And the paranoid Al Gore is their new "Rock Star".
Posted on 07/29/2006 6:22:28 AM PDT by Harrius Magnus
The American Left as "crisis cult"
Clinical psychologist Robert Godwin proposes an interesting framework for understanding the increasingly bizarre behavior of the American Left at his very interesting website One Cosmos. Drawing on the work of psychoanalytic anthropologist Weston LaBarre, he posits that the left has become a “crisis cult” such as are found in societies whose bedrock assumptions break down in the face of the superior strength of foreign cultures impinging on their territory.
Probably the most famous of the crisis cults are the cargo cults which developed in Melanesia.
The Cargo Cults believe that manufactured western goods (‘cargo’) have been created by ancestral spirits and intended for Melanesian people. White people, however, have unfairly gained control of these objects. Cargo cults thus focus on overcoming what they perceive as undue ‘white’ influences by conducting rituals similar to the white behavior they have observed, presuming that the ancestors will at last recognize their own and this activity will make cargo come. Thus a characteristic feature of Cargo Cults is the belief that spiritual agents will at some future time give much valuable cargo and desirable manufactured products to the cult members.
The crisis cult LaBarre wrote most about were the Ghost Dancers among Native Americans in the 19th century
when American Indians were facing the complete dissolution of their way of life—loss of their hunting territories, near extinction of the once vast buffalo herds, a series of disastrous military defeats, multiple droughts, and new and fatal diseases. The Ghost Dance was a fantasied solution to all their problems, involving the widespread idea that “a new skin would slide over the old earth, covering up the whites and all their works, and bringing upon it new trees and plants, great buffalo herds, the ghosts of the dead, and the great departed warriors and chiefs.” This utopia would come about if only each person in all the tribes danced the elaborate Ghost Dance.
Godwin explains:
...progressives are having to cope with a catastrophic collapse of their world and all of its comforting myths. As each myth crumbles in succession, they become increasingly frantic in papering over reality with the downright strange beliefs of their progressive crisis cult.
Thus come delusional assertions: Bush is an idiot despite degrees from Yale and Harvard; Republicans are questioning the patriotism of Democrats; the monitoring of international phone calls signals the onset of totalitarianism; and (my favorite) Air American founder Sheldon Drobny’s assertion that Karl Rove is behind the anti-Semitic posts at Daily Kos.
I think it is almost unquestionable that the Left’s belief systems have proven incongruent with the real world. Communism didn’t work and only survives as a pretext for despotism in North Korea and China. Welfare is a trap, and poor people’s lot in America has improved since access to it was term-limited. Higher taxes on “the rich” depress economic growth and throw people out of work. The list could go on.
With their gods having failed them, leftists have turned to cant, ritual, and hysterical repetition of their golden oldie playlist of slogans. And most of all, to demoinization of their opponents. It is fairly primitive, and often comic, with tinges of tragedy.
Metaphors are an effective way to understand such bizarre behavior. The more the merrier.
Hat tip: Larwyn
Thomas Lifson 7 27 06
And the paranoid Al Gore is their new "Rock Star".
I couldn't agree more.
I don't question their patriotism: I know for a fact they have none to question.
I still see their wretched, insane socialism advancing or holding on nearly front.
Property rights have taken a horrendous beating in the last 30 years, culminating in Kelo.
I can't legally buy a full auto without shelling out stacks of cash and bowing to the fascist federal functionairies.
And federal spending has gone up about 100% in the past 10 years, and that's with the republicans controlling the house.
Too damn much government for me.
What I don't understand about the left, (and I now think the left in America and the world is as dangerous, if not MORE dangerous than the insane, psychotic Islamofascists), is how totally unrealistic, unpragmatic and how incredibly naive, unaware and out of thouch they are with the reality that there is a large group of Muslims who have killed a large number of us and want to kill every single one of us!
Do they really not think that as soon as the psycho Islamofascists get nuclear weapons they won't use them on us? Do the "liberals" and leftist fruitcakes in this country really think the Muslims won't nuke NYC and DC?
But what do you really feel about them :O)
(you nailed it)
They are pitiful but not to be pitied. One does not pity snakes = one give them a wide berth or cuts off their head
"Do they really not think that as soon as the psycho Islamofascists get nuclear weapons they won't use them on us? Do the "liberals" and leftist fruitcakes in this country really think the Muslims won't nuke NYC and DC?"
---
They don't care, and They don't care, are the answers to your questions, IMO.
Spot on
I don't question Democrats' patriotism. I know that many (most) are not patriotic and a some of them are just outright traitors.
This is not only a problem that the left faces. This is the end result of a Romantic Outlook that effects quite a few on the right as well. So much so that for a while this was my tag line.
Warning: Not a Romantic or hero worshiper. Attempts to tug at my heartstrings annoy me, and I bite
While the left is busy destroying itself we too must take care that we do not allow the Romantics to take charge of our side or we will soon go down the same path.
"I don't question Democrats' patriotism. I know that many (most) are not patriotic and a some of them are just outright traitors."
I agree and wonder when push will come to shove with these people? What happens when a Congressman or Senator or other government official sells nuclear or defense secrets
to someone who uses it to commit a major act of war on us? Will anyone in this country EVER be tried or imprisoned for sedition on treason?
Will it ever get to a point for the very survival of the country (say to stop the Muslims from nuking an American city) that someone will actually have to just shoot some of the traitors within the government to stop the destruction of our freedom and country? Read Vince Flynn's "Term Limits".
I'm probably not the only one wondering what a romantic outlook is, what is it?
I think there is something to this
ping
Bill Whittle asks: "Which direction do the rafts go?"
Well stated!
It is the most ardent emotional nonsense and is quite frankly the most dangerous of all philosophies because it allows no room for human nature in its true form nor does it allow room for deviation from The Ideal what ever that ideal is.
While you will find a high number of Romantics following such ideals as communism and environmentalism you can also find them on the right.
Always they seek to return to a past mythical golden age when all was glorious. The reality that such an age never existed will not stop them because they refuse to believe it.
I don't question their patriotism. They have none to question.
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