WAR Fever - why do more Houstonians hanker to solve problems with violence?
According to the author of an eight-month survey conducted by the University of Texas, Houston suffers from an acute case of "war fever."
People with that affliction might be good citizens, says Dr. Alfred McAlister, but they have come to accept using tanks and guns to solve problems. "We found that in the U.S.A., these attitudes were strongest in the Houston area," says McAlister, a behavioral scientist at the UT School of Public Health in Houston. "People in Houston are generally more likely to accept justifications for war, like the idea that it is okay to make war to increase our economic security."
McAlister offers a version of his survey questionnaire on the Web site www.peacetest.org. The site has already sparked controversy, especially after e-mails were sent to Houston medical students encouraging them to try the test.
One student took exception to the term "war fever," which McAlister gleaned from a statement made by Secretary of State Colin Powell shortly before the Iraq war. The student reposted the invitation on his blog, writing after the term, "this is an obvious attempt to label those who won't fellate terrorists as mentally sick."
Political implications aside, researchers say the theories McAlister has employed to design and interpret his survey are not controversial, at least not in the world of academia. "I have not run across any serious critiques of the approach anywhere," says sociology professor Lester Kurtz, an authority on peace studies at UT-Austin. "My guess is it would be more likely to be controversial to the general public -- which you would hope, because the whole reason we do this stuff is to make people think and debate."
War Test - When is military action justified?
Kill test - Is killing ever right?
el - The Texas Democratic Party passed a resolution calling for the creation of a United States Department of Peace.
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