A guy is queuing for food in Washington for hours & hours, finally he's had enough. He turns around to his friend and says "That's it. I'm going to punch out that damned Biden out," and marches off. Two hours later he comes back. "Well," says the friend, "how did you go, did you do it? "No," replies the other, "there was an even longer queue @ the friggin' White house."
Another brilliant article Doc, as we’ve come to expect. Thank you. I too have been utterly appalled by the betrayal of the left and all they were supposed to stand for. In fact I’m shocked to the core. When I point out the hypocrisy to them its always met with the same reaction- a blank fluoride stare. It’s hard not to have contempt for them now because, for a lot of them, no amount of truth about the uselessness of the jabs will encourage them to admit failure on the part of the bureaucrats or themselves. It appears the slaves to the cult of unquestioning scientism lack humility and its concomitant respect for the truth.
The left and the right are populated with no thinkers. They go along to get along with their team. They sign up for the value combo meal.
Then, you have the other side, the thinkers, who challenge things based on individual issues. They aren't going to settle for the combo meal which is full of cheap crap.
Finally, you have the semi thinkers. They're the ones that aren't sure of the JFK assassination until all the data is out there... Or if society accepts that the official story was wrong, people like this jump on it like the non thinkers do.
well put ... I've never been a combo meal kind of person, by the way. And the semi-thinking fence-straddlers waiting for which way the wind blows before they commit ....
I am beginning to wonder if Left and Right are false constructs.
Because what really matters is how much power a state has over its citizens.
On one side, anarchy. No power and no laws.
On the other, totalitarianism in whatever form. Whether that be communist, fascist or imperialist governments.
But they control everything.
And let's face it, they seem to change their banner whichever way suits them without consultation anyway.
Give them the power and never expect to have it given back.
An interesting read, The Servile State by H. Belloc. Ironically written over a hundred years ago.
Where he predicted the powerful multinational corporations will usurp national governments and specifically the parties which constitute them.
Then use that influence to enforce a form of communism on the people of those nations whilst maintaining their dog eat dog capitalist agendas in the international space. Essentially the state will help them force their agendas on the people under the banner of fairness and equality.
A mongrel of confusion but yet we see this playing out in the real world. Especially after the TPPA.
His solution isn't all that different to what we see proposed today. He called this
Distributionism. But what it really means is small local democracies and business networks work together to defeat and out compete corporate monopolies.
Unfortunately, in our Dopamine democracy, with all the shiny things and colours, marketing slogans and weekend sales. And all the quick watch this, panic and distraction. These ideas are not only foreign, but completely escape the majority.
A bit of interesting backstory there. Growing up in NZ I became cynical quite young and despite a family farming background which pushed National forward (though my parents may not have always voted Nats) I gravitated to Labour quite young and then went further left on travel to Europe. Now I'm not sure where I am but I definitely do not want to be associated with the likes of Labour & the Greens that's for sure.
It was there, along with "conservative" authoritarianism, merely the other side of the same coin.
I find it useful to view this through more than one lens, it being multivariate and all. I think it interesting that transference was what jogged your memory and inspired your speculation. It doesn't seem serendipitous.
One of the lenses I use is a rather dumbed-down manner of expressing my own preference for being punched in the face, rather than being stabbed in the back. Conservative authoritarianism is direct and honest, an open physical threat against noncompliance. It's the punch in the face."Liberal" (or progressive) authoritarianism is more invasive, seeking to obtain compliance by inculcating maladaptive ideation, cognitive dissonance and constant appeal to authority. It has that same threat of physical violence, but it's cloaked in layer upon layer of sophistry. This is the stab in the back.
Oh, sure, there's categorical overlap, but that's why several analytical frameworks must be employed when evaluating the cognitive structures and emotional landscapes.
Another useful means of considering the "free-thinking vs. no-thinking" dichotomy is to closely observe the response patterns of young adults. The last three years have been quite fascinating in this regard. Younger males who self-identify as "liberal" or "progressive" reveal themselves by the manner of their mockery. In typical male fashion, they resort to direct insult as preferred ad hominem reactivity, while the young women employ allegations of harmful intent.
These are, of course, broad generalizations, with individual variations and overlap. Thanks for yet another thought-provoking essay.
"Was it there all along?" Yes, Dr. Garcia, it was. But it's all the same: whether it's we Constitutionalist Republicans/Conservatives or Progressive Liberals/Democrats idealists, we are at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. We idealistic masses on the Right are led by the war mongering military industrial complex cabal and those idealistic masses on the Left are led by authoritarian despots. Unfortunately, the Leftist masses are, at their core, totalitarians as well, so they are the perfect followers of their masters. We, on the right, value and worship our individual liberty as being a God given right - we are not compliant to the State.
Interesting. Can anybody here explain why a person would like/want totalitarianism? What is in them that has led them to such a hideous inhumane concept? Is it just the ego gone nuts? Is it because deep down they have little personal agency and so need to align with a symbol of power to vicariously grasp what they can’t in fact give themselves?
I think it is a sort of regression to childhood, where the All Powerful Parent takes care of you and you don't have to worry about anything. Of course, people only go there because they don't fully realise what they are getting into, until it is too late.
During the covid hysteria, the constant messaging was "Be safe", and the subtext was "We, the omniscient government know what's best for you, and we are only doing this to keep you safe."
And the majority went along with it. Especially the bit about the "experts" knowing best. Even now, the majority of people still think our governments did (more or less) the right thing, with lockdowns and mandatory masking and border restrictions. And the shots, of course.
There are an increasing number of people who are starting to wonder about just how "necessary" it was, but overall, I am continually astounded at how little questioning there actually is.
Most people are like mice: "Yay! Free cheese". It never even occurs them that there is no such thing as a free lunch; the "free" cheese is the most expensive bite they'll ever take, and they will not understand that truism until it is too late. I will never understand how so many people witnessed the used-car-salesman, desperately hard sales pitch, and simply bought in without question. We live among idiots. *sigh*
there are plenty of wannabe tyrants out there who don't realize that they're just as expendable to the tyrants as the rest of us.
there's also a large contingent who are so brain-damaged by the childhood vaccine schedule that they can't process anything. from what i have read, 35% of american males born since 1988 are on the autism spectrum and will obey any order you give them.
Excellent essay Sir. Me thinks Socialism was the bait, and Marxism the trap, but unlike most revolutions, this one will preserve the intelligentsia and dispose of the "useless people" (no-thinkers) as Harari refers to them, since they have AI as their new serf class and golden goose.
I agree 100 %!!! We need to fear authoritarianism. Left and right have become more than useless- they are confusing. The only way to agree with all this one world crap is if you have not reflected on what it means. I believe we must work hard to awaken all that we can, the sooner the better.
As a psychiatrist, in the configuration of those around the narcissist, that is, those in power, would you put the no-thinkers in the category of both victim and flying monkey (of which are two main types):
Thank you Doc! yet again a wonderful piece describing the left in tatters and an embarrassment to it's former self. I think they are in a trance and an omnipotent one at that! They feel superior even though they have lost any life form or vitality. The most concrete, rigid and authoritarian system I know. I think the collusion with the media is the biggest armour they have and through that and incessant digital indoctrination media they have captured people into a trance like state. I think when their pockets are empty and they are forced into poverty maybe they will blink then but until then they will demonise, categorise, misconstrue and other us who seek independent thought and freedom.
Many start out with similar principles, but manage to lose their way in the weeds over time. Fewer, apparently, stay true - at the cost of innate innocence and optimism. As recent revelations demonstrate, the Universe is larger and more mysterious than we have been led to believe. And the business of leading us to belief is an active one, often designed to subvert any real understanding of numerous things for numerous reasons. The tide comes in and the tide goes out, but the essential struggle between good and evil will never end. We pick a side, and do our best. Or not. It’s an intrinsic feature of reality.
Perhaps it's more about evil. The CIA connected Bush's, Clintons, 0bamas, all groomed, selected & easily manipulated by our 'shadow govt' as it's referred to, for their eagerness to acquire wealth / power at any cost. Know of any good outcomes for outspoken leaders who oppose/expose 'deep state'? Me neither.
In this brilliantly insightful episode of Over the Target, Michael Rectenwald, author of “The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty,” speaks w Lee Smith about the Polish doctor who lived through Nazism & communism (leftist ideologies) & unlocked “the general laws of the origin of evil.”
*2:20 “Political Ponerology” describes how govts become evil
5:00 The origins of evil and the psychology of evil....
I agree with you ... I've read 'ponerology' and I found it quite ponderous, but enlightening. I hope to make a contribution to understanding personal evil sometime ... Thank you.
Since you write about psychoanalysis, I expect you are familiar with the concept of Shadow projection (even though this was a Jungian construct, not a Freudian one). As someone who can relate to your story, finding myself strangely now in a "conservative" camp after a lifetime of espousing all those "left" values, I find that Shadow projection is a useful model to understand what is going on. Throughout history, the revolutionaries have themselves become the Establishment, and eventually decided to use the same control tactics (or worse). Because it's all justified if you are in the right and have God on your side...
But as you say, the real battle is between those who accept totalitarian control (for our own good, of course) and those who still believe in freedom.
And even the metaphor of "battle" is still falling into the same conceptual trap.
As Charles Eisenstein puts it, we need to find a new story to be able to create a new world, with new ways (or maybe just the old ways) of relating to Nature and to each other.
A guy is queuing for food in Washington for hours & hours, finally he's had enough. He turns around to his friend and says "That's it. I'm going to punch out that damned Biden out," and marches off. Two hours later he comes back. "Well," says the friend, "how did you go, did you do it? "No," replies the other, "there was an even longer queue @ the friggin' White house."
Another brilliant article Doc, as we’ve come to expect. Thank you. I too have been utterly appalled by the betrayal of the left and all they were supposed to stand for. In fact I’m shocked to the core. When I point out the hypocrisy to them its always met with the same reaction- a blank fluoride stare. It’s hard not to have contempt for them now because, for a lot of them, no amount of truth about the uselessness of the jabs will encourage them to admit failure on the part of the bureaucrats or themselves. It appears the slaves to the cult of unquestioning scientism lack humility and its concomitant respect for the truth.
Thank you -- and may I say that 'blank fluoride stare' should be in Bartlett's Quotations -- it's brilliant!
The left and the right are populated with no thinkers. They go along to get along with their team. They sign up for the value combo meal.
Then, you have the other side, the thinkers, who challenge things based on individual issues. They aren't going to settle for the combo meal which is full of cheap crap.
Finally, you have the semi thinkers. They're the ones that aren't sure of the JFK assassination until all the data is out there... Or if society accepts that the official story was wrong, people like this jump on it like the non thinkers do.
well put ... I've never been a combo meal kind of person, by the way. And the semi-thinking fence-straddlers waiting for which way the wind blows before they commit ....
I am beginning to wonder if Left and Right are false constructs.
Because what really matters is how much power a state has over its citizens.
On one side, anarchy. No power and no laws.
On the other, totalitarianism in whatever form. Whether that be communist, fascist or imperialist governments.
But they control everything.
And let's face it, they seem to change their banner whichever way suits them without consultation anyway.
Give them the power and never expect to have it given back.
An interesting read, The Servile State by H. Belloc. Ironically written over a hundred years ago.
Where he predicted the powerful multinational corporations will usurp national governments and specifically the parties which constitute them.
Then use that influence to enforce a form of communism on the people of those nations whilst maintaining their dog eat dog capitalist agendas in the international space. Essentially the state will help them force their agendas on the people under the banner of fairness and equality.
A mongrel of confusion but yet we see this playing out in the real world. Especially after the TPPA.
His solution isn't all that different to what we see proposed today. He called this
Distributionism. But what it really means is small local democracies and business networks work together to defeat and out compete corporate monopolies.
Unfortunately, in our Dopamine democracy, with all the shiny things and colours, marketing slogans and weekend sales. And all the quick watch this, panic and distraction. These ideas are not only foreign, but completely escape the majority.
A bit of interesting backstory there. Growing up in NZ I became cynical quite young and despite a family farming background which pushed National forward (though my parents may not have always voted Nats) I gravitated to Labour quite young and then went further left on travel to Europe. Now I'm not sure where I am but I definitely do not want to be associated with the likes of Labour & the Greens that's for sure.
I guess I'm 1980s left still.
"Was it there all along?"
Yes Doc, it was.
It was there, along with "conservative" authoritarianism, merely the other side of the same coin.
I find it useful to view this through more than one lens, it being multivariate and all. I think it interesting that transference was what jogged your memory and inspired your speculation. It doesn't seem serendipitous.
One of the lenses I use is a rather dumbed-down manner of expressing my own preference for being punched in the face, rather than being stabbed in the back. Conservative authoritarianism is direct and honest, an open physical threat against noncompliance. It's the punch in the face."Liberal" (or progressive) authoritarianism is more invasive, seeking to obtain compliance by inculcating maladaptive ideation, cognitive dissonance and constant appeal to authority. It has that same threat of physical violence, but it's cloaked in layer upon layer of sophistry. This is the stab in the back.
Oh, sure, there's categorical overlap, but that's why several analytical frameworks must be employed when evaluating the cognitive structures and emotional landscapes.
Another useful means of considering the "free-thinking vs. no-thinking" dichotomy is to closely observe the response patterns of young adults. The last three years have been quite fascinating in this regard. Younger males who self-identify as "liberal" or "progressive" reveal themselves by the manner of their mockery. In typical male fashion, they resort to direct insult as preferred ad hominem reactivity, while the young women employ allegations of harmful intent.
These are, of course, broad generalizations, with individual variations and overlap. Thanks for yet another thought-provoking essay.
"Was it there all along?" Yes, Dr. Garcia, it was. But it's all the same: whether it's we Constitutionalist Republicans/Conservatives or Progressive Liberals/Democrats idealists, we are at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak. We idealistic masses on the Right are led by the war mongering military industrial complex cabal and those idealistic masses on the Left are led by authoritarian despots. Unfortunately, the Leftist masses are, at their core, totalitarians as well, so they are the perfect followers of their masters. We, on the right, value and worship our individual liberty as being a God given right - we are not compliant to the State.
Interesting. Can anybody here explain why a person would like/want totalitarianism? What is in them that has led them to such a hideous inhumane concept? Is it just the ego gone nuts? Is it because deep down they have little personal agency and so need to align with a symbol of power to vicariously grasp what they can’t in fact give themselves?
that'll take a whole new essay or possibly a book!
Better start now doc because at some point this question will need to be answered! History will require it. And you’re the man for the job!!!
I think it is a sort of regression to childhood, where the All Powerful Parent takes care of you and you don't have to worry about anything. Of course, people only go there because they don't fully realise what they are getting into, until it is too late.
During the covid hysteria, the constant messaging was "Be safe", and the subtext was "We, the omniscient government know what's best for you, and we are only doing this to keep you safe."
And the majority went along with it. Especially the bit about the "experts" knowing best. Even now, the majority of people still think our governments did (more or less) the right thing, with lockdowns and mandatory masking and border restrictions. And the shots, of course.
There are an increasing number of people who are starting to wonder about just how "necessary" it was, but overall, I am continually astounded at how little questioning there actually is.
I remember 1 thing my eldest son said to me when I explained what was really happening around C19 and the jabs
His reply “It’s too hard to think that our government would harm us”
So many people are stuck there, believing in a benevolent government
Both sons now realise how right I was
And well they should!
Good that they are waking up!
Most people are like mice: "Yay! Free cheese". It never even occurs them that there is no such thing as a free lunch; the "free" cheese is the most expensive bite they'll ever take, and they will not understand that truism until it is too late. I will never understand how so many people witnessed the used-car-salesman, desperately hard sales pitch, and simply bought in without question. We live among idiots. *sigh*
there are plenty of wannabe tyrants out there who don't realize that they're just as expendable to the tyrants as the rest of us.
there's also a large contingent who are so brain-damaged by the childhood vaccine schedule that they can't process anything. from what i have read, 35% of american males born since 1988 are on the autism spectrum and will obey any order you give them.
Excellent essay Sir. Me thinks Socialism was the bait, and Marxism the trap, but unlike most revolutions, this one will preserve the intelligentsia and dispose of the "useless people" (no-thinkers) as Harari refers to them, since they have AI as their new serf class and golden goose.
I agree 100 %!!! We need to fear authoritarianism. Left and right have become more than useless- they are confusing. The only way to agree with all this one world crap is if you have not reflected on what it means. I believe we must work hard to awaken all that we can, the sooner the better.
As a psychiatrist, in the configuration of those around the narcissist, that is, those in power, would you put the no-thinkers in the category of both victim and flying monkey (of which are two main types):
--- the benevolent enabler
--- the malevolent enabler
https://www.narcissisticabuserehab.com/types-of-flying-monkeys/?amp=1
Fascinating ... let me ponder on this, thank you!
Interesting viewpoint! How to resolve the problem of taking sides?
I've chosen the side of actual thinking ...
Okay please add to the list of solutions: https://substack.com/profile/11209960-lickyvi/note/c-20895094
Thank you Doc! yet again a wonderful piece describing the left in tatters and an embarrassment to it's former self. I think they are in a trance and an omnipotent one at that! They feel superior even though they have lost any life form or vitality. The most concrete, rigid and authoritarian system I know. I think the collusion with the media is the biggest armour they have and through that and incessant digital indoctrination media they have captured people into a trance like state. I think when their pockets are empty and they are forced into poverty maybe they will blink then but until then they will demonise, categorise, misconstrue and other us who seek independent thought and freedom.
Many start out with similar principles, but manage to lose their way in the weeds over time. Fewer, apparently, stay true - at the cost of innate innocence and optimism. As recent revelations demonstrate, the Universe is larger and more mysterious than we have been led to believe. And the business of leading us to belief is an active one, often designed to subvert any real understanding of numerous things for numerous reasons. The tide comes in and the tide goes out, but the essential struggle between good and evil will never end. We pick a side, and do our best. Or not. It’s an intrinsic feature of reality.
Beautiful comment, thank you
Perhaps it's more about evil. The CIA connected Bush's, Clintons, 0bamas, all groomed, selected & easily manipulated by our 'shadow govt' as it's referred to, for their eagerness to acquire wealth / power at any cost. Know of any good outcomes for outspoken leaders who oppose/expose 'deep state'? Me neither.
But I loved this interview re: insight into evil; https://www.theepochtimes.com/psychologist-explains-why-societies-go-mad_5397065.html ~
In this brilliantly insightful episode of Over the Target, Michael Rectenwald, author of “The Great Reset and the Struggle for Liberty,” speaks w Lee Smith about the Polish doctor who lived through Nazism & communism (leftist ideologies) & unlocked “the general laws of the origin of evil.”
*2:20 “Political Ponerology” describes how govts become evil
5:00 The origins of evil and the psychology of evil....
I agree with you ... I've read 'ponerology' and I found it quite ponderous, but enlightening. I hope to make a contribution to understanding personal evil sometime ... Thank you.
oops, I forgot to send the link! here it is, about 20 minutes: https://www.theepochtimes.com/psychologist-explains-why-societies-go-mad_5397065.html
Someone said scratch a liberal and there's a fascist underneath.
Apparently so.
Since you write about psychoanalysis, I expect you are familiar with the concept of Shadow projection (even though this was a Jungian construct, not a Freudian one). As someone who can relate to your story, finding myself strangely now in a "conservative" camp after a lifetime of espousing all those "left" values, I find that Shadow projection is a useful model to understand what is going on. Throughout history, the revolutionaries have themselves become the Establishment, and eventually decided to use the same control tactics (or worse). Because it's all justified if you are in the right and have God on your side...
But as you say, the real battle is between those who accept totalitarian control (for our own good, of course) and those who still believe in freedom.
And even the metaphor of "battle" is still falling into the same conceptual trap.
As Charles Eisenstein puts it, we need to find a new story to be able to create a new world, with new ways (or maybe just the old ways) of relating to Nature and to each other.