to blame. People in groups with strong self-idenbreasties tend to see the group as an extension of themselves, and so will place blame for problems on those outside the group because blaming those in the group is like blaming yourself. In the absence of some kind of built-in wisdom or tolerance for others, the strength of a group's xenophobia is probably proportional to the strength of its group idenbreasty. That's just thinking out loud... I don't study this stuff.
Maybe growing up among claims that we-you are better than others feeds into it. Maybe one reason for xenophobia is precisely because other groups challenge "our" (fill in your group here) buttumptions about being the unique, better, or the chosen people of this or that god. People who grow up hearing this kind of thing are bound to experience a shock when they discover that not everyone agrees, or when events force them (us) to question the beliefs they (we) grew up with. It's as true in America or China as it is in Japan, though of course it takes different forms in different places.
M
