Last week I had taken two days off with family and friends because of my birthday – and was extremely happy to receive a wonderful birthday greeting from Israelite Religious Community of Württemberg (IRGW) happy!
The digital birthday greeting from IRGW board members Prof. Barbara Traub, Michael Kashi and Mihail Rubinstein also touched me personally. Thank you! Michael Blume
But in addition to many such lovely birthday greetings, I also received other, legally dualistic hate messages, especially the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt had recently significantly weakened digital legal protection in GermanyThe Star Wars series “The Acolyte” turned out to be a bitter disappointment for the children and me. But it was good news: several hundred (!) mostly constructive Drukos (= comments underneath) exploded here on the blog! The blog post about the climate catastrophe with heat and heavy rain alone brought in over 200 Drukos – and the number is still growing!
Already over 200 Drukos under “A child observes the fossil-induced extreme weather of the 21st century”. Michael Blume with Leonardo.AI, June 2024
In addition to the many constructive and scientifically informed Drukos (just have a look at the democracy philosophy blog post!), I also consciously devote a lot of time to climate crisis deniers and legal dualists in order to the media psychology of externalization and reactance to make it visible and readable for the general public.
“What does this have to do with me? The human psychology of externalization” Michael Blume with Leonardo.AI, June 2024
Externalization describes the psychological tendency of people to shift their own responsibility and costs onto their fellow human beings and the environment.
In German-speaking local politics and practice-oriented political science, moderate forms of externalization are identified as the “St. Florian’s Principle” with the mocking prayer: Saint Florian, spare my house, set fire to othersIn English-language literature, the term NIMBY (Not in my Backyard) predominates. Everyday examples of moderate externalization are the demand for more state services without tax increases, for “more animal and climate protection” without one’s own contributions, for cheap energy without visible wind turbines, without power lines or even nuclear waste repositories, for cheap housing and at the same time undeveloped landscapes. Post-spiritual wealthy people can afford political externalization particularly well (superyacht dreams) and therefore often tend towards right-libertarianism and social Darwinism as well as towards media alliances with fossil lobbyists.
In contrast, those active in civil society and democratic parties the internalization of responsibility wear Courage to face scientific truth and voluntarily cover time and money costs for what are known in German as Honorary positionsThey have a wise sense of humor that is also self-referential, and many have long been solarpunks. That is why they are also bombarded with hate and agitation, cyberbullying and digital violence by hostile dualists with ethnic, libertarian and conspiracy-believing tendencies.
I therefore consciously included the concept of externalization in the poem “The Fires of Hate” also to avoid an aestheticization of political violence and the fossil financing of anti-Semitism.
“How can democracies and public companies internalize social and environmental costs?” Michael Blume with Leonardo.AI, June 2024
While progressives are more likely to externalize through pseudo-economic arrogance Conservatives tend more towards externalisation through pseudo-rationalisation ReactanceAny noticeable change and, above all, any questioning of privileges, for example through equal rights for women and naturalized citizens, through the climate crisis, through renewable peace energies, through electric cars or through so-called artificial intelligence, is interpreted as a threat, sometimes even as a conspiracy. Discourses that should actually be conducted rationally, and are often critical, then tip over into anger, permanent legal dualistic outrage and also anti-Semitic conspiracy myths such as cultural Marxism and eco-socialism, the “Great Reset” and the “Great Replacement”.
“Modernity chains our privileges! Cry of anger from reactance”, Michael Blume with Leonardo.AI, June 2024
While Externalization primarily serves to shift internal conflicts to the outside, is Reactance a reaction to perceived external restrictions on personal freedom. If these psychological mechanisms escalate, the path to hostile dualism and even anti-Semitism is short.
However, the consequences of externalization and reactance are not only experienced by ethnic, religious and sexual minorities, but ultimately by all of us: the digitally fueled shift to the right is bringing political movements into parliaments that deliberately ignore science and deliberately discriminate against immigrants, Jews and young people. The future of societies is thus being squandered for short-term externalizations – and this has long been the case in the middle of Europe. There is no blessing in willful, cowardly ignorance.
“There is no blessing in fossilized, cowardly ignorance.”, Michael Blume with Leonardo.AI
I am looking forward to your Drukos, especially since it is also planned to the next episode of the podcast and videocast “Blume & Ince” about externalization from an economic and psychological perspective to speak.
Source: German