Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Winter 1-1-2010
Journal / Book Title
Comparative Sociology
Abstract
When “one of our own” commits mass murder, mechanisms that sustain our social order are opened to question. Based on two samples of newspaper editorials written in 1995 ‐ either after the poison gas attack in the Tokyo subway or after the Oklahoma City bombing ‐ evidence is provided that Japanese editorialists advised strategies for retaining order, whereas Oklahoman authors endorsed ones for reestablishing it. In accordance with Simmel’s distinction between faithfulness and gratitude as social forms, Japanese advised faithful continuation of wholesome interactions with their terrorists, whereas Oklahomans expressed gratitude for rescue workers’ assistance. We apply modality analysis to identify those specific activities that authors presume their readers to accept as inevitable, possible, impossible, or contingent for each other. Working from this modal rhetoric in the two public discourses, we build more comprehensive inferences regarding the underlying logics of Japanese faithfulness versus Oklahoman gratitude ‐ logics that reflect the respective motivational dynamics underlying extant theories of identity and exchange.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1163/156913210X12530678932808
MSU Digital Commons Citation
Roberts, Carl W. and Wang, Yong, "Traitor in our Midst: Cultural Variations in Japanese vs. Oklahoman Public Discourse on Domestic Terrorism in the Spring of 1995" (2010). Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 21.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/sociology-facpubs/21
Published Citation
Roberts, Carl W., and Yong Wang. "Traitor in our midst: Cultural variations in Japanese vs. Oklahoman public discourse on domestic terrorism in the spring of 1995." Comparative Sociology 9, no. 4 (2010): 463-494.
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