The atomic threat deflects public criticism away from causes inside industrial society
Evidence
Class struggles are attenuated and “imperialist contradictions” suspended before the threat from without. Mobilized against this threat, capitalist society shows an internal union and cohesion unknown at previous stages of industrial civilization. It is a cohesion on very material grounds; mobilization against the enemy works as a mighty stimulus of production and employment, thus sustaining the high standard of living. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 160 (
#complicates, via linked claim)
Displacement of responsibility is often enlisted in industrial disasters where the blame is blatantly evident. Corporate vindication is achieved by shifting the blame. For example, the world’s worst industrial disaster occurred in Bhopal, India, in 1984, when 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas escaped from Union Carbide’s pesticide production plant. Thousands of people were killed, others were seriously injured or partially disabled, and nearly 200,000 were severely affected in other ways (Weir, 1987). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2708 (
#exemplifies, via linked claim)
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Industrial society appears rational precisely because it perpetuates the danger; The bad-apples framing deflects blame from systemic causes; Corporations deflect blame for industrial disasters even when fault is evident — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2708 (+2 more)
Related
Broader Connections
- The bad-apples framing deflects blame from systemic causes
#expands(0.85) - Cold War threat produced unprecedented internal cohesion in capitalist societies
#complicates(0.80) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 160 - Corporations deflect blame for industrial disasters even when fault is evident
#exemplifies(0.78) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2708