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Where some ideas are stranger than others...

I'm not questioning anyone's right to live. I'm saying we must observe the implications of our lives.
- Audre Lorde

Webmaster was in on:
2024-03-15

The Moonspeaker:
Where Some Ideas Are Stranger Than Others...

Forced Teaming (2023-12-04)

Stock image from the television series *Walking Dead*, posted by ahmadreza at pixabay, september 2016. 'But it's all good, we're all in this together!' Stock image from the television series *Walking Dead*, posted by ahmadreza at pixabay, september 2016. 'But it's all good, we're all in this together!'
Stock image from the television series *Walking Dead*, posted by ahmadreza at pixabay, september 2016. 'But it's all good, we're all in this together!'

The moment you hear or read someone declaiming that "We're all in this together!" be advised that you are encountering one or more scoundrels and the beginning of a serious effort at forced teaming. That is, an attempt to pressure the hearer or reader into compliance by implying a connection between them and the speaker or writer that isn't there. The point is forcing the hearer or reader into compliance against their own interests, and especially with the intention of preventing them from gathering appropriate information to make a properly informed decision. To my knowledge, the term "forced teaming" was coined by Gavin de Becker in his book The Gift of Fear, and it is a very nasty technique often predicated on taking advantage of a potential victim's desire not to offend or look bad in front of others. De Becker refers to forced teaming as a way to create premature trust between the person doing the forcing and their mark. Probably many people could read this far and click away in annoyance, because one of the most common contexts for the use of the obnoxious tag line "we're all in this together" is the COVID-19 pandemic. I agree, the tag line sounds plausible in that context, but that is the nature of forced teaming tactics, the use of a plausible-seeming hook to try to catch the unwary. It was in fact a terrible tag line to keep trying out regarding this pandemic or any other mass casualty event. Genuinely effective and helpful recommendations and tactics don't need forced teaming to make them happen. Forced teaming may work for awhile in the middle of a huge emergency like a pandemic, but the sad fact is that it backfires horribly if deployed for long periods. The attackers and abusers De Becker discussed in his book were using forced teaming as softening tactic to enable them to win access to their victims. The victims know they're being taken for a ride, which makes it all the worse. How anybody ever thought such a tactic starting from such negative foundations was a good idea for use in a public health emergency, I don't know.

Well, actually, to be honest, I think I do know. A great many people who are in positions of power these days are big on force teaming, because they are sure of a few potent and dangerous things. They are sure first of all, that they are right and know better than the majority of the world outside of their own hallowed circles. They are so sure of this, that they are sure that they are justified in preventing other people from asking questions and refusing to respond constructively to critique. They are sure that they have complete access to the presumed absolute trust of "the masses" in "the authorities" of which they are sure they are part. They are quite sure that whatever they say goes, and will work. Even if events show they are wrong, they are also sure nobody will notice when they change what they say and claim they never said what they did before. It's a gross mindset of contempt for anyone deemed "other," and a deadly characteristic trained into far too many people. At one time most of people with these ideas would have become missionaries, and indeed missionaries remain some of the most infamous users of forced teaming on the planet.

The sad fact is that forced teaming really is a prelude to disaster. On the scale of one on one interactions, maybe this seems easy to ignore as long as we aren't on the receiving end of the disaster. So long as no one is attacking or stalking us or trying to drag us into a cult or pyramid scheme of some kind, surely it's hyperbole to suggest it is possible to achieve at scale, we might think. That would certainly be a comforting belief. The trouble is, forced teaming is possible at larger scale, with the same awful ancillaries of forced conformity even when it results in acute danger or even death. It can be a highly dangerous invitation to group think and the paradox of quietism in the face of emergency joined with scapegoating of anyone who resists. People who are behaving ethically and know that they are advocating for actions that are reasonable don't need forced teaming because they are able to not just respond to constructive questioning and critique, they invite it. They don't need to wheedle and bully, they can lead by example and accept that they don't have all the answers. Such a frank attitude and approach demonstrates trustworthiness, so forced teaming is unnecessary.

So I stand by my starting statement, which derives from many recent observations, and not just of the debacle of how "the authorities" are pretending to manage the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, I first began to notice the unsavoury whiff around the "we're all in this together" tagline back in the era of the 2008 financial crash, when "everyone" was going to have to tighten their belts because to "save the economy" many people would "have" to be left to lose their jobs and homes so that banks and other corporations could be bailed out with public money.

Copyright © C. Osborne 2024
Last Modified: Friday, March 15, 2024 20:45:46