Granfalloon technique
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Granfalloon technique
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Re: Granfalloon technique
#2The idea of the granfaloon sounds like Benedict Anderson's concept of 'imagined communities': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imagined_community
Re: Granfalloon technique
#3This phenomenon is root of all evil in modern day America.
People identify with political parties as though they are sports teams. Team R or Team D.
If you're one of such people (and there seem to be relatively few of them on HN), please consider where this will lead the country.
Re: Granfalloon technique
#4I'm reminded of the experiments where camp kids were randomly given blue and red shirts, and it took them less than an hour to form in-group/out-group dynamics and tribal loyalty based on shirts alone.
The thing is, from a game-theoretic standpoint, tribal loyalty is a Schelling focus [0]: your calculation about what alliance(s) to invest in, are inherently influenced by your calculations of the calculations of others. What defines the tribal boundary can be utterly non-sensical (from the objective viewpoint of a proverbial Martian), yet still be a rational choice from the perspective of each individual participant.
I'm also reminded of the Netflix b-movie "Circle" [1]: a group of fifty people are forced to vote every two minutes on which of them will be killed (if they refuse, someone is killed at random). At first, they decide to buy time to think, by starting with older people who are closer to the grave; but the older crowd bands together in self-defense, creating a two-party system of old-vs-young. As the headcount shrinks, new rifts and coalitions emerge; some organic, some arbitrary. It's a brilliant thought experiment despite being terrible as a film. :)
Re: Granfalloon technique
#5This phenomenon is root of all evil in modern day America. People identify with political parties as though they are sports teams. Team R or Team D. If you're one of such people (and there seem to be relatively few of them on HN), please consider where this will lead the country.
"All" seems a bit inclusive.
From a team building and gamification perspective, granfalloons (while perhaps as objectively specious as TFA) points out, can help to focus group activities.
Whether the direction of that focus be good or evil is another discussion.
But if there is a natural disaster, and some granfalloon relief agency shows up to help you out, will you be quick to denounce it?
Re: Granfalloon technique
#6This phenomenon is root of all evil in modern day America. People identify with political parties as though they are sports teams. Team R or Team D. If you're one of such people (and there seem to be relatively few of them on HN), please consider where this will lead the country.
One of the few things we can be certain of with complex systems is that effects are not consequences of single causes. The US's political tribalism is clearly a negative for the nation, but is a consequence of history, not the signal flaw in a machine. It is a particularly vicious aspect of the system, I'd agree, as it tends to feed back and make the whole system increasingly dysfunctional.
The US looks very much like a nation in precipitous decline. Its hapless response to the current crisis may be the coup de grace.
Re: Granfalloon technique
#7My granfalloon is anyone who knows the meaning of granfalloon.
Re: Granfalloon technique
#8This phenomenon is root of all evil in modern day America. People identify with political parties as though they are sports teams. Team R or Team D. If you're one of such people (and there seem to be relatively few of them on HN), please consider where this will lead the country.
More generally, all of identity politics is based around this.
Re: Granfalloon technique
#9This phenomenon is root of all evil in modern day America. People identify with political parties as though they are sports teams. Team R or Team D. If you're one of such people (and there seem to be relatively few of them on HN), please consider where this will lead the country.
Why do you believe that is not a rational way to act in this environment?
Re: Granfalloon technique
#10An implication of this is that labeling groups you disagree with may actually serve to strengthen their commitment to that disagreement. I.e. calling someone a climate change denier or an anti-vaxxer, groups them with other people with the same misconceptions, and strengthens their commitment to the ideas because it's now a commitment to their group.