I read this article, about how little looting there has been in Japan. Does it not say something rather unflattering about us that we would find this noteworthy?
It is often remarked upon that the need to belong to a group causes conflict. There is always, in academic terms, an existential Other, upon which violence can and always has been visited. Western Colonialism–but not, I might add, Eastern and Islamic and many other colonialisms–has been deconstructed along this pathway.
It should be noted, though, that even if the us/them template enables violence (a good example would be the Islamic distinction between the House of Peace and the House of War), it REDUCES it within the group. Both outcomes follow upon a closely followed, reasonably well thought-out cultural identity. Even if you hate and want to kill the proverbial people on the other side (of the border, the street, the river, the fence), you trust and support those within your group.
Violence is very common in Mexico, but not, I suspect, within families.
The interesting outcome, then, of multiculturalism–which we might usefully define as “Anti-Western culturism”–is that violence, rather than being channellized and directed, becomes generalized. If there is no Other out there, then he is now your neighbor. You think sometimes of killing him, don’t you? If not him, then some person in a movie who has been plausibly painted as deserving it.
I have approached this rough insight many ways. Normally I come at it sociologically and psychologically, but I think it would not be unwarranted to call this approach anthropological.
I will append this by commenting that Leftism is a tribalism. It creates, ex nihilo, a group, a faction, a cult, within which you can take your part, and with the decoder ring and membership card you get permission to HATE as much as you like, as long as–what?–as long as that hatred is Channellized and Directed at the right people.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme merde, non?