Every decade or two, the new boogeyman is made to rally people for ultra-nationalism (and keyly, loyal to the capitalist state). Al-Qaedah have been the evil for which supporting US military hegemony and the slaughter of millions of innocent civilians has been 'necessary' for 20 years, now that cow has been starved of all public interest, Russia is the new one. In ten or twenty years, regardless of whether Russia is diminished or not, people will get bored and it'll be a different target.
What's the effective counter-narrative is a very important question, and one that'll have to be solved soon. When people are told, truthfully or not, that the lives of their tribe are being threatened, it tickles a very deep-seated and integral instinct to do whatever is necessary to protect tribe (so long as they can remain wilfully ignorant to the massive war crimes and murder of innocents). I daresay the effective most counter narrative is in reality, some similar poke of a sensitive bit of our stupid monkey brains.
Every decade or two, the new boogeyman is made to rally people for ultra-nationalism (and keyly, loyal to the capitalist state). Al-Qaedah have been the evil for which supporting US military hegemony and the slaughter of millions of innocent civilians has been 'necessary' for 20 years, now that cow has been starved of all public interest, Russia is the new one. In ten or twenty years, regardless of whether Russia is diminished or not, people will get bored and it'll be a different target.
What's the effective counter-narrative is a very important question, and one that'll have to be solved soon. When people are told, truthfully or not, that the lives of their tribe are being threatened, it tickles a very deep-seated and integral instinct to do whatever is necessary to protect tribe (so long as they can remain wilfully ignorant to the massive war crimes and murder of innocents). I daresay the effective most counter narrative is in reality, some similar poke of a sensitive bit of our stupid monkey brains.