The Oklahoma City Bombings: Social Forces and Their Impact on the Case - Literature review Example

 The Oklahoma City Bombings Social forces and their impact on the case Abstract The paper explores a few published articles and books in order to identify the social forces, such as, historical, sociological, and biographical that motivated Timothy McVeigh for Oklahoma City Bombings in 1995. The paper briefly associate media prejudice, historical influences, and McVeigh’s personal aspirations as a soldier with the tragic bombing. The research, however, suggests a more in-depth study in order to understand the influences completely. The Oklahoma City Bombings: social forces and their impact on the case McVeigh’s personal life, his insecurities, associations and failures influenced his act in a way or the other. In early life, McVeigh spent the life of a Roman Catholic American, who was being bullied due to his tiny stature. Professor Douglas Linder associates McVeigh being bullied and his grandfather’s hunting skills with his weaponry interests (as cited in Rudkin, n.d., p.2). According to CNN, McVeigh consistently remained a conservative and registered Republican. He participated in American Gulf War after joining army (Michel & Herbeck, as cited in Rudkin, n.d., p.2).Hoffman (1997) explains that aspiring for US Green Beret McVeigh disapproved US involvement in Iraq and Kuwait (p.2). Rudkin (n.d.) further stresses that military is the only institution that conditioned McVeigh’s in-group and out-group perception and use of violence to take action against “other” or enemy(3).Which he utilized in attacking government in defense of Patriot Movement. Turk (2004) argues that McVeigh’s military engagements contributed his self-definition of a soldier and the idea of “collateral damage” inflicted on innocent (may be children) while performing his duty (p.279). Turk (2004) further highlights McVeigh’s failure in joining Green Beret unit. Responding to failures, McVeigh became increasingly interested in extremist literature, such as, “The Turner Diaries” (p.247). It was a novel by supremacist William Luther Pierce (Rudkin, n.d.p.3).According to Anti-Defamation League (ADL) it narrate a future of US federal government under Jewish control.ADL also revealed the presence of passages from “The Turner Diaries” in McVeigh’s car on the bombing day. Linder believed that McVeigh’s nescient extremism transformed into action after observing FBI’s Waco and Ruby Ridge operations. Linder further reveals that numerous non-combatant and children deaths in twin incidents motivated him to “strike back” (as cited in Rudkin, n.d., p.5). Rudkin (n.d.) believe that it was the depiction of McVeigh’s struggle against oppression of bureaucracy and a pseudo-philosophical rational for this action rather than anti-Semitism (pp.3-7). In addition to personal influences, McVeigh’s trial faced conformity prejudice which is practiced when juror assume a strong community response in favor of certain judgment of the trial. In this way, trial and decision becomes the representative of community verdict rather than juror’s objective judgment. In McVeigh case, Judge Matsch attributes Oklahoma City’s emotional response as a producer of normative values. Matsch asserted that juror’s personal and public view point awareness can be harmful (as cited in Vidmar, 2002, p.14).It can lead to a feeling of obligation to meet the desires of general public who are directly affected (US. vs. McVeigh, 1996, p.1473 as cited in Vidmar, 2002, p.14).An opinion survey and result of content analysis of pretrial publicity was presented in court, the content analysis was also published in several newspapers (Studebaker et al., 2000,as cited in Studebaker & Steven,2005,p.261 ).The survey depicted the feelings of US citizen in general and Oklahoma residents in particular who hold most negative impressions about McVeigh. The response was emotionally affected and in absolute confirmation for the execution. The results of survey were parallel to content analysis (Studebaker & Steven, 2005, p.261) which certainly had influenced the judgment. Wright led us to the idea and implications of terrorist activities by “home-grown terrorists” and state’s role. He draws upon the theory of contentious collective movements in order to analyze and interpret the conflicts. In the very foundation, there lies a continued interaction of the core actors involved in which one act influences further countermove and both actors explain their acts as originating from the other’s (Wright, as cited in Leslie and John, 2009, p. 112). Same is the case for McVeigh’s and Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995. After WWII, external threat of communism and coinciding internal Civil Rights Movement stirred the circumstances but the association between the two birthed a division of contentious American politics which led to adversity. Founding of anticommunist, John Birch Society in 1950s was targeted to provide lobby support for industry and suppress the impact of labor organizations. Society’s booklet “Two Revolutions at Once” established the association between Civil Rights movement and communist insurrection throughout Third World. The idea was distributed extensively and laid the foundation of the Patriot narrative. By 1965, the idea of huge communist involvement in Civil Rights demonstrations was established in the minds of nearly half of Americans as Gallup poll revealed. Some members, however, didn’t agree with the planned civil rights-communist conspiracy designed by society. They associated society’s conspiracy with paramilitaristic resistance that shaped patriot movement. Thus, DePugh established “Minutemen” in 1960 with a purpose to condition paramilitary units in order to counter communism. William Potter Gale in minutemen rectified the patriot doctrine and established Posse Comitatus (Wright, as cited in Leslie and John, 2009, p. 114-115). Wright identifies Posse Comitatus as “pivotal component” in the progression of Patriot movement (2007, p.63). Posse Comitatus rejected federal authorities, promoted local county government and expanded as a result of disapproving 1970s federal tax system expansion. With Farm crisis in 1980s, Posse Comitatus and other patriot organization membership accelerated due to obstinate governmental attitude. Despite motivating farmers in 1970s, neither Democrats, nor Republican came to rescue them in crisis. The group was affected badly and eager to blame federal government for their woes. Federally funded minorities organizations add to the white farmers’ betrayal. In this situation, organizations like Posse Comitatus and Patriot movement filled the gap and provided a vent for public anger by explaining the economic suffering through conspiracy theories and government involvement. Farm crisis laid the foundations of war between Patriot movement and federal government and it seems that two coincidental catastrophes of Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas initiated the conflict (Wright, as cited in Leslie and John, 2009, p. 115-117). The twin incidents stimulated the idea of government action against Patriot Movement among contentious sphere. While, federal government justified it as efforts to combat civil insurrection from organizations of radical right. Media coverage of the violent standoff shocked American nation.FBI and ATF were highly criticized but generally, there were no links established with the incident. However, Patriot Movement supporters like McVeigh and others considered it the part of a huge plan. Wright suggests that these incidents proved to be the last nail in coffin for McVeigh who considered it the high time to react. No doubt, the results would have been different if the parties would have reacted in different manner. Social theorists argue that in this scenario, the events are composed of moves and proceeding countermoves of actors involved. In Oklahoma City Bombing, these are the acts of US federal authorities and countermove of protestors (Wright, as cited in Leslie and John, 2009, p. 117-119). Either it was personal or historical influence that transformed an ideal soldier like McVeigh into an extremist. McVeigh believed the bombing justified and counteractive of the oppressive federal government. To Wright’s surprise, for McVeigh maximum body count was the objective. Contentious theorist like Wright felt obliged to identify the root cause that motivated movement-state kind of interactions that end with Oklahoma City bombings (Leslie and John, 2009, p. 113-114) but who knows if it’s the end. McVeigh’s case leaves its researcher questioning the governmental authorities, media and public responsibility when it comes to deciding the right and wrong. Work Cited Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Turner Diaries -- Extremism in America. Retrieved from http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/Turner_Diaries.asp CNN. (29 Mar. 2001). Timothy McVeigh. Retrieved from http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/03/29/profile.mcveigh/ Hoffman, D. (1997).The Oklahoma City Bombing and the Politics of Terror. Michigan: Feral House. Leslie, J. &John D. (2009).Reviews: The Oklahoma City Bombing: A contentious politics analysis [Review of the book Patriots, politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing].Dynamics of Asymmetric Conflict, 2(2), 112-144.Available from RoutledgeWebsite: www.informaworld.com Rudkin, A. (n.d.).Sociology 3320: McVeigh as a Terrorist. Retrieved from www.stumpnet.net/papers/timothy%20mcveigh.pdf Turk, A. T. (2004).Sociology of Terrorism. Annual Review of Sociology, 30(1), 271-286. Studebaker, C.A., & Steven D.P. (2005).Pretrial Publicity and its Influence on Juror Decision Making. In Neil Brewer & Kipling D. Williams (Ed.).Psychology and Law: An Empirical Perspective (254-275).New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Vidmar, N., "Case Studies of Pre- and Mid-Trial Prejudice in Criminal and Civil Litigation" (2002). Duke Law Faculty Scholarship. Paper 1109. http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/faculty_scholarship/1109 Wright, S.A. (2007).Patriots, politics, and the Oklahoma City Bombing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. 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