White House in America

The article investigates the mixed messages sent from the White House in America for the hunt of those in the al-Qaeda. The analysis below studies three issues, with evidence and possible suggestions.Issue OneThe first issue is that of blind obedience. This means that people automatically perform tasks, regardless of whether they're correct or not.

"The suicide bomb that killed 12 people...terrorist attack" strengthens this issue - it shows how terrorists are prepared to take their own life so that they can affect others. The other angle of the similar idea is that of scapegoating, and how President Bush is using his leadership.

Evidence supporting that blind obedience occurs in society comes from Milgram.Evidence OneMilgram's study aimed to see how obedient people would be. The idea was that people would not do as the experimenter said and "electrocute" people. However, the findings showed that 40 people went up to giving a 300-volt shock to the "learner", which surprised researchers. The astonishing link is that President Bush is using a similar tactic - his position of authority - to get the politics out of the "embarrassment for the Administration..

." by announcing Mr Padilla's arrest. This shows how obedience from authority figures still exists today in society, as it did when the experimenter in Milgram's study "prodded" people to continue to perform a bizarre task.Suggestion OneA possible suggestion to address the issue comes from Milgram's study.

It shows how the public should perhaps question authority figures when it comes to performing bizarre tasks. However, the study alone is assumptive in that the task had an incentive of money, and participants were told that it was "for the good of psychology". Being asked to perform such a task in public may have a different affect. A possibility may be to find those with an obedient trait at birth, should it be a biological aspect, and somehow fix the problem. However, obedience is more likely to be taught (Bandura, Ross and Ross shows how children follow the adult's actions) and as children are taught from birth to trust authoritarian figures, maybe this should be done but with a word of caution.

Milgram did go on to continue a similar experience in a run-down apartment; and found that obedience diminished immediately.Issue TwoThe second issue that this article looks at is one of prejudice. Prejudice means a fixed, preset attitude, which is usually negative, as defined in Tajfel. It occurs in two forms; one from the terrorist point of view, and the other from the government point of view. Firstly, the terrorists are prejudiced against America - "..

.killed 12 people outside the American consulate in Karachi...

" shows this. It strengthens the worry that the terrorists may plan another attack on an American target. The other angle is the government / al-Qaeda conflict. The al-Qaeda view on the American Government is prejudiced, so much so that it invokes them to perform terrorist attacks.

The American Government is prejudiced since the attacks from the terrorists. The evidence supporting prejudice originates from the study by Tajfel.Evidence TwoThe study by Tajfel looked at what was required to create Intergroup discrimination between the ingroup and the outgroup. Simply putting people into groups resulted in Intergroup discrimination, with a liking towards the ingroup (the group that a person was in) and a determination to outdo the outgroup.

When it came to choices, students would pick values from matrices which had the biggest difference, thus distancing the ingroup more from the outgroup (the maximum difference). Linked to this article, the conflict between America and al-Qaeda follows a similar idea. The idea is taken further with a claim that "India was using American's obsession with the terrorist group". A third group appears to be involved, according to the quote, as well as showing how America has an unhealthy obsession for al-Qaeda.

Suggestion TwoRemoving group discrimination from society is difficult to say the least. There will always be groups, such as a football match. However, it may be possible to provide equality in law - this may improve the situation. Currently, citizenship is taught to young people at school - an aim to over come prejudice. Again, a problem arises when children may not have a full concept of "groups", as well as their ideas, given to them by teachers, conflicting with those of the child's parents.

It can be seen that it is a very fine line between addressing the balance and causing even more prejudice - should it be right for anyone to influence their "group" ideas onto someone else?Issue ThreeThe final issue that arises from the article is that of the cultural relativism. This means that one culture does not understand the beliefs and ways of another, thus leading to conflict or lack of communication. The article clearly shows that this is apparent between America and al-Qaeda as the FBI continue to search for those from al-Qaeda. "Mr Rumsfeld had fallen pretty to misleading and concocted information" shows how America does not understand Afghanistan, or the al-Qaeda in that the information given proved to be incorrect. Due to this cultural relativism, America believes the actions of those outside (i.

e. al-Qaeda) to be abnormal. The study linking to this issue would be that of Deregowski.Evidence ThreeThe study by Deregowski looked into pictorial representation in both two and three dimensions, to see if there was a lingua franca of communication between cultures.

The results showed that pictures did not provide a lingua franca for inter - cultural communication. Also, tribes people reacted when shown a picture of an elephant by attempting to kill it. This applies to the article, in that America and Afghanistan have different cultures and ways of communicating - this could be a possible reason for conflict. This is shown by repeated blunders by the FBI, "equally frustrating has been the failure of most FBI attempts to extradite men..

." - in fact, also making reference to Europe. These cultural differences may cause difficulties in communication, thus leading to conflict.Suggestion ThreeA possible suggestion would be via education, in an attempt to teach children / students how main cultures operate. It's important to show society the effects, i.e.

World War 2, and the recent terrorist attacks, as well as getting society to understand that other cultures have their own and particular set ways. However, a problem that may occur is allowing a culture to 'speak' out, due to its conflicts with another culture, thus leading to attacks. Teaching and learning to understand others is vital, but this cannot be taught to everyone - there may be a biological trait to not accepting and understanding difference, and therefore eugenics would be the answer in an attempt to solve this.ConclusionDespite the many issues in regarding such a matter, it is difficult to remove such problems as prejudice and cross-cultural communication, as explained above. The article has outlined the many problems that could be avoided - such as a lack of communication and understanding of other cultures, but other traits are difficult to remove from society.