January 16, 2018
Dear Ms. Mika,
I am an educator. After the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, I spent over a decade doing research in order to find out “why.”
Of the over 400 psychology books I read, fully one quarter pertained to “why” of the Holocaust.
I discovered that the reasons 38% of German voters cast ballots for a charismatic demagogue in 1932 mirror the reasons why 38% of American voters today comprise the ardent base of our leader.
The Germans who supported their demagogue all had fathers whose every trait was exactly like him, even including his theatrical rants. One exception:
This new father never blamed them for causing all problems, as their own parents had done.
Instead, he blamed others for every societal problem.
This token of parental love, never given by their own parents, engendered absolute, hungered devotion.
The same is underway in America today. Unloved children, even decades later, gravitate toward someone who will give them permission to release pent-up, unconscious hatred toward their parents, for the mistreatment received, upon innocent scapegoats. Unloved children, unless helped by a teacher or another adult, are the origin for racism and all hate.
Robert L.
good marriage central* 
Succinctly put.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Tish. I thought so too.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Spot on accurate.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Right? Now if only we knew how to convey this truth to those who need to hear it most…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Short, sweet, to the point, and damn good.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agree. And tx.
LikeLike
QUOTE
This search for spiritual backbone is very common among people who develop totalitarian attachments …
To the psychologist, it is eminently clear that these attitudes have their roots not in intellectual conviction but in some deep-seated emotional need. I have often seen cases where this blind, rigid allegiance to a totalitarian ideology was actually a defiant rebellion against a compelling inner need to grow and to change and to become mature. In these people, the selection of a special political party was only a substitute for their need for dependency. Ideological stubbornness is often tragic because it may cover up basic neurotic reactions that may lead to self-destruction…
Whenever the father-leader fails, he sets up a pattern of future trouble with authority. Instead of a mature relationship with his fellow men, the child becomes an adult who is forced to choose the tyrannical totalitarian tie to keep his inner tensions in check. Whenever there is parental conflict, the child grows into an adult burdened with conflicts who may be eager to accept the simple solutions totalitarianism offers. Whenever there is parental compulsion, which gives the child no chance to develop its own attitudes and evaluations, the child grows up into a conforming adult, whose entire life may be spent in a search for outside authority, for someone to tell him what to do.
ENDQOTE
Meerloo, Dr. Joost A. M.. The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing, Hauraki Publishing. Kindle Edition.
I have no idea how much of Joost’s analysis is correct – he was uncritically employing Fruedian concepts elsewhere in the book – but the underlying theme of emotional needs based on family upbringing, as well as the refusal to look deep inside and change, is fascinating. Lobaczewski (‘Political Ponerology’) also touches on these issues but additionally ties family upbringing into the wider social culture, including the ruling ‘Emperor’.
QUOTE
Since the common people are prone to identify with the emperor, and through the emperor, with a system of government, the characteropathic material [tainted world-view from a personality-disordered individual] emanating from the Kaiser resulted in many Germans being progressively deprived of their ability to use their common sense. An entire generation grew up with psychological deformities regarding feeling and understanding moral, psychological, social and political realities … Large portions of German society ingested psychopathological material, together with that unrealistic way of thinking wherein slogans take on the power of arguments and real data are subjected to subconscious selection.
To what extent did Wilhelm II contribute to this, along with two other emperors whose minds also were incapable of taking in the actual facts of history and government? To what extent were they themselves influenced by an intensification of hysteria during their reigns?
ENDQUOTE
‘Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes’, by Andrew M. Lobaczewski.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are excellent quotes, Richard — thanks.
LikeLike
Interesting take…especially in the context of attachment theory ad repetition compulsion. Alice Miller calls this devotion a strict adherence to the fourth commandment and speaks of freedom from it as being seminal for healing. Some just get locked into family enmeshment which broadens into social enmeshment. I’ve never read someone connect what is basically attachment theory with politics, although it seems obvious now.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Makes me think. I used to be very political, basically black and white on choices. Then I began practising detachment in earnest and my “attachment” to political ideologies disintegrated. Must be something to this. Get people to detach from their belief systems and maybe all by themselves they will see the stupidity of what they once clung to as absolute truth.
LikeLike
right. We are educated in the ways of confirmation bias. Detaching is a way of stopping the cycle of confirming our biases and instead, being able to broaden our viewpoint to include those of others. As far as attachment theory, our relationship setups with our primary caregivers are so powerful and hard to overcome. We tend to repeat by looking for evidence that this is the right thing and ignoring evidence to the contrary.
LikeLiked by 1 person