social

Ultra-nationalism

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
18
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

This is the belief that your country of choice is bar none, hands down, the best country in the world.  No other country comes close and your country's interests are more important than all other country's interests...combined.  Without the violence and intimidation that accompanies this anti-pattern, the people and groups who employ it would seem a lot more humorous.

Education, Inc.

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
19
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

The Privatization of education helps reverse the idea of high quality free education that potentially undergirds a truly democratic way of life.  Privatizing education can reinforce the division of society into haves and have-nots.  It can support elite instruction on the one hand and cheap, possibly online training on the other augmented of course with a non-stop barrage of standardized testing.  It can erode the role of dedicated teachers and substitute with business goals and software.

Criminalizing Poverty

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
20
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

Poverty can be one of the most dangerous things to the stability of a society.  It is especially dangerous to those in power if poverty is viewed as being a failure of the system.  If the poverty stricken are viewed as being personally responsible for their state however, then it is seen as their fault and not those in positions of power.

Mock Public Space

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
22
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

Mock public space is generaly physical or virtual "community" space that people perceive as "public" but in reality disallow many aspects of "public-ness" that are important to democracies; free speech for one.  A privately owned social-media website, or a mall would both be examples of this pattern.

Sustaining World Hunger

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
24
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

Due to factors like poverty, displacement of resources, and environmental degradation many in the world go hungry every day.  One of the largest factors may well be that feed is viewed as a commodity to be purchased and sold, and not a human right.  In this way "the market" is responsible, not individuals, corporations, or the world community.

Media Monopolies

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
31
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

If most major media outlets are controlled by a small number of corporations pro-business perspectives and propaganda that aligns with the special interests of those corporations can dominate the public conversation.  Information that challenges or opposes those interests can be ignored or delegitimized.  Amazing progress has been made: From over 80 companies just 40 years ago, now five corporations control a large percentage of the information that American citizens see.

"Balance" Deception

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
32
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

A journalistic practice whereby one side will be presented and then, with equal time allotment, the "other side" will be presented.  This pattern can be very effective at obscuring the issue; leading to a situation where it appears that there are two equally credible ways to view an issue, when in fact there may not be.  Currently this is being used to suggest that the phenomenon is not established scientific fact.

Advertising-Funded Media

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
33
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

This pattern presents the system wherein media stations are primarily funded by selling advertising time to others. This time is often very expensive and favors large companies. This creates a system in which the media answers not to the public, but to the companies that are paying for the advertising time.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
34
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

Societal distractions can be naturally occurring or manufactured in such a way as to distract people and subvert their attention away from social and civic issues of public concern.  If properly occupied by such distractions, public outcry can be better controlled and their attention diverted to issues of unimportance such as the private lives of movie stars.

Dehumanization

Pattern number within this pattern set: 
35
Version: 
3
Verbiage for pattern card: 

Dehumanization works by portraying subsets of people who aren't in line with the goals of the state as less than human.  This representation will eventually permeate the minds of the population.  As the public adopts this attitude, they can eventually view the target peoples as less than human.

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