The Skeptics Society & Skeptic magazine

Episode 129
Minions, Mobs & Myrmidons

David Perlmutter

Caitlin Mongrain

From ancient Greece to modern movies, monsters and villains often get their assistance from mindless mobs of maleficent minions. Are they simply plot devices, or do minions tell us something about the real-world role of the follower when loyal obedience is valued more than heroic ethics? In this episode of Monstertalk, David Perlumtter and Cait Mongrain join us to discuss Minions, Mobs and Myrmidons.

Related Works

• David D. Perlmutter. Picturing China in the American Press: The Visual Portrayal of Sino-American Relations in Time Magazine, 1949–1973. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.
• David D. Perlmutter. Policing the Media: Street Cops and Public Perceptions of Law Enforcement. Beverly Hills: Sage, 2000.
• David D. Perlmutter. Visions of War: Picturing Warfare from the Stone Age to the Cyberage. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999.
• David D. Perlmutter & Nicole Elise Smith. “(In)Visible Evidence: Pictorially-Enhanced Pseudoscientific Disbelief in the 1969 Apollo Moon Landing.” Visual Communication, 7(2) 2008: 229–251.
• David D. Perlmutter. “Re-Visions of the Holocaust: Textbook Images and Historical Myth-Making.” Howard Journal of Communication, 8(2) 1997: 151–159.
• David D. Perlmutter. “Face-lifting the Death’s Head: The Calculated Pictorial Legacy of the Waffen-SS and Its Modern Audience.” Visual Anthropology, 4 (1991): 217–245.
• David D. Perlmutter. “‘Look, Look: See the Glorious Fighters!’ The Visual Persuasion of ISIS and the Fanboys of Terror.” In Countering Daesh Propaganda: Action-Oriented Research for Practical Policy Outcomes, pp. 9–14. The Carter Center, February 2016.

More References

• Crockford, C., Deschner, T., & Wittig, R. M. (2017). What is the role of oxytocin in social buffering: Do primate studies change the picture?. In R. Hurlemann, & V. Grinevich (Eds.), Topics for Behavioral Pharmacology of Neuropeptides: Oxytocin. Springer.
• Wrangham, R. W. (1999). Evolution of coalitionary killing. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 110 (S29), 1096–8644.
• Wrangham, R. W., & Peterson, D. (1996). Demonic males: Apes and the origins of human violence. NY, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Keeley, L. H. (1997). War before civilization. NY, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Ferguson, R. B. (1997). War before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage. American Anthropologist, 99 (2), 424–425.
• Jackson, J. W. (1993). Realistic Group Conflict Theory: A Review and Evaluation of the Theoretical and Empirical Literature. Psychological Record, 43 (3), 395–415.
• Sherif, M. (1966). In common predicament: Social psychology of intergroup conflict and cooperation. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
• Rösner, L., & Krämer, N. C. (2016). Verbal venting in the social web: Effects of anonymity and group norms on aggressive language use in online comments. Social Media + Society, 2 (3), 1–13. doi: 2056305116664220.
• Doosje, B., Ellemers, N., & Spears, R. (1995). Perceived intragroup variability as a function of group status and identification. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31 (5), 410–436.
• Hanson, V. D. (2004). The western way of war. Australian Army Journal, 2 (1), 157.
• Hanson, V. D. (2009). The western way of war: Infantry battle in classical Greece. CA, Los Angeles: University of California Press.
• Perlmutter, D. (1999). Comrades chapter. In Visions of war: Picturing warfare from the stone age to the cyber age (pp. 89–116). New York: St. Martin’s Press,
• McNeill, W. H. (1997). Keeping together in time. NY, Boston: Harvard University Press.
• Silvestri, L.E. (2015). Friended at the Front: Social Media in the American War Zone. Kansas: University Press of Kansas.
• Shils, E. A. (1950). Primary groups in the American army. Continuities in social research: Studies in the scope and method of the American soldier, 16–39.
• Surbeck, M., Boesch, C., Girard-Buttoz, C., Crockford, C., Hohmann, G., & Wittig, R. M. (2017). Comparison of male conflict behavior in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus), with specific regard to coalition and post-conflict behavior. American Journal of Primatology, 79 (6), 1–11.
• Radice, B. (1968). Pliny and the Panegyricus. Greece and Rome (Second Series), 15 (02), 166–172. Perhaps)

Some books on “henchmen” in real life

• Stalin: Triumph and Tragedy
• Soldiers of Destruction
• Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View

Music

• Monstertalk Theme: Monster by Peach Stealing Monkeys

The views expressed on this program are not necessarily the views of the Skeptics Society or Skeptic magazine.