1© The Author(s) 2018
S. E. Hobfoll, Tribalism,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78405-2_1
CHAPTER 1
The Primitive Self and the Power
of Catastrophic Threat
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best….
They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re
bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re
bringing crime. They’re rapists. (Donald Trump in a speech
announcing his presidential candidacy [1])
The black-haired Jewish youth lies in wait for hours on end,
satanically glaring at and spying on the unsuspicious girl whom he
plans to seduce, adulterating her blood and removing her from the
bosom of her own people. The Jew uses every possible means to
undermine the racial foundations of a subjugated people. (Adolph
Hitler, Mein Kampf [2])
There is no message more powerful, primal, or primitive than the evocation
of the need to protect the family and “tribe.” We are genetically
primed and culturally shaped to alert, defend, and aggress, and even to
sacrifice the self in the service of that protection. In fact, the alert, defend,
and aggress system is primary and fundamental to how humans are biologically
built, emotionally primed and cognitively programmed. This
extends to the protection of our way of life and the fundamental elements
of those things we hold most dear—the protective response against
threats to our freedom, our nation, our land. The provocation of outsiders
raping our women is one of the most primitive and basic of these
2 
threats. Rape invalidates the blood line, as the progeny of such an act may
not be ours, and the loss of our women or our children translates to the
end of the tribe.
Seen this way, the warning of the threat of attack by the “evil other” is
a base warning to our built-in, hard-wired protective response system. It
appeals to a primal need to protect the tribe and the family from the evil
predator, the “other” who, once identified, must be destroyed. Humans
are imbued with a deep intellect and the ability to think and process complex
information in a rational manner. Even deep emotions can be reasonably
understood and evaluated, arriving at fair and balanced conclusions.
However, our rational thought and the processing of complex information
are very much forebrain activities, relating to what are termed our
“executive brain functions,” and is the last portion of the developed
human brain in evolutionary time.
More basically, and more substantively, humans are protective animals
with deeper brain structures that are more primitive and equally part of our
origins, playing a major regulatory role determining how our brains and
bodies function. Fight and flight are reflexive responses, and the fight-flight
response is nested in deep, more primitive brain structures that developed
for survival. Our responses to threat of the self, the family, our loved ones
and the tribes to which we belong alert the brain and body to concentrate,
act without thought, and ignore the vagaries of sound argument and compassionate
consideration that might delay the need to rapidly and decisively
respond. They cue hormones, blood, and muscles, and signal tribal affiliation
behavior for mobilization of the protective response system.
1.1   We Are Primed to Be Alert and Ready
to React to a Dangerous World
Our modern, cultured self is a rather recent evolution in human existence.
Any semblance of what we call culture consists of no more than perhaps
20,000 years of our history, when the first towns were formed near the Sea
of Galilee during the Last Glacial Maximum. Our biology and our brain
had over 2 million years of time to develop prior to this, and during this
entire period, and for the most part until a few hundred years ago, the
instinct to protect and survive was central to existence.
It is only recently that the threat of attack and loss due to famine, war,
criminal violence, and disease was not essential parts of human life. Our
built-in sensitivity to loss and threat is a response to our need to defend
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  3
against disease, attack from neighboring tribes and wandering bands, and
internal violence within the group. We are of course aware of the threat of
disease prior to more modern public health and medical intervention,
principally the introduction of soap, clean water, and penicillin. More surprisingly,
the murder rate in Medieval Europe was dramatically higher
than today, with scholars reporting rates as much as 30 times higher than
modern Europe, including acts of terrorism [3].
We decry the upswing of “modern” violence in the U.S., longing for
the “good old days.” In fact, U.S. rates of homicide in colonial times were
many times higher than today. The presence of increasing law and order
structures in the form of better laws and better policing, and the reduction
of poverty, resulted in a drop in homicide from the colonial period, which
saw homicide rates of greater than 25 per 100,000 of population, compared
to recent national rates below 5 per 100,000, a fivefold decrease [4].
Put in other terms, the rates of homicide nationally from 1700 until the
Civil War were appreciably higher than the murder rate in New York City
in 2015 of below 4 per 100,000 [5]. In fact, homicide rates today are
markedly lower than in the early twentieth century in the U.S. [6]. Clearly,
our news media portrays us as living in a dangerous world, but this state
of affairs is better than in nearly any prior period.
Because of the saliency and consistency of ongoing, monumental threat
throughout human development, we do not need to scratch humans
deeply to bring the primitive, protective, and aggressive self to the fore. As
an illustration of how close our primitive self is to the surface, we witness
how aggressive affiliative behaviors are acted out on the playing field of
often violent competitive sports, where teams are followed with a dedication
akin to nationalism, and fans dress in tribal colors, carry team flags,
and scream for blood. In Europe, fan behavior has actually blended with
White supremacy nationalism, in a dangerous mix.
The game of soccer (what the rest of the world calls football) evolved in
medieval times, involving hundreds of players in what is sometimes referred
to as “mob football.” In these pitched battles, rival villages and towns
watched a form of controlled warfare to decide disputes over land, personal
arguments, and rights of commerce [7]. Fast forward to 2015, soccer
violence has escalated, as economic and national tensions rose. Fans,
dressed in tribal-like colors and face painting, ripped out seats in Belgrade,
Serbia, and attacked rival Parizan, injuring dozens of police in a bloody
melee, hurling lighted flares and metal objects using military-like tactics
[8]. Brazilian fans have murdered offending referees and players [9].
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
4 
Any quick minimization of this as only a phenomenon of overzealous
sports enthusiasts, and not related to political process, is quickly dispelled
when one understands that the attacks are often perpetrated by White
supremacist groups, and that they are intimately linked with “[r]acism,
anti-Semitism, and xenophobia…[which] are becoming…widespread”
[among these fans], according to Moshe Kanto, president of the European
Jewish Congress [10].
1.2   Our Brains Respond to Exaggerated Messaging
of Loss and Doom
The most effective way to add fervor, strength, and resolve to any political
or social argument is to invoke the specter of loss and doom. The hyperbole
of threat, and particularly existential threat, is the most powerful fuel
of action. Framing in black and white, not shades of gray, is both the
means and the terminus for attracting any audiences’ attention, whether at
the doctor’s clinic, in the courtroom, or in the world of politics.
Reasonableness and carefully weighed argument does not sell newspapers,
does not keep the viewer from the remote control, and does not attract
donors’ dollars.
Only if the enemy is committed and perceived as capable of destroying
us can we advocate, as did presidential candidate Ted Cruz in December
2015, “If I am elected president, we will utterly destroy ISIS.… We will carpet
bomb them into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but
we’re going to find out!” [11]. As carpet bombing is aimed at obliterating
human life of civilians, of leveling whole cities, and is an ineffective strategy
for undermining military capability of an enemy, we can understand
that the true purpose of such bloodthirsty political diatribe is meant to
excite some powerful and primitive force experienced by a large segment
of the population. It is what they want to hear.
This primitive response is more universally experienced when there are
real threats of terrorism, whose purpose is to create a sense of terror far
disproportionate to its actual danger. We only require the hint of threat
to alert our protective systems. For evolutionary purposes, our brains
developed to be loss sensitive [12]. The loss of a tooth, of several females
of productive age, of two hunters in the tribe, of a source of water, all
threatened end of life, end of the tribe, and an end of our progeny. In
contrast, the brain barely recognizes gain. It was not possible for our
ancestors to make more than temporary gains during our evolutionary
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  5
period of development. Indeed, the sole purpose of gain was itself to
protect against future loss. This primitive and basic element of our brain
shapes our emotions, how we organize our attachment to others, our
seeking protection and safety, and the very way we form our cultures and
governments. It is therefore a highly effective strategy to speak in terms
of extremes and the extremis of threat and annihilation.
Hence, Obama is not just someone we deeply disagree with; his political
agenda has been the “worst in U.S. history” and he is a threat to us no
less than communism, Hitler, and ISIS. Indeed, if we go further, and we
link President Obama to terrorism as he himself is a Muslim, and then we
argue that Muslims are our enemy who we must annihilate, then we must
annihilate President Obama. He is not just someone that the right deeply
disagrees with, he is not an American, he is part of the Muslim world that
plan our destruction, and the worst president in history.
1.3   Guns and Violence as an Obvious Outgrowth
of the Primitive Protective Self
The same argument of extreme, with a basis in impending doom, is set
forth by the gun lobby. We require, they argue, an armed populace to
defend against ultimate threat. But to energize this argument, they must
make our government and its leadership suspect. Government itself, and
recently our own FBI, must be seen as either already conspiring to take
away our liberty, or likely to take such action. For again, if that threat is
only theoretical, far-off, or unlikely, then there is little energy in the
defense of Second Amendment rights to bear arms. They must be the
Nazi Gestapo and the Soviet Secret Police. Ironically, those who take this
route sow the seeds for fascism by so doing. This is vividly portrayed in
recent attempts by Fox News, using Trump surrogates to discredit the FBI
and the Justice Department as they investigate Russian meddling, and
potential conspiracy by the Trump team in the last election.
The FBI has become America’s secret police. Secret surveillance, wiretapping,
intimidation, harassment, and threats. It’s like the old KGB that comes for you
in the dark of the night banging through your door…the FBI is a shadow government.
[13]
The stench coming out of the Justice Department and FBI is like that of a third
world country. Well, it’s time to take them out in cuffs. [14]
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
6 
If this need to demonize is not understood, then those from more liberal
camps, or even the reasonable political center, cannot understand why
the gun lobby will not accept restrictions on automatic weapons and see
this as an infringement of their rights. Those not familiar with weapons
might think a handgun or hunting rifle is sufficient for any private citizen.
But those are wholly inadequate against the weapons of war that a government
might bring against us.
To stand up against a government, already infiltrated in their minds by
Nazi Gestapo and Soviet KGB, requires an assault weapon. An AK-47
(Kalashnikov) or an M-16 effectively fires 100 rounds per minute, and gun
advocates would like to have the maximum 100-round drum magazine
available. Only if you understand the nature of the threat they feel as real,
can you appreciate that they still feel insecure without the assault rifle’s
available grenade-launching capabilities. Such weapons have no purpose in
hunting, unless you are hunting terrorists, and are all the more necessary
if your government is perceived as having the near-term potential to act
against you. Such weapons have no purpose in hunting, unless the fear is
of the Mexican rapists and murderers that Donald Trump claims are pouring
across our borders. Such weapons have no purpose in hunting, unless
your fear is of Blacks rising against Whites in a race war.
In his chaotic speech at a recent NRA national meeting, the conservative
talk show host, Glen Beck, projected a giant image of a Nazi character
in a “Sieg Heil” salute as the enemy of gun owners’ rights and the right to
bear weapons. But the image was of New  York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg, himself a Jew, who had the audacity to promote gun safety
[15]. Similarly, NRA leader Wayne LaPierre promotes the right to buy
any, including automatic weapons, as necessary for our survival in the face
of “riots, terrorist gangs, and lone criminals…the threat of Latin American
drug gangs…and civil unrest” [16]. His writing is infused with racial overtones.
He responds, as he likely truly and deeply believes, that “it’s not
paranoia to buy a gun. It’s survival.” Survival means survival of the self
when facing a criminal, but the energy of his words is only empowered
when he evokes survival of “our way of life,” “America,” and places imminent
threat as immediate, and not some vague distant possibility.
We must take people at their words. LaPierre knows guns and knows
that for reasons of ease of access and maneuverability a full-length or even
a short breach automatic weapon is not best for the tight quarters of protecting
one’s home. He is advocating for the private ownership of weapons
of war. They are called “assault rifles” for the obvious reason that they
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  7
are weapons of tactical assault. His messaging is meant to alert the tribe to
the imminence of the threat from the “Black hoard” that is ready to erupt
at any moment.
The invoking of the image of survival is inherent in our conceptualization
of the ultimate evil of Nazism. The survival drum is beaten constantly
not only by extremists, but by mainstream political figures. Mike Huckabee
has been a conservative evangelical candidate for president in several
recent electoral cycles and appears more grandfatherly than hateful. But he
warned during his role as a Fox News host in April 2013 that Obama was
plotting to use gun confiscation to create a Nazi-style regime [17]. When
Ted Nugent, a member of the NRA board and someone who has no
national political stature, compares Obama to a Nazi, it can be more easily
dismissed, but when sweet, compassionate, and deeply Christian Mike
Huckabee evokes these images, it must be seen as a mainstream fear as
Huckabee received tens of millions of votes in his presidential bids.
1.4   The Storm of Terrorism and the Primitive
Response
The purpose of terrorism is to create a sense of terror and fear, far disproportionate
to the actual destruction caused by the violent act itself. The
term we use, calling it terrorism, is likewise exploited to justify our response
to it. In a strict definition, terrorism is political violence brought to innocent
civilian targets. However, we are no less likely to call it terrorism
when the target is against the USS Cole, a powerful nuclear-armed guided
missile destroyer (12th of October 2000 in the port of Aden, Yemen). We
still call it terrorism when the attack is the deadly 1983 Beirut truck bombing
of the barracks of the 1st Battalion 8th Marines, killing 241 American
Servicemen. And there is no rule of war that combatants when they are
off-guard are out of bounds.
Before I am accused of supporting terrorism, let me set the record
straight that as a former officer of the Israel Defense Forces and in many
civilian roles that I have filled I am dedicated to stopping terrorism, and I
would and have supported ultimate force in doing so. I am pretty hawkish
on the topic. Rather, my point is that we use the word terrorism to raise
the fear factor and rally a united response. I personally am equally motivated
to merely defend those I love and the nations and people I support
against violent acts of war, traditional or nontraditional. But for politics to
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
8 
stir the masses, we need the concept of terror, and the enemy needs the
concept of freedom fighter, preserver of liberty, defender of the Holy
Koran, or our “Christian way of life.”
Terrorism evokes terror, and we respond to the apparent randomness of
the threat. Global news also sells newspapers and air time for advertisers,
priming the pump of terrorist threat. In this way news sources serve as the
public relations department of terrorist organizations, getting their message
of fear out far better than the terrorists alone could ever manage
through their internet capacities. In fact, terrorist organizations often
strike on Friday so that the news and photos of the terrorist events remain
unfiltered until Monday, as journalists move to a more part-time pace over
the week end. In this way, terrorist organizations utilize the media in a
sophisticated manner. They rely on the internet for direct communication,
motivating adherents, and planning. They use public news broadcasting to
project their message of violent threat and this is central to their success in
projecting their image of power.
The attacks of terrorist organizations are designed to frighten the population,
assert their power, and disrupt life. Their attacks are planned to create
the most vivid and disturbing visual images. Israel has long experienced
the brunt of such attacks, with Passover celebratory Seders, public buses,
shopping malls, and night clubs being the target for bloody suicide bombings.
It is the images of torn flesh, screaming women and children, and
shaking cameras that project the chaos and terror that terrorists hope will
punish their enemy. The softer the target, the harder the impact, so they
aim violence at the most vulnerable elements of society. Filmed beheadings
and executions are well-thought-out and orchestrated in the theater of violence
they script for broadcast in 24-hour news around the world.
A central element of the fear evoked by terrorism is that it can occur
anywhere, and often targets civilians in their everyday human endeavors.
The horror of the September 11th attack on the New York World Trade
Center brought the war of terrorism home to Americans. Europeans
remained more complacent, even amidst endless warning of a large radicalized
Jihadist element living in their midst.
That complacency ended abruptly in 2015 when Paris was rocked by
the Charlie Hebdo attack, killing 11 journalists for the crime of cartooning
the Prophet Mohammad. Not yet fully heeding the warning, all doubt
evaporated for the French on Friday, November 13, 2015, when coordinated
terrorist attacks struck Paris and the northern suburb of Saint-Denis.
Beginning at 9:20  pm on date night, a time of fun, and dancing and
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  9
laughter, when young people should fear nothing worse than failing to
find a desirable romantic partner, ISEL terrorists murdered 130 people,
seriously wounding another 368 people in a multi-site attack on innocent
civilian targets. It was intentional that they chose a time of laughter and
everyday celebration.
Ironically, during my time in Paris just prior to the Charlie Hebdo
attacks, lecturing on terrorism as an American who also holds an Israeli
passport I found that most young Parisians were anti-Israel and had
bought into a rather anti-Semitic view of the Middle East that they shared
with the terrorists. In most of my talks it was clear that my audience sided
with the terrorists against Israel and indeed most voiced the opinion that
Israel was the terrorist organization. I was advised to hide my Israeli identity,
and to not mention that I was Jewish (especially by French Jews) for
fear of not just isolated reprisal by Muslim extremists, but because of the
overt, shared hostile view among the general public, especially young people,
toward Israel. But this is small irony, as these young people became
victims because they were French and because destruction of their freedom,
their joy of living in a world where women are not covered, would
serve as a testimony to the power of ISEL and their disturbed version of
Koranic law and principles. And terrorism works.
Americans’, and now Europeans’, fear of terrorism is far disproportionate
to the threat in any rational sense. Examining preventable diseases and
injury-related deaths in the U.S., figures from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention indicate that yearly deaths due to heart disease are
estimated at around 633,000, nearly 80,000 people die yearly due to diabetes,
and over 38,000 die yearly due to liver disease and cirrhosis [18].
For 2015 the U.S.  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
reported 10,265 U.S. road deaths with confirmed blood alcohol level of
0.08 [19]. Thirty-six percent of those killed were not the intoxicated
driver. By comparison, from 2001 to 2013, which included September
11th, over 406,000 people died by firearms on U.S. soil, compared to
3030 people killed by terrorism [20]. Subtracting the large tragic number
of victims who died when the World Trade Center was attacked on
September 11th, “only” 424 individuals were killed by terrorist acts on
U.S. soil, since that date. Although these statistics are somewhat in arrears
due to the time it takes to officially accumulate statistics, the general trends
still effectively hold. The chance of Americans or Europeans being killed
or injured during a terrorist attack is less than slight. Each loss of life is
devastating, but terrorism is not a likely threat.
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
10 
As humans we must always manage risk probability. Getting into a car
is typically the most dangerous thing civilians do. But we do not fear our
cars and seldom change our behavior to avoid travelling in a car. Clearly if
you should be fearful of something it is driving in a car, alcohol, obesity,
or the gun in your own home, not terrorism. Words matter because they
reach into deeper brain structures and elicit primitive levels of fear that are
disproportionate to any reality. It is hard to rally the public to the fear of
cows or lightning, even if the CDC reports that cows and lightning yearly
kill more Americans than Islamic terrorists. Cows and lightning do not
have the billion-dollar modern news empire working at their behest, and
we are not hard-wired to fear them as we are the “evil other.”
1.5   Who Are the Terrorists Anyway?
It is also instructive to look at who the terrorists are, as to make ourselves
safe we need to know from what direction the threat is coming. The conservative
right has clearly painted much of the Muslim world as suspect.
Both leading Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald
Trump insinuated that Muslim Americans were also not to be trusted,
promoting internal surveillance of Muslims living in the U.S. Despite clear
and overwhelming evidence that such events never occurred, and unable
to produce the film records he claims he saw, Donald Trump insisted…
There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you
have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center
came down. … There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a
heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. [21]
By such means, the threat of the outsider is manipulated by political
opportunists who pump public fear, evoking the dual image of the foreign
enemy and the enemy in our own midst. As President, Trump has continued
by forwarding fake videos depicting Muslim violence against
Christians. In this manner, President Trump has promoted hatred in a way
that is reminiscent of Fascist pre-WWII Europe. Indeed, the videos were
originally posted by Britain First, a far-right ultranationalist political group
[22]. This group is so far out of the political mainstream that it was deregistered
as a political party by Britain’s Electoral Commission [23].
The facts regarding the actual sources of terrorism would be surprising
to most Americans. Since September 11, 2001, nearly twice as many people
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  11
have been killed by White supremacists, and anti-governmental fanatics and
other non-Muslims in the U.S. than by radical Muslims [24]. By championing
the idea that there is a war on Whites and a war on Christianity, politicians
are ideologically arming terrorism in the U.S. Governor Rick Perry,
when running for election in 2012, promised that if he was elected he
would “end Obama’s war on religion” [25]. Bobby Jindal, the presidential
candidate and governor of Louisiana, warned that “the American people,
whether they know it or not, are mired in a silent war” against “a group of
like-minded [liberal] elites, determined to transform the country from a
land sustained by faith into a land where faith is silenced, privatized, and
circumscribed” [26]. Such language clearly insights “patriots” to act against
the aggressor, only the aggressor is America itself, or at least liberal America
and its government.
Once again we see the use of the language of war and the ultimate
enemy to exhort the passions of the brain regions related to tribal survival.
On July 10, 2015 in the publication Red State, the leading conservative
news and opinion blog, the author writes “But make no mistake – the
aims of secularists in America are the same as those of Islamic terrorists
in the Middle East and elsewhere: to drive Christianity out of public life”
[27]. This writer is not voicing an extremist position, as he is essentially
echoing presidential candidate Ted Cruz who has repeatedly stated that
there is a war on religious freedom and Christianity in particular. To a
gathering of 2500 at the Iowa Events Center on August 21, 2015, Cruz
spoke powerfully from the podium, “There is a war on faith in America
today, in our lifetime….Did we ever imagine that in the land of the free
and home of the brave, we would be witnessing our government persecute
its citizens for their faith?” [28].
It is this language of threat to our founding principles, the principles
that generations have shed their blood to preserve that rallies political
votes, because it evokes the passion of war and sacrifice on the tribal level.
It motivates voters to make it to the polls, to vote for Christian-leaning,
conservative candidates. But it is also a rallying cry for violence that mirrors
the language used by Jihadists about the “West and the American
Satin in its Israel helpmate.” Just as in Islam, there are four ways for believers
to fulfill their Jihadist obligations:
1) with faith in the heart, 2) by preaching and proselytizing, 3) by good deeds,
and 4) by confronting unbelievers with the sword. [29]
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
12 
Islam, like all world religions, is a religion of peace, but violence is
called for when the religion and those of the religion are attacked, when
war is made on them, as radical Muslims believe is occurring. Thus,
extremists worldwide use the argument of black vs. white, good vs. evil, us
vs. them, and that you must choose “our side” “our tribe,” or you are
among the evildoers of the other side.
O ummah [community] of Islam, indeed the world today has been divided into
two camps and two trenches, with no third camp present: The camp of Islam
and faith, and the camp of kufr (disbelief) and hypocrisy—the camp of the
Muslims and the mujahidin everywhere, and the camp of the Jews, the crusaders,
their allies, and with them the rest of the nations and religions of kufr, all
being led by America and Russia, and being mobilized by the Jews. (Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, leader of ISIS [30])
Substituting the words of Conservative politicians of the right is a simple
exercise that illustrates their use of these same structures for their call
to arms.
Fellow Christians, indeed the world today has been divided into two camps
and two trenches, with no third camp present: The camp of Christianity
and faith, and the camp of secularism, liberalism and hypocrisy—the camp
of righteous Christians everywhere, and the camp of the liberal secularism
led by the liberal left. (insertions mine)
And with such powerful language, reasonable Christians are incensed and
rally to the polls, less reasonable Christians turn to far-right talk radio and
develop wild conspiracy theories, and extremist Christians blow up buildings
and attack Black churches. But each of these groups claims the illegitimacy
of the elected liberal, secular government that is argued by
mainstream political leaders.
1.6   Add the Ingredient of Existential Threat
to Anything and…Voila Instant
Primitive Responding
It might appear obvious that the primitive, protective self is a closely wired
response to the threat of violence, terrorism and war. But the depth of the
threat narrative, like a magic poison elixir, can be applied as an ingredient
to virtually anything to produce the dynamics of the response to ultimate
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  13
threat. Our brains are so alert to such threat messages that once flavored
with existential threats, little else rational is processed. Attention, argument,
and behavior rally around the threat theme and support it because
of the essential biology of survival. In fact, in a natural response, the brain
begins to filter out non-threat messaging as dangerous because they avert
attention from the required protective response.
Ted Cruz, in September 2013 from the floor of the U.S. Senate, said,
“If you go to the 1940s, Nazi Germany. Look, we saw in Britain, Neville
Chamberlain, who told the British people, ‘Accept the Nazis. Yes, they’ll dominate
the continent of Europe but that’s not our problem. Let’s appease them’”
[31]. You would imagine he was responding to Obama’s lack of response
to terrorism, or Europeans not taking action to protect Israel, or even
abortion, which for many is akin to murder. But, he was relating to the
Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. In this way, the Affordable Care Act
becomes Nazism, Obama becomes Hitler, and any who fail to make an
ultimate sacrifice against it, become cowards. Further, their act as cowards
drives us to the precipice of what, overspending, making medical care
more intrusive by government? No, it takes us to the precipice of ultimate
evil and the end of days.
From the beginning, opponents’ view of Obamacare was that it would
destroy the country, making it an ultimate existential threat, as to destroy
the country is to destroy who we are and all we cherish. How this will
occur is seldom explained, and now many years after its inception, no
apocalypse has occurred. True, Obamacare is not a perfect program, but
even major corporations are fairly comfortable with how it has played out.
Obamacare increases taxes, switching costs that were largely occurring
anyway to the tax base. And one can appreciate the conservative viewpoint
both against large government and higher taxes, but it is not an ultimate
threat. It is  a much smaller program than social security, Medicare, or
public schools. So, it is neither ultimate in size nor impact. So, the rhetoric
of destruction and end of America is a clarion call that they know will rally
the troops, as troops are willing to go to war against ultimate evils. And of
course, many conservatives are also against public education and the
Environmental Protection Agency.
Christian Evangelists are largely against Obamacare (and the EPA for
that matter). Is it somehow a threat to Christianity? In fact, Obamacare
has seen the extension of medical care to millions of formerly uninsured
individuals, bringing them the miracle and succor of modern medicine. Is
this not the most Christian of acts? Even if costs were higher, is this not
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
14 
the Christian thing to do? And indeed, economists have consistently found
that health care spending costs have slowed to record lows, since the
Affordable Care Act was introduced. There has been a sizable drop in the
nation’s uninsured, millions receiving regular access to medical care for
the first time. Older children remain medically protected among the middle
class, a sizable percentage of these being the children of Evangelical
Christians, along with all of our adult children, as parents can keep their
children on their health insurance until age 26. So again, the Affordable
Care Act seems to be consistent with Judeo-Christian values (as it is to the
values of all the world’s major religions).
For centuries, the Church and Christianity has spent greatly and disproportionately
to heal the sick. Hospitals throughout the world have been
and still are largely sponsored by Christian charity. So, perhaps it is the
provisions of Obamacare for contraception and abortion, but these are
matters of health policy that can and are largely enforced through any
medical insurance, that must meet federal law and nondiscrimination. One
can even see the rationale behind the argument that the Bible speaks to
freedom, and the Affordable Care Act limits some freedoms by enforcing
certain choices. But so do many laws, and certainly many major laws.
So, what becomes apparent is that the Evangelical abhorrence to the
Affordable Care Act is more about their being right-wing Republicans
than any Christian group. And then when they choose Donald Trump
over Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, and indeed a much more Christianpracticing
Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, it would appear that it is
Obama and Clinton they hope to defeat, and not the evil of Obamacare.
In this manner, this desire to defeat the Democrats is a desire to defeat
ultimate evil, or logic just cannot become this twisted. Otherwise they
would be fighting to preserve the universality of Obamacare, and remove
the offending religious infringements, not the entire ending of Obamacare.
They would be offering clear, workable proposals to keep millions of children
and families insured and speaking to those very Christian aspects of
Obamacare. But the Evangelical right is silent on these issues.
Obama “the dictator” is another ultimate argument where the magic
ingredients of infusing any issue with survival and ultimate doom are
applied as they refer to “Dictator Barack Hussein Obama.” Rep. Robert
Pittenger stated in response to President Obama’s executive order on guns
in January 2016 that “legislation is passed by Congress. It’s not passed by
monarch” [32]. We are a democracy and this makes the image of the
totalitarian dictator abhorrent to us, a reason to rise up and overthrow a
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  15
false government. We do not want a president who rules us, but one who
shares power with the Congress.
But the courts have not struck down these “dictatorial executive
orders,” the point being that legal authority has preserved his use of
Executive Authority, consistent with the constitution. So perhaps what is
meant is that Obama is just dictating too much, and a real president would
be less executive. Luckily, executive orders are numbered and have been
since the Federal Register Act in 1936. Franklin Roosevelt, likely due to
the exigencies of war, tops the list with 3721 Executive Orders. Barack
Obama has issued the fewest Executive Orders of any modern president
per term, and they number under 250, through March 2016. Ronald
Reagan far exceeded Barack Obama with 381, and George W. Bush ended
his presidency with 291 [33]. As Fig. 1.1 shows, President Obama was the
least dictatorial of presidents, but the call for our freedom against the great
dictator, the ultimate threat to our freedom and way of life has been made
and the call to our patriot spirit has been made…damage done.
What we must instead conclude is that those who in mainstream politics
charged him with the punishable crime of being a dictator, merely
Fig. 1.1  Executive orders per year in office. (Adapted from Kristen Bialik, Pew
Research Center [33])
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
16 
meant that they did not like his politics. But arguing mere political differences
does not evoke any of the rancor, disdain, and hatred that these politicians
desire to fuel the defeat of a government which they do not even
recognize as legitimate. The Muslim, noncitizen, falsely elected, communist
president is also a dictator…words of revolution, not political activism.
As the poster which popular right-wing radio host Alex Jones
encourages you to download and place in public places and Facebook, the
dictator must be stopped [34]. Extremist of course, but his radio show has
up to 2 million listeners per week, more than Rush Limbaugh and Glenn
Beck combined (Image 1.1) [35].
Once the Nazi metaphor is raised, to argue in favor of the target, is to
argue in favor of tyranny and ultimate evil. Conservative, evangelical presidential
candidate Ben Carson assigned the Nazi framework to nearly every
aspect of political opposition. In August 2015 on the TV show Nevada
Newsmakers, Carson compared Planned Parenthood to Nazi liquidation
genocide.
I certainly see a connection in the sense that Margaret Sanger, their founder,
and people like Adolf Hitler … felt there were certain people who were superior
and certain people who were inferior. And the way that you strengthen the society
was to enhance superior ones and eliminate the inferior ones. [36]
Image 1.1  InfoWars.com’s “Stop Dictator Obama” contest [34]
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  17
In the broadest terms, Ben Carson extends the Nazi metaphor to all of
those who sit on the opposite side of government. As quoted on the conservative
web site Breitbart.com, Carson states that “the current state of
our government and institutions are very much like Nazi Germany”:
“You had the government using its tools to intimidate the population. We
now live in a society where people are afraid to say what they actually believe”
[37]. He [Carson] blames in particular political correctness and government
intimidation for the state of today’s Nazi-like reality.
Nor is this tool of infusing any issue with existential threat and the
assignment of the evil of Nazism only used by Republicans against
Democrats or by the far right against the left. The use of fear messaging
that alerts the brain’s built-in responses of deep fear and survival reaction
can be effectively added to nearly any argument. It is a language that is
used as a weapon of politics amongst the right as they justify their position
and attack the position of their political competition within their own
conservative faction of the Republication party.
On April 10, 2016, on NBC’s Meet the Press, Donald Trump’s convention
manager Paul Manafort said of conservative presidential candidate
Ted Cruz, “You go to these county conventions, and you see the tactics,
Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics” because “they are not playing
by the rules” [38]. So, “not playing by the rules” constitutes Gestapo
tactics and the life-threatening scorched-earth policy. The German Secret
State Police, the Geheime Statspolizei (Gestapo for short) were the personification
of the evil of Nazism. The utterance of their very name struck
the deepest chord of fear. They had the power of arrest, interrogation, and
incarceration, often summarily executing any perceived enemy of the Nazi
regime. With terrifying authority, they descended on the home and workplace
abducting Jews, communists, labor leaders, gypsies, and Christians.
Their tools were terror, liquidation, starvation, summary execution, confiscation
of property and theft of cultural treasures. They performed as
supervisors in the death camps. To use the Gestapo metaphor is abhorrent,
but it is a powerful rallying cry if politicians choose to rely on the
politics of fear to rally their supporters and delegitimize their opposition.
1.7   The Search for Our Humanity
How we react to those who oppose us is always a tightrope walk when
deeply felt issues are being addressed. Terrorism, war, abortion, and even
conservative versus liberal politics raise many difficult questions. Even
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
18 
determining our direct response to terrorism itself draws the best and
worst of our reasoning.
Responding to terrorist attacks in Israel, Rabbi David Stav, nationalreligious
chairman of the orthodox Tzohar rabbinical association, stated
that a terrorist who is injured and no longer posing an immediate danger
must not be harmed further. “In these days in which the blood is boiling… it
is important to preserve our moral superiority; [we must] not harm those
involved in murderous acts who have already been neutralized and do not
represent a threat,” he ruled [39]. But Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu
stated unequivocally that “[i]t is forbidden to leave a murderer alive …
Jewish law is clear… there are courts that can avenge blood and there are
individuals who can avenge blood” [39]. Another prominent Israeli religious
authority, Rabbi Ben-Tzion Mutzafi, laid his interpretation of Jewish
law out in no uncertain terms, “It is commanded to take hold of his head
and hit it against the ground until there is no longer any life in it” [39].
Addressing and combating extremist ideology in word and deed is perhaps
the greatest, most defining struggle of our generation. How we
counter extremist ideology will likely be the meter on which our success as
a civilized society will be judged by the lens of history. If everything is
argued in the extreme and all who oppose us in political life are delegitimized
and cast as tainted by ultimate evil, we lose the proportionality that
is required for political discussion, and to know when discussion should
legitimately end and violent defense of the self, family, and nation begin.
Losing this proportionality is as old as the bible, and you may choose
which bible you are referring to. For Torah, Old Testament, an “eye for an
eye,” had nothing whatsoever to do with taking another’s eye in revenge,
no matter how often it is misused. It is a tract that details the financial
obligation incurred toward one’s neighbor if you are responsible for the
loss of his eye. But our desire for revenge, to protect through all means
possible, is hard-wired in our deep brain and easily brought to the surface
of any issue that we feel passionate about. All we need is to portray the
opposition as rapists, murderers, or dictators who will steal our freedom.
Label them Nazis, terrorists, or fascists, and we elicit the primitive response
system of rally, defend, and aggress, allowing no sanctuary. Our passions
are found in the same deep, early formed regions of our brain, and essential
for our survival as a species. The human response to words, and sticks,
and stones is deeply ingrained in our fundamental, evolutionarily developed
biology, and easily signaled and brought to the surface.
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  19
References
	 1.	The Washington Post. (2015, June 16). Full text: Donald Trump announces
presidential bid. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/16/
full-text-donald-tr ump-announces-a-presidential-bid/?utm_
term=.28651ffda224
	 2.	Hitler, A., & Murphy, J. V. (1981). Mein Kampf. London: Hurst and Blackett.
	 3.	Eisner, M. (2003). Long-term historical trends in violent crime. Crime and
Justice, 30, 83–142.
	 4.	Fischer, C. (2010, June 16). A crime puzzle: Violent crime declines in America.
Berkeley Blog: Politics and Law. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://
blogs.berkeley.edu/2010/06/16/a-crime-puzzle-violent-crime-declines-in-
america/
	 5.	DeStefano, A. M. (2017, January 3). NYC homicide stats comparable to ‘60s;
other crimes down as well. Newsday. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from
https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/nyc-homicide-stats-compara-
ble-to-60s-other-crimes-down-as-well-1.12858407
	 6.	Dunning, E. (1999). Sport matters: Sociological studies of sport, violence and
civilisation. London: Routledge.
	 7.	Todd, O. (2015, April 25). Violent scenes at derby between Red Star Belgrade
and Partizan Belgrade delays game and leaves 35 police officers injured. Mail
Online. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
sport/football/article-3055654/Violent-scenes-derby-Red-Star-Belgrade-
Partizan-Belgrade-delays-game-leaves-35-police-officers-injured.html
	8.	CBC News. (2013, July 7). Soccer fans stone, decapitate referee in Brazil.
CBC News. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/soccer-fans-
stone-decapitate-referee-in-brazil-1.1398879
	9.	Young, J.  (2014, May 28). Soccer’s deadliest fans: The troubles world of
Brazil’s ‘organizadas’. Rolling Stone. Retrieved September 22, 2017, from
http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/soccers-deadliest-fans-the-
troubled-world-of-brazils-organizadas-20140528
	10.	Bendavid, N. (2015, April 29). Soccer violence escalates in Europe. The Wall
Street Journal. Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://www.wsj.com/
articles/soccer-violence-escalates-in-europe-1430308902
	11.	Glueck, K. (2015, December 5). Cruz pledges relentless bombing to destroy
ISIL. Politico. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://www.politico.
com/story/2015/12/cruz-isil-bombing-216454
	12.	Tom, S., Fox, C., Trepel, C., & Poldrack, R. (2007). The neural basis of loss
aversion in decision-making under risk. Science, 315(5811), 515–518.
	13.	Jarrett, G. (2017, December 6). Hannity. (S. Hannity, Interviewer).
	14.	Pirro, J. (2017, December 9). Fox News.
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
20 
	15.	Walshe, S. (2013, May 7). Glenn Beck offends Jews by depicting Mayor
Bloomberg in Nazi-style salute. ABC News. Retrieved September 22, 2017,
from http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jewish-leaders-glenn-beck-apology-
comparing-bloomberg-hitler/story?id=19119684
	16.	LaPierre, W. (2013, February 13). Stand and fight. The Daily Caller. Retrieved
September 22, 2017, from http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/13/stand-and-
fight/
	17.	Shen, A. (2013, April 3). Mike Huckabee: Obama may be planning to grab
guns and launch a Nazi-like dictatorship. Think Progress. Retrieved September
22, 2017, from https://thinkprogress.org/mike-huckabee-obama-may-be-
planning-to-grab-guns-and-launch-a-nazi-like-dictatorship-63e4950effa6/
	18.	Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). Leading causes of death.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved September 22, 2017,
from https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm
	19.	National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration. (2015, December).
Alcohol-impaired driving. National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration.
Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/
Public/ViewPublication/812231
	20.	Jones, J., & Bowen, E. (2015, December 30). American deaths in terrorism
vs. gun violence in one graph. CNN. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from
http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/03/us/terrorism-gun-violence/index.html
	21.	CBS News. (2015, November 22). Trump claims thousands in Jersey City
cheered 9/11 terrorist attacks. CBS News. Retrieved September 22, 2017,
from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-claims-thousands-in-jersey-
city-cheered-911-terrorist-attacks/
	22.	Landers, E., & Masters, J. (2017, November 30). Trump retweets anti-Muslim
videos. CNN Politics. Retrieved December 18, 2017, from http://www.cnn.
com/2017/11/29/politics/donald-trump-retweet-jayda-fransen/index.
html
	23.	Smith-Spark, L. (2017, November 29). Britain First, the far-right anti-Muslim
group retweeted by Trump. CNN. Retrieved December 18, 2017, from
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/europe/uk-politics-britain-first-
trump/index.html
	24.	Bukay, D. (2006). The religious foundations of suicide bombings: Islamist
ideology. The Middle East Quarterly, 13(4), 27–36.
	25.	Blake, A. (2011, December 7). Rick Perry ad condemns Obama’s ‘war on
religion’. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/rick-perry-ad-condemns-
obamas-war-on-religion/2011/12/07/gIQAZHpZcO_blog.html?utm_
term=.d1eca71e0e08
  S. E. HOBFOLL
  21
	26.	Miller, J. (2014, May 10). Bobby Jindal: Government waging “silent war” on
religious freedom. CBS News. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://
www.cbsnews.com/news/bobby-jindal-government-waging-silent-war-on-
religious-freedom/
	27.	Red State. (2015, July 20). A war on Christianity? Surely, You Jest…. Red
State. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://www.redstate.com/diary/
davenj1/2015/07/10/war-christianity-surely-jest/
	28.	Margolin, E. (2015, August 21). Cruz warns of ‘war on faith’ at religious
freedom rally. MSNBC. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from http://www.
msnbc.com/msnbc/ted-cruz-warns-war-faith-religious-freedom-rally
	29.	Shane, S. (2015, June 24). Homegrown extremists tied to deadlier toll than
Jihadists in U.S. since 9/11. The New York Times. Retrieved September 22,
2017, from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/25/us/tally-of-attacks-in-
us-challenges-perceptions-of-top-terror-threat.html
	30.	SITE Intelligence Group. (2014, July 1). Islamic State leader Abu Bakr alBaghdadi
encourages emigration, worldwide action. SITE Intelligence Group.
Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://news.siteintelgroup.com/
Jihadist-News/islamic-state-leader-abu-bakr-al-baghdadi-encourages-emigra-
tion-worldwide-action.html
	31.	Wing, N. (2013, September 25). Ted Cruz takes Nazis, the moon, pro wrestling,
and children’s books to Senate floor speech. Huffington Post. Retrieved
September 22, 2017, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/
obamacare-ted-cruz_n_3984245.html
	32.	Gordon, G., & Off, G. (2016, January 6). N.C. Republicans sharply criticize
Obama’s gun-control measures. McClatchy DC Bureau. Retrieved February 8,
2018, from http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/con-
gress/article53377870.html
	33.	Bialik, K. (2017, January 23). Obama issued fewer executive orders on average
than any president since Cleveland. Pew Research. Retrieved September 22,
2017, from http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/23/obama-
executive-orders/
	34.	InfoWars. (2012, June 18). Explosive activism: Stop dictator Obama contest.
InfoWars. Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://www.infowars.com/
explosive-activism-stop-obama-dictator-contest/
	35.	Blakeslee, N. (2010, March). Alex Jones is about to explode. Texas Monthly.
Retrieved September 22, 2017, from https://www.texasmonthly.com/poli-
tics/alex-jones-is-about-to-explode/
	36.	Phillips, A. (2015, October 9). Ben Carson: The biggest fan of Nazi metaphors
in politics. The Washington Post. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/09/ben-
carson-the-biggest-fan-of-nazi-metaphors-in-politics/?utm_
term=.160392df5355
  THE PRIMITIVE SELF AND THE POWER OF CATASTROPHIC THREAT 
22 
	37.	Breitbart TV. (2014, March 12). Exclusive – Dr. Ben Carson: Our government
is like ‘Nazi Germany’. Breitbart TV. Retrieved September 22, 2017,
from http://www.breitbart.com/video/2014/03/12/exclusive-dr-ben-car-
son-our-government-is-like-nazi-germany/
	38.	Manafort, P. (2016, April 10). Meet the Press. (C. Todd, Interviewer) NBC.
	39.	Sharon, J. (2015, October 15). Rabbis in conflict over whether to kill wounded
terrorists. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved October 3, 2017, from http://www.
jpost.com/Israel-News/Rabbis-in-conflict-over-whether-to-kill-wounded-
terrorists-426051
  S. E. HOBFOLL