Ulterior Motives

How goals, both seen and unseen, drive behavior

Art Markman is a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas whose research spans a range of topics in the way people think. See full bio

January 5, 2009, Happiness

Comments on "Moral righteousness in trying times"

Moral righteousness in trying times

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on January 5, 2009 in Ulterior Motives

Last week, I went to see Valkyrie at a local theater chain called the Alamo Drafthouse. One great aspect of the theater is that you can order food and drinks from your seat as you watch the film. In addition, for about 30 minutes before the film, they run quirky programming that is somehow related to the film you are about to see. For Valkyrie, they played a series of clips from documentary films and newsreels about Hitler's rise to power.

One in particular caught my attention. The film talked about how Hitler had fallen out of favor politically, and was able to rise back to power, because the German economy had gone sour. Hitler was able to capitalize on people's malaise to drive home his message of Aryan superiority and to cast a variety of groups like the Jews as the cause of evil in the world.

modern blame/hope

Submitted by Becky on January 5, 2009 - 8:54am.

Interesting blog. I wonder if this feeling of being unsettled can be related to current events and political notions. Although republicans are often accused of "black and white" thinking, during the last election it seemed few were immune from blaming anything and everything on the Bush administration and placing all hope on Obama to change our world in impossible ways. Even something like global warming has been labled as a strictly human consequence when there is loads of evidence suggesting that an orbital shift and cylical pattern of weather are contributing in large ways to global climate change and are completely out of our control. I'm all for greening our planet and helping in any way humanly possible to save it, I'm also all for political change that may help us unite as a people, but we should recognize that hinging all of our hope/blame on "evil" or "good" people as the answer to our global problems will ultimately be disapponinting and as demonstrted via Hitler can be down right dangerous.