Groups first form against an external threat, then transfer their unity onto an object

Evidence

And there is no doubt that in the beginning, the group always comes into being against some third party, against an external menace of some kind. It is fear of possible repressive action by the royal troops arriving at the Tuileries (a move similar to that which had resulted in a massacre only three months earlier) that galvanizes the Faubourg Saint-Antoine out of its serial dispersal and unifies it into a group which will eventually seize the key stronghold of the Bastille (pp. 391-393). — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 506

Categorization

• DEFINE: Establishes the Sartrean category of the ‘third’ as the external stimulus that unifies a serial collective into a group.
• XREF: Connects to Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason (the fuse/groups-in-fusion discussion of the Bastille) which Jameson is expounding. — connects to: Groups internalize external threat as an oath to preserve cohesion after danger recedes — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 509; A shared external reference point unifies otherwise isolated elements into a group; Serialized classes coalesce into groups only through a common external enemy. — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 559 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Groups internalize external threat as an oath to preserve cohesion after danger recedes #expands (0.88) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 509
• Serialized classes coalesce into groups only through a common external enemy. #corroborates (0.85) — Fredric Jameson, Marxism and Form, 559
• A shared external reference point unifies otherwise isolated elements into a group #expands (0.80)
• Group agency makes entitative out-groups threatening but entitative in-groups attractive #corroborates (0.75)
• Perceived unity makes a group processed like an individual #expands (0.72)