As a stand up philosopher, I have noticed a group on the edges of every other group. I’ve come to think of this group as the sentinels. This is just my observation and I am far from a good observer. Sentinels are hard to miss because they make themselves visible. You will see them if you have not already done so.

Sentinels are the people who try to protect their respective groups from exposure to alternatives. Not all alternatives are a threat so sentinels can appear easy going most of the time. They are defined by the way that they try to defend other members of the group by eliminating temptation. What separates sentinels from true believers is that sentinels cannot defend their own beliefs. A sentinel defers to emotion in place of reason in order to avoid an intellectual defense of his position.

I believe that sentinels have lost faith in what they are defending and, therefore, do not believe that anybody else can honestly offer a reasoned defense of those beliefs. Sentinels believe that they believe more than they actually do believe. What they honestly seem to believe is that their position is the least of all the evils. From my observations, sentinels are most hostile toward the opposing viewpoint that they would otherwise truly believe in.

This could be a result of critical theory where they have learned an emotional reaction to an otherwise rational position. Sentinels can go beyond misrepresenting opposing positions to actually defending strawman arguments in support of the group that they are defending. What most defines a sentinel is not the passion with which he defends his position but the passion with which he will try to avoid having to defend his position. You will find sentinels wrapped around any idea that has lasted long enough to have a group supporting it.

You will not find sentinels trying to recruit for their groups. That would require exposure to the people that they view as a threat. Sentinels will rally around new recruits to insulate them from doubts. Lacking true faith, a sentinel does not build up the ability to defend a viewpoint in initiates. What a sentinel will do is poison the mind of candidates against the position that he views as the most dangerous. Often, he will act in an attempt to cloud his own mind to the fact that he believes the viewpoint that he opposes the most strongly. A sentinel can never tell the difference between ‘I think’ and ‘I feel.’

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Mulligan Adventures. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.