orthonormal comments on That other kind of status - Less Wrong

71 Post author: Yvain 29 December 2009 02:45AM

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Comment author: orthonormal 30 December 2009 01:39:14AM *  3 points [-]

A neat example of this point was the instantaneous display of American flags after 9/11 in most comunities. As David Foster Wallace's article at the time illustrates, the people couldn't effectively articulate why the urge to participate in this way was so strong, but the explanation of "showing you identify with and support a particular group over and above other loyalties" makes perfect sense of it all.

(Of course, once flag-displaying reaches a critical mass within a community, the pressures of conformity suffice as an explanation; but the speed with which communities ubiquitously reached that threshold has to be explained otherwise.)