Hans L Zetterberg

The Many-splendored Society Volume 3: Fueled by Symbols Hans L Zetterberg

Publisher Marketing: This third book on The Many-Splendored Society examines how we use language to inspire human beings to live in and develop their societies. We prompt ourselves by using "justifying vocabularies" and we prompt others by the use of "compelling vocabularies." These motivating vocabularies are short pieces of language with remarkable leverage. They epitomize the power of the language brain. Six justifying vocabularies are unique to each of the societal realms of science, art, economy, religion, polity, and morality. Four justifying vocabularies are at the core of the dominating ideologies in free societies: individualism, meritocracy, universalism, and egalitarianism. We review the far-reaching implications of some compelling vocabularies such as the selfish fact that people trust those who are like themselves more than they trust people unlike themselves. We deal with vocabularies avoiding social exclusion and preserving favorable self-images. As humans, we also have unselfish vocabularies trustful of others, for example, abetting the survival of our beneficial encounters and upholding the order that upholds us. In the final part in this volume, we find a synthesis of - or, better expressed, a "zipper" between - justifying and compelling vocabularies. We conclude that ordinary words in the zipped vocabularies actually can arrest a society's disintegration into the chaos of everybody's war against everyone else. This dual motivation can be strong enough to compete with bodily spontaneities and, in a majority of circumstances, be strong enough to serve as a substitute for violence as a means of social control. Their use makes for a civilized life, where conflicts are resolved, not by force, but by words, and where violence is reduced to the minimum needed to defend civility. Contributor Bio:  Zetterberg, Hans L Hans L. Zetterberg was the founding director of the City University of Stockholm. Before that he was professor of sociology at Columbia University in New York. He is the author of Social Theory and Social Practice and is the subject of Sociological Endeavor, a festschriften. In addition his work has appeared in numerous publications, including Minerva, Acta Sociologica, andMarketing and Research Today. Contributor Bio:  Ander, Martin Martin "Mander"Ander (b. 1976) is an internationally renowned graphic designer whose roots lie in the skateboard and graffiti world of Stockholm. Mander works in a large variety of styles and expressions, and through his breadth has established himself internationally, both as an illustrator and designer. He is most known for his record covers and skateboard graphics, but has also produced books like Sheraton Years and Subway Sketchbook. Martin has also contributed to the design of modern classics like Street Art Cookbook, Classic Hits and KAOS - Vandals in Motion.