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Playing the Role

Stephen Eric Bronner

in The Bigot: Why Prejudice Persists

This chapter examines the roles played by the bigot as a righteous true believer, an insufferable elitist, and a resentful chauvinist. It explains how each role offers the bigot the comforts of ... More

This chapter examines the roles played by the bigot as a righteous true believer, an insufferable elitist, and a resentful chauvinist. It explains how each role offers the bigot the comforts of conformity and an illusory sense of singularity, and argues that the particular rationality he chooses is intertwined with the particular role he plays. It also claims that all the roles played by the bigot buttress an “affirmative culture” supposedly superior to any other, giving him an entirely self-referential way of living in the world. The bigot employs homogenous stereotypes for making sense of both himself and the Other, but is naive when it comes to the myths that empower his prejudice. His roles turn him from a “nobody” into a “somebody.” The roles played by the bigot are not reducible to his bigotry, and each offers him a refuge from pluralism and the demands for democracy and social justice raised by the subaltern.Less

Introduction: Cults and True Believers

Janja A. Lalich

in Bounded Choice: True Believers and Charismatic Cults

The confounding behaviors of some cult members occur as a logical conclusion to lives that have been gradually constrained in an increasingly oppressive social structure. Some cult members make ... More

The confounding behaviors of some cult members occur as a logical conclusion to lives that have been gradually constrained in an increasingly oppressive social structure. Some cult members make seemingly irrational, harmful, and sometimes fatal decisions. These acts are committed in a context that makes perfect sense to them at the time and are consistent with an ideology or belief system that they trust. This chapter provides an understanding of why cult members do what they do, based on both the promises and the constraints of the cult context. A look of the daily lives and inner workings of various cult groups over the decade is provided. Contrary to popular belief, cults have attracted not the lonely and lost, but rather the idealistic and lofty-minded, the curious and well educated. The model of bounded choice offers a new way of thinking about and analyzing the true believer phenomenon, which explains how normal, intelligent, educated people can give up years of their lives and sometimes their very lives to groups and beliefs. This intertwined reality is conveyed using the instances of Heaven's Gate and the Democratic Workers Party.Less

Extemporaneous Sermons in the Serpent-handling Tradition

Ralph W. Hood Jr. and W. Paul Williamson

in Them That Believe: The Power and Meaning of the Christian Serpent-Handling Tradition

This chapter sheds light on the phenomenologically oriented research that was conducted over the past several years centering on the meanings of extemporaneous sermons on serpent handling. It ... More

This chapter sheds light on the phenomenologically oriented research that was conducted over the past several years centering on the meanings of extemporaneous sermons on serpent handling. It provides descriptive understanding of the phenomenon of serpent handling on the basis of the rhetoric in sermons commonly given by preachers at church services in which serpent handling takes place. It collects and analyzes spontaneous sermons during the ongoing worship services. Interpretive analysis of the various sermons indicates that the experience of religious serpent handling is an embodied event emerging from the context of Pentecostal worship. In the experience of handling serpents, there comes a certain power of true knowledge. The handler no longer feels himself an unworthy creation of God but one who comes to a knowledge of being graced and valued by God and deemed worthy to participate in the signs of true believers.Less

What Movies Can Teach Law Students

John Denvir

in Law and Popular Culture

This chapter looks at what motion pictures can teach law students. It argues that contrary to the conventional wisdom, motion pictures give law students a positive image of the law. It explains that ... More

This chapter looks at what motion pictures can teach law students. It argues that contrary to the conventional wisdom, motion pictures give law students a positive image of the law. It explains that this is because the typical ‘lawyer’ film depicts the lawyer as a hero attempting to wrench justice from the bad legal system, which serves as the villain. It provides interpretation of six ‘lawyer’ films including Young Mr. Lincoln, True Believer, and ...and Justice for All.Less

The Bigot Today

Stephen Eric Bronner

in The Bigot: Why Prejudice Persists

This chapter argues that the bigot today is defined by the practice of prejudice. It explains how the bigot's roles as a true believer, an insufferable elitist, and a resentful chauvinist provide him ... More

This chapter argues that the bigot today is defined by the practice of prejudice. It explains how the bigot's roles as a true believer, an insufferable elitist, and a resentful chauvinist provide him with legitimacy as he practices his craft today; how he camouflages his intentions in order to function in a global society that is becoming more and more complex; and how the culture industry, consumerism, and radical individualism both fascinate and unnerve him. It also considers the tools employed by the bigot to challenge critical narratives about the imperialist, racist, and exploitative elements of American history; the bigot's attitudes toward politics, particularly when it comes to conservatism; and how the Tea Party channeled the bigot's prejudices through its own deeply reactionary forms of moral cognition predicated on the use of traditional myths, stereotypes, and double standards. The chapter concludes by outlining ways to confront the bigot today and to contest bigotry without spawning new forms of it.Less

Professional Identity

in Lawyers of the Right: Professionalizing the Conservative Coalition

This chapter considers whether lawyers identified with the goals and constituencies they served and how differences in their personal backgrounds shaped their understanding of professional role. It ... More

This chapter considers whether lawyers identified with the goals and constituencies they served and how differences in their personal backgrounds shaped their understanding of professional role. It draws primarily from lawyers' own accounts of their career histories and service to causes rather than any objective assessment of their motivations, commitments, and behavior. It shows that none of the lawyers fit either of the extreme models—the hired gun or the pure cause lawyer. However, many exemplify less radical versions of those competing conceptions of professionalism. Some emphasize service to clients delivered through markets, and others stress personal accountability and commitment to a cause. Those differences in professional orientation are, in turn, tied to professional hierarchies within the conservative movement. The more conventional conception of role draws together business lawyers and their moneyed clients, and promotes ties among elite lawyers across sectors and political lines. The cause lawyer model, on the other hand, insists on worthiness rather than financial reward or career development as the primary criterion for selecting clients. True believers tend to come from less elite backgrounds, to hold less fancy credentials, and to have fewer connections to the professional establishment.Less