What Authoritarianism Means
I'm walking out of the subway this morning, and I see there are two very similar escalators. Everyone else takes the escalator on the left. I look at the escalator on the right and think, "What's the difference? Do they both go to the street level? Why is everyone taking the one on the left?" For a second, I think, "Well, they must know something I don't. I better take the one on the left." Then I think, "Well, let's just see where the one on the right goes."
It turns out the one on the right goes to exactly the same place. So why was everyone taking the one on the left?
Things like this happen to me here so much that I've almost stopped noticing them--I just go around with a constant background realization that the world looks different to me.
You might think from this story that Turks are robotic and meek and disciplined, but that's in fact the last way I'd describe them. All the same, in certain situations, something shows itself. I'm hesitant to say just what it is, but I think it has something to do with the belief--at the deepest, most preconscious level--that if they stand out too much or break the wrong rule, they'll be killed on the spot.
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Nov '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Maybe the on on the right is reserved fro foreign journalists?
Jun '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
One of the things I recognized while traveling was that Americans (and other free people) assume they are secure in their lives and possessions. I suppose the attitude, justified or not, comes from being brought up in a free society. It's something that's ingrained, a part of our basic psychology, even if the belief is unwarranted in certain situations. I saw people in various countries who lived in fear, a state of constant insecurity. I perceived the problem clearly enough, but I could never internalize it. Liberty is an attitude that we should all be thankful for.
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Yes. And that assumption is, I think, instilled very early and remains unshakeable even when it isn't true.
Sep '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Its the type of behaviour that would ensue on Ricochet if enforcement of the Code of Conduct meant that people were randomly "disappeared" never to be seen or heard from again except at David Frum's No Labels site.
May '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
...
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
because Claire told me to.
Sep '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Might a Turk placed in this country make a similar observation? He may when he sees for instance that the N word is reserved for use by blacks.
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Aaron Miller: ...
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
because Claire told me to. · Jan 19 at 6:45am
I guarantee you that poem would never have been written by a Turk. In fact, I can't imagine it meaning a thing here.
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
I think the concept of taboo speech would be very well and instinctively understood, actually--and I've never heard of a culture without speech taboos, though Anthony Aristar might be our expert on that.
Aug '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
" You might think from this story that Turks are robotic and meek and disciplined, but that's in fact the last way I'd describe them. All the same, in certain situations, something shows itself."
No wonder you see that the video of teachers instructing children in the singing of praises to Obama -- a living man, not a long dead hero from the past, not God -- is creepy.
Aug '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Unfortunately,Americans aren't immune to "herd think."
As an undergrad in the 70s, I noticed that all the students in the university's religion building used a single door (of a double door) - coming and going - never opening the second door. this caused quite the human traffic jam during class changes.
One day, I approached the second door and found it latched. I unlatched it (a simple thing, really) and went through. From the stares, you might have thought I was the second coming of Moses, once again parting the Red Sea.
I can't help but wonder how much "herd think" affects the outcome of other piddling things in our society, like say - national elections?
Dec '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
"Herd think" is a universal human constant. It is also not necessarily a bad thing. When you are driving on the highway and you see a ton of people in front of you getting out of the left lane, its perfectly natural to assume the lane is obstructed in some way and to get out of the lane yourself. In the situations described above the right escalator went to the same place as the left and both doors were unlocked. You two went against the herd and were rewarded, but think what would happen if the escalator ended a level lower than expected or the second door had indeed been latched. You would have felt very foolish for ignoring what so many other people "obviously" knew.
I don't think we fear going against the crowd because we don't want to stand out. I think its because we generally assume that the people around us are doing what they doing for a good reason and honestly I don't think that is a bad assumption to have.
Edited on Jan 19, 2011 at 7:31amAug '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Aaron Miller: ...
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
because Claire told me to.
Aaron, that is priceless.
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
I don't think any group is. I do think there's quite a bit to militate against the idea that herd think is good in American culture--c.f., poetry by Frost--and a lot of idealization in principle of the idea of individualism. I don't think advertisers would have come up with the campaign "Think different" for a Turkish audience: They would have said, "Goodness, that won't sell anything." We have a lot of national mythology to appeal to if we want to see where the right staircase leads--when we do that, we congratulate ourselves on being think-outside-the-box types, and plucky and smart and potential millionaires and all that. I think basically, most Turks think that's just idiotic: they think, "Probably that staircase is closed, and if I go up I'll just have to come back down." And you know--that often is the correct explanation.
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Nyadnar17:
I don't think we fear going against the crowd because we don't want to stand out. I think its because we generally assume that the people around us are doing what they doing for a good reason and honestly I don't think that is a bad assumption to have. · Jan 19 at 7:27am
Edited on Jan 19 at 07:31 am
I just wrote something similar. But what I notice is the extent to which Turks aren't doing these things for any good reason that I can see. A lot of the time--more by far, I'd say, than in America--that second staircase in Turkey (metaphorically) proves on inspection to be just fine. I'd guess that in a similar situation in the US, you'd get easily a few dozen people out of a crowd that size saying, "Well, I'll check this one out, what could go wrong, worst is I have to come down again." The thought: "A million things could go very dangerously wrong. Only a fool would take the chance" would not be as much of a reflex.
Nov '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Claire, my brother told me very similar story. While he was in Croatia, he came up to a wall of 4 ATM machines. Everyone was lined up at the first ATM and no one was using the other 3. He stood in line for about 2 min, didn't see an out of order sign, walked over to an empty one, and got some money out. After he did that, everyone in line rushed over to the empty ATMs. He chalked it up to being in a former totalitarian society. They were only allowed to use the one machine.
Jul '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
I had a boss once who served with the US Air Force in Turkey and related a story intended to illustrate the Turks' propensity for literalness. There was a part on an aircraft that some airman had cracked by over-torquing and it would take quite some time to get it through normal supply channels so they decided to have one fabricated locally. They gave it to a local machine shop with the order to make a duplicate. When they got the replacement they were amazed to see that the one the Turks made was exactly the same--right down to the crack! (who knows how many they made until they got one to crack in exactly the same manner)
Edited on Jan 19, 2011 at 9:03amRe: What Authoritarianism Means
Waynester: I had a boss once who served with the US Air Force in Turkey and related a story intended to illustrate the Turks' propensity for literalness. There was a part on an aircraft that some airman had cracked by over-torquing and it would take quite some time to get it through normal supply channels so they decided to have one fabricated locally. They gave it to a local machine shop with the order to make a duplicate. When they got the replacement they were amazed to see that the one the Turks made was exactly the same--right down to the crack! (who knows how many they made until they got one to crack in exactly the same manner) · Jan 19 at 9:00am
Edited on Jan 19 at 09:03 am
You know--that anecdote doesn't ring right to me. I believe it happened, but I don't think it's typical. It suggests a fastidiousness and detail-orientation in Turkish workmanship that isn't my experience of things, to say the least. It's a great story, but I bet what happened is that just by coincidence, it cracked in the same way.
Jul '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
. It's a great story, but I bet what happened is that just by coincidence, it cracked in the same way. · Jan 19 at 9:21am
It may not be typical but he had another one. He said that they contracted out security for the office compound at which they worked and that in the afternoon the guards were given the order "everyone out, no one in." Well, a friend of his had just walked out of the gate and realized he left his car keys on his desk. He turned around to go back but was not allowed entry. It mattered not at all that the guard just saw him leave, nor did it matter that the guy had the proper ID. No one means no one. He had to get a ride home from someone else and return the next day, when a different shift presumably had different orders allowing entry to credentialed workers.
Edited on Jan 19, 2011 at 10:56amAug '10
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Agreed. Trust me, I've had plenty of herd moments in the years since college.
I don't know that I'd feel all that foolish. It was just a door, after all. (Or an escalator, in Claire's instance.) And it was practically begging somebody to open it.
Certainly that is the case - some of the time. But every now and again, doncha wanna know if the other door will open?
Re: What Authoritarianism Means
Waynester It may not be typical but he had another one. He said that they contracted out security for the office compound at which they worked and that in the afternoon the guards were given the order "everyone out, no one in." Well, a friend of his had just walked out of the gate and realized he left his car keys on his desk. He turned around to go back but was not allowed entry. It mattered not at all that the guard just saw him leave, nor did it matter that the guy had the proper ID. No one means no one. He had to get a ride home from someone else and return the next day, when a different shift presumably had different orders allowing entry to credentialed workers. · Jan 19 at 10:55am
Edited on Jan 19 at 10:56 am
Yeah, that could happen. It wouldn't necessarily, though. A lot of thoughts run through my mind on this story, too: It wouldn't surprise me that the guard was enforcing this rule as a passive-aggressive way of annoying the hell out of this guy, who had somehow insulted him. That would be really Turkish.