This is an oldie but goodie that I first posted at Power and Control in October of 2005. I think it still rings true.
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Front Page Magazine is doing a symposium with a number of leftist who have broken with the faith. Tammy Bruce has some very interesting things to say about the kind of people the left tends to draw from.
Narcissism, while frequently thought of as "self-love," is in fact the opposite. It is self-obsession based on victimhood and paranoia. Narcissism is actually the belief that everything that happens, happens because of you, or revolves around you. As an example, feminist narcissists see the pro-life movement as being against women, or as a jihad against women, as opposed to an expression of those peoples' concern for life. The issues for narcissists, whether they be feminist, gay or black, is always about them, surrounding them, or about how the opposition is out to get them. Paranoia is a key factor in narcissism and easy to exploit.
Victimhood. What makes a person in his/her late teens think they are a victim? What could happen in child hood to give a person that mind set? Tammy goes on:
Leftist politics, like a vicious circle, rely on the damaged as footsoldiers, while the most damaged, the "Malignant Narcissist," as I explain in The Death of Right and Wrong, move into positions of power and leadership, furthering the cultural and political destruction of our culture and of the left in general.
From my personal experience on the left I would have to agree. I think my main attraction to the left came from two points. One is the natural sympathy for the victims of injustice, human nature. The second was that I was a victim of severe child abuse and felt at home with other abused kids standing against injustice. The narcissim Tammy talks about is real. However, it is for most not something chosen but inflicted on them. This is the biggest mistake of the right. The idea that the origins of the left are in malevolence and not in human nature. More specifically brain chemistry.
Phyllis Chesler expands on that theme:
As a Jew, I was always concerned with the suffering of others--and while I agree with the earlier analysis that this victim-identification can be both megalomaniac, narcissistic, and ultimately irrational, rigid, totalitarian, I also still believe that trying to help others, to repair the injustice in the world, is an ethical choice.
Too true.
John R. Bradley has noticed Tammy's money quote and comments:
Tammy Bruce's observation, that "Leftist politics, like a vicious circle, rely on the damaged as foot soldiers," is nowhere more relevant than the love affair of the Left with the Palestinians. The great French writer Jean Genet, who had a sympathy for the Palestinian cause, nevertheless got it just right when he wrote in Prisoner of Love that they only really come into their own when a camera is trained on them and they are playing the role of victim, basking in the media spotlight.
Victims. Nothing but victims. I noted in my article The Origins of Islamic Rage in which Phyllis Chesler reports on why Islam is the way it is, that Islam as a whole has this victim mentality. The article explains why. Child abuse.
And then Instapundit this morning links to an article about Lebanon by Michael Totten which has this to say about Lebanon:
I also wonder if this entire culture is still wracked with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and is accordingly paranoid about worst case scenarios.
So Michael diagnoses the problem from afar the same way Chesler does up close and personal. What is to be done? Well, Lebanon is famous for its quality marijuana and Blond Lebanese Hashish. So what does hashish have to do with it?
So now we know why a lot of lefties keep their bongs always at hand. They need them. The leftist cadre were always exhorting the dopers to give up the evil weed. Why? Not from any moral point surely. Of course not, it was because it dulled the will to fight. Now from a social and medical stand point might it not be best to let the left (and libertarians on the right) have their pot, mellow out and thus be less interested in fighting the rest of us and possibly even be more open to reason. Pot after all causes brain cell growth.
And why pot? Well for one thing it is unpatented. That will save a fortune in fees to the drug companies and since pot is a plant you just deliver seeds and growing instructions.
In the end Nixon's idea to use the War On Drugs to go after the left may have been one of the most counter productive things he ever did.
posted by Simon on 03.30.08 at 08:58 PM
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Comments
I never was a leftist. I recognized the incipient socialism in liberal theology. The main problem with liberalism that I realized in the early 70’s was the failure to align with basic human nature. It was supremely idealist and always thought that humans if could be just this way, everything would be right and utopian. When humans failed to cooperate, the only way liberalism could be enforced was thru force or basically authoritarian tactics.
I used to argue in college in 1975-78 that liberalism was so paternalistic and always insisted on telling people how to think, feel and what to do. Never left it up to the individual. The assumption was that the individual was incapable of self-government. I did not consider myself as a conservative in my formative years around 12-14 but as a fierce individualist. I was reading Robert Heinlein a lot and “ A Time enough for Love” has a lot of truisms in it that make so much sense.
Economic and political systems work best when they align with human nature. Adam Smith summed it up that based on self-interest; market forces create wealth and productivity. Liberals denounce self-interest and greed and avarice. But these are basic human traits. When these traits are accounted in a system then the system worked. The beauty of the Constitution is that it implicitly recognizes the way human behave and incorporated the three branch with intent to prevent human nature from accumulating power by deliberately setting up competing power structures. Unfortunately the Civil War rearranged the competing structure between States and Federal government and from that time on the Federal government has assumed powers that were not granted to it, Since the States were reduced in power, the Federal government was able to grab more power.
Most of what the Federal Government does is a usurpation of power not granted in the Constitution. Education, Medi-Care, Social Security are services that the Constitution does not grant. The 10th amendment has been emasculated.
My personality does not accept victim hood, survival is more my mantra. I am affected by society but never a victim. My failure and successes are my own. Not forced upon me by others.
The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
Don?t bang your head!
I never was a leftist. I recognized the incipient socialism in liberal theology. The main problem with liberalism that I realized in the early 70’s was the failure to align with basic human nature. It was supremely idealist and always thought that humans if could be just this way, everything would be right and utopian. When humans failed to cooperate, the only way liberalism could be enforced was thru force or basically authoritarian tactics.
I used to argue in college in 1975-78 that liberalism was so paternalistic and always insisted on telling people how to think, feel and what to do. Never left it up to the individual. The assumption was that the individual was incapable of self-government. I did not consider myself as a conservative in my formative years around 12-14 but as a fierce individualist. I was reading Robert Heinlein a lot and “ A Time enough for Love” has a lot of truisms in it that make so much sense.
Economic and political systems work best when they align with human nature. Adam Smith summed it up that based on self-interest; market forces create wealth and productivity. Liberals denounce self-interest and greed and avarice. But these are basic human traits. When these traits are accounted in a system then the system worked. The beauty of the Constitution is that it implicitly recognizes the way human behave and incorporated the three branch with intent to prevent human nature from accumulating power by deliberately setting up competing power structures. Unfortunately the Civil War rearranged the competing structure between States and Federal government and from that time on the Federal government has assumed powers that were not granted to it, Since the States were reduced in power, the Federal government was able to grab more power.
Most of what the Federal Government does is a usurpation of power not granted in the Constitution. Education, Medi-Care, Social Security are services that the Constitution does not grant. The 10th amendment has been emasculated.
My personality does not accept victim hood, survival is more my mantra. I am affected by society but never a victim. My failure and successes are my own. Not forced upon me by others.