John Howard has captured everyone's attention with his startling comments linking a victory for Barack Obama with a victory for Al Qaeda and terrorism.
The reason proffered for his wading into the early stages of the American election campaign are subject to some debate. They range from a type of blindness, borne out of his personal friendship with President George Bush, conviction that he was correct to proffer his opinion, through to a focus on his brilliance as a strategist who has focused attention away from weakness in his domestic policies. Whatever motivated him, the question that must be asked is why does he think attacking Obama is to his own political advantage?
For an answer to this, one may turn to psychological literature on group thinking, which shows that the surest way to unite a group is to find a common enemy. Furthermore, fear is the most powerful motivating factor.
The literature available on prejudice and discrimination shows that fear is fundamental, more than anger, hatred or even envy. The price of uniting a group through fear is an increase in stereotyping and prejudice towards a group seen to be the 'other'. In the Coalition’s last term of office, we have seen an upturn in racial and ethnic tensions in Australia. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the upsurge in fear that has been fostered by near-apocalyptic thinking with regard to the 'terrorist threats' that we are facing.
Furthermore, this fear is directed at something amorphous; a ubiquitous threat, some time in our future. The 'threat' we face is not grounded in the present, and cannot be dealt with in the moment. We are agitated towards a state of constant alertness, our physiological systems primed to deal with danger; we are made ready to fight, or for flight.
It is little wonder that gang and group based attacks are more common. The mob mentality is returning. People are needing to discharge some of their excess of emotion. No wonder, too, that we are more disinclined to offer hospitality to strangers than ever before, as evidenced by our lack of generosity with Sudanese refugees in Tamworth, who represent the 'other.'
Furthermore, the spread of this hermeneutic of suspicion works through subtle psychological mechanisms including association. As one contemplates the issue of 'otherness', and the current American presidential candidates, Barack Obama is perhaps the candidate that lends himself most to being cast in