Thanks for the reminder of Reagan's "Greed is good" roots, Thom. I am connecting that base, selfish, human inclination to Trump's popularity and even our recent midterm elections. I am connecting some dots here with your recent topic of the Fourth Turning--our roughly 80-year cycle of human meltdown & conflict. How is it, I am wonderi…
Thanks for the reminder of Reagan's "Greed is good" roots, Thom. I am connecting that base, selfish, human inclination to Trump's popularity and even our recent midterm elections. I am connecting some dots here with your recent topic of the Fourth Turning--our roughly 80-year cycle of human meltdown & conflict. How is it, I am wondering, that roughly half of our country couldn't see Trump for who he was--a narcissistic, greedy, sociopath--back in 2016 when he first ran for President...but the other half of us did? Why after 6 years was this midterm election still such a squeaker when the choice was plainly between choosing what's best for our country vs. what's best for my (MAGA-hat) group? Is it that roughly half of Americans subconsciously identify with Ayn Rand, the materialistic, rich girl who had all her cookies taken away....leaving her in a total rage against all fellow humans (because she had no other connection?) like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum? I find the problem we have is not so much in our politics or economics but in our personal psychology as cleverly crafted by our universe. Everyone in the USA is free to construct their own view of reality--so what drives half of us to believe that the Earth is flat while the other half of us know for a fact that it is round? And why is it virtually impossible to reason with MAGA-hatters / Republicans? They seem to be on a different planet. Or in a different psychological realm. I think you put your finger on it, Thom, when you pointed out that Any Rand's real-life "hero" realized he didn't want just the $1500 ransom--the material goods--, he wanted to vent his anger....his hatred....and did so by murdering his 12-year-old hostage in the most horrible, cold-blooded way possible--repeated in recent years by the Saudi "bone-saw" prince. Isn't it a coincidence--or perhaps more than one--that "anger" and "hatred" is the fuel that Trump used to hook his followers to catapult him into the White House...eh? Isn't it also the key strategy of the Republicans for decades to "divide & conquer" or simply manipulate their followers to vote against their own best interest? Trump even used the straight-out "gaslighting" technique--and millions bought it ! Who does that technique speak to most strongly?
The weak-minded. The true-believing, unthinking followers. The gullible. And those who have a reservoir of suppressed anger and hatred....just waiting to be released by the permission & leadership of a "strong man." And here I come back to the Fourth Turning--when the suppressed, smoldering anger & hatred of roughly half our population found release and showed up in person--as on Jan. 6th. But this time around, it appears that our current Fourth Turning--at least here in the States and not including the heavy, horrible price that Ukraine is paying at the hands of Putin--may be resolved via the ballot box instead of the gun and a huge, devastating war. That would be quite novel...and spectacular, evolutionary progress...yeh?
You raise a lot of issues. I humbly offer a sort of baseline Hartmann-community response to the "how can.....half....not see T for what he is..." John Dean's book "Conservatives Without Conscience," saved my sanity while I was caregiving my severe authoritarian mother. Sadly, I am convinced there is a strong genetic predisposition in the DNA of American whites to be blind to what M. Scott Peck identifies as evil. (People of the Lie) It is hardly a secret that a lot of the original invaders from Europe were religious cultists: Puritans and witch mania and The Scarlet Letter ring a bell? My skin crawls at a glimpse of T, but that chromosome (I theorize) is inactive in a significant portion of American whites. Peck identifies it as a healthy self-preservation instinct in the presence of evil. But how, indeed, can you make the blind see, if they are congenitally blind?
Thanks for the reminder of Reagan's "Greed is good" roots, Thom. I am connecting that base, selfish, human inclination to Trump's popularity and even our recent midterm elections. I am connecting some dots here with your recent topic of the Fourth Turning--our roughly 80-year cycle of human meltdown & conflict. How is it, I am wondering, that roughly half of our country couldn't see Trump for who he was--a narcissistic, greedy, sociopath--back in 2016 when he first ran for President...but the other half of us did? Why after 6 years was this midterm election still such a squeaker when the choice was plainly between choosing what's best for our country vs. what's best for my (MAGA-hat) group? Is it that roughly half of Americans subconsciously identify with Ayn Rand, the materialistic, rich girl who had all her cookies taken away....leaving her in a total rage against all fellow humans (because she had no other connection?) like a spoiled child throwing a tantrum? I find the problem we have is not so much in our politics or economics but in our personal psychology as cleverly crafted by our universe. Everyone in the USA is free to construct their own view of reality--so what drives half of us to believe that the Earth is flat while the other half of us know for a fact that it is round? And why is it virtually impossible to reason with MAGA-hatters / Republicans? They seem to be on a different planet. Or in a different psychological realm. I think you put your finger on it, Thom, when you pointed out that Any Rand's real-life "hero" realized he didn't want just the $1500 ransom--the material goods--, he wanted to vent his anger....his hatred....and did so by murdering his 12-year-old hostage in the most horrible, cold-blooded way possible--repeated in recent years by the Saudi "bone-saw" prince. Isn't it a coincidence--or perhaps more than one--that "anger" and "hatred" is the fuel that Trump used to hook his followers to catapult him into the White House...eh? Isn't it also the key strategy of the Republicans for decades to "divide & conquer" or simply manipulate their followers to vote against their own best interest? Trump even used the straight-out "gaslighting" technique--and millions bought it ! Who does that technique speak to most strongly?
The weak-minded. The true-believing, unthinking followers. The gullible. And those who have a reservoir of suppressed anger and hatred....just waiting to be released by the permission & leadership of a "strong man." And here I come back to the Fourth Turning--when the suppressed, smoldering anger & hatred of roughly half our population found release and showed up in person--as on Jan. 6th. But this time around, it appears that our current Fourth Turning--at least here in the States and not including the heavy, horrible price that Ukraine is paying at the hands of Putin--may be resolved via the ballot box instead of the gun and a huge, devastating war. That would be quite novel...and spectacular, evolutionary progress...yeh?
You raise a lot of issues. I humbly offer a sort of baseline Hartmann-community response to the "how can.....half....not see T for what he is..." John Dean's book "Conservatives Without Conscience," saved my sanity while I was caregiving my severe authoritarian mother. Sadly, I am convinced there is a strong genetic predisposition in the DNA of American whites to be blind to what M. Scott Peck identifies as evil. (People of the Lie) It is hardly a secret that a lot of the original invaders from Europe were religious cultists: Puritans and witch mania and The Scarlet Letter ring a bell? My skin crawls at a glimpse of T, but that chromosome (I theorize) is inactive in a significant portion of American whites. Peck identifies it as a healthy self-preservation instinct in the presence of evil. But how, indeed, can you make the blind see, if they are congenitally blind?