What can a sociologist say that hasn't been said many times about the Hamas raid and Israel's retaliatory war in Gaza?  I will draw on theoretical generalizations from the history and time-dynamics of violence (Mann 2023; Collins 2022); as applied to a daily chronology of news sources from Oct. 7, 2023 onwards. I will make 3 points.   [1] Hamas's violent incursion, killing and raping civilians and taking hostages, is a reversion to ancient and medieval forms of war. It is a conscious rejection of modern laws and norms. It is also a tactic to compensate for Israel's overwhelming ..read more

 Let us assume Artificial Intelligence will make progress. It will solve all its technical problems. It will become a perfectly rational super-human thinker and decision-maker. Some of these AI will be programmed to act as finance capitalists. Let us call it an AI-robot capitalist, since it will have a bank account; a corporate identity; and the ability to hold property and make investments.   It will be programmed to make as much money as possible, in all forms and from all sources. It will observe what other investors and financiers do, and follow their most successful practices. I ..read more

 Researchers on violent criminal organizations have grown more intrepid over the years. Until the 1980s, most information came from interviews in prison, reminiscences of ex-members, or by hanging out in neighbourhoods that had local gangs. Some researchers have been taking the dangerous step of participant observation inside the group itself. Here I will focus on four pieces of insider research: by an FBI agent who spent six years infiltrating the Mafia; Alice Goffman, a white woman who spent six years with a black street gang; Italian sociologist Alessandro Orsini, who went underground ..read more

  The fatal beating of Tyre Nichols by a group of Memphis police officers on January 7, 2023 shows the same patterns as other police atrocities.   Three police tactics and procedures seen in Memphis greatly increase the risk of cops becoming so aggressive and emotional that they lose self-control. The result is prolonged violence continuing long after the suspect is incapacitated; officers making frenzied, loud, even joyous noises egging each other on; mocking the victim, joking, and bragging about the incident for almost an hour afterwards. These are all signs of collective adrenali ..read more

 The family is the oldest human institution, even a pre-human institution existing among the great apes. Along with the deliberate control of fire, which Goudsblom saw as the beginning of socially-imposed self-discipline and the “civilizing process,” early humans also developed a variety of kinship institutions. These were rules about who could or could not marry whom; incest prohibitions and exogamy rules; residency rules about whose group the new wife or husband lived with; descent rules about which lines of descent were considered lineages of membership, obligation and inheritance. &nb ..read more

  Multiple causality versus simple-mindedness:   Glib talk is the stuff of front-stage politics (but not of back-stage politiking).   Of advertisements and journalism (but not of editorial meetings).   Those who are successful in the world do not think that way, although they use talk as a weapon.   Yet there is advantage, even in science and intellect in simplifying to the most powerful causes,   and to win the center of attention among the voices by summing up the complexities in a term, Kuhnian paradigm, spin, vicious and virtuous circles,   but not to thi ..read more

 Written before Putin’s invasion, the progress of the Ukraine war bears out generalizations made in Explosive Conflict: Time-Dynamics of Violence.    [1] Three-to-six month rise and fall in public crisis attention [2] High-tech war reverts over time to older-style warfare [3] Civilian atrocities in the midst of guerrilla war behind the lines [4] Polarization and historical amnesia (Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, WWII, WWI-- and Syria)   [1] Three-to-six month pattern Almost every war is popular at the outset. People are outraged and energized. This goes on at a high level of i ..read more

 Beethoven started going deaf in his late 20s.  Already famous by age 25 for his piano sonatas, at 31 he was traumatized by losing his hearing. But he kept on composing: the Moonlight Sonataduring the onset of deafness; the dramatic Waldstein Sonata at 32; piano sonatas kept on coming until he was 50. In his deaf period came the revolutionary sounds of his 3rd through 8th symphonies, piano and violin concertos (age 32-40). After 44 he became less productive, with intermittent flashes (Missa Solemnis, Diabelli variations, 9th symphony) composed at 47-53, dying at 56. His last string q ..read more

  There are five main processes that states juggle when setting policies on immigration, including economic immigrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers.   [1] Capital accumulation vs. protectionism. Modern capitalism favours the widest possible movement of capital and labour across borders for maximizing profit. In alliance with political forces, however, it can swing towards protectionism. A pro-business party is not necessarily strong enough in its own right; often it allies with conservative and nationalist sentiments in order to get elected.    [2] National identity rests ..read more

  If there were no women, there would be no society. (Also if there were no men.) Therefore sex (analytically distinguishable from gender) is one of the indispensable fundamentals of society.   If there were no workers, there would be no society. If there were no capitalists, society would still exist (and in many historical instances has existed).  Therefore workers are an analytical category as fundamental as males/females. (Workers in the analytical sense include both manual and nonmanual workers.)   If there were no homosexuals, society would still exist. Sexual prefere ..read more