“Getting” liberalism

(Below, Robert B. continues his explanation that modern liberalism is really Borderline Personality Disorder.)

Bob writes:

Re the item about the MALDEF attorney breaking down in tears: Wow! I am reminded of a time when I was in high school. I was struggling with a course on geometry. I just didn’t get it. Then about six weeks into the school year the logic just clicked.

I have never been in that situation again until now. I have been reading your blog for at least two years. For me your MALDEF post brought liberalism into focus (why did it take so long? :-) ). It’s all about feelings. Now I know why they get upset with me when I use facts and logic against them. Their emotionalism was intimidating me. No longer. Thanks.

LA replies:
Because we all live surrounded by liberalism as fish are surrounded by the sea, it takes a long time to understand liberalism, and you never know what particular thing is going to “click” for each person. But there’s more than one thing about liberalism to understand.

- end of initial entry -

Robert B. writes:

There is nothing to get, if you view from the angle of being mentally ill. Borderline Personality Disorder types think only in terms of feelings—right down to the reality of the immediate present. You may see them do something onerous, but, since all reality is based upon their emotions of the present, they will see it as having done something that is necessary for their (perhaps) survival. Or, in the classic case of say busing children across town for education, no matter how many once great schools fail, they will see it as a triumph rather than a mistake because their feelings and intentions were “in the right place.”

Since BPD has become a widespread illness within a society that is BPD now by nature, BPDs would tend to gravitate toward the Left—which is only judgmental towards those who seek to thwart their more repulsive practices and beliefs. Since BPDs (and the Left) tend toward making more mistakes than doing the right thing (and wanting someone else to tell them what to think and do) as a result of making decisions based upon emotions rather then cold hard facts and logic, they don’t like judgmental people making judgments on their behavior. Likewise, they only think in the very present—meaning that just because their behavior resulted in massive problems the day before, does not mean they will not work today. This thinking is why the Left believes that just because Communism didn’t work in Russia and China (and everywhere else) that doesn’t mean it cannot be made to work in the West. And of course if it doesn’t, someday, they will blame the same bogey man that they blame for thwarting it in China and Russia. This lack of logic applies to all failed endeavors of the left as well as BPDs.

Bpds (and the Left in my opinion) are emotional children who have not gone beyond the infant to two year old phase whereby they live as “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine”—which includes not just material objects but also emotions. Fantasy plays a large part (what psychologists refer to as “magical thinking”) in their belief system. This goes to back to faulty, emotion based thinking wherein if I believe something is so, then it must be. And if I believe it strongly enough, then it will come to pass—no matter how the real facts stack against it. You see this in whole idea of “diversity” and “multiculturalism” and in politicians who preach the gospels of “tolerance” (another euphemism for “non-judgmental). No matter how much crime rises, no matter how many illegitimate children, no matter how many budget deficits, if we just keep throwing more money at them, they will eventually behave “like us.”

It is my firm belief that if we come to see it this way, we can also effect change in perhaps 50 percent of these people. But one must study this societal ailment and then treat it using psychology rather then appeals to their logical intellect—as they have none.

LA replies:

I don’t know. It’s one thing to say that liberals and liberalism are irrational in a certain sense. But to say that our entire civilization is suffering from a clinical psychological disorder seems pretty far out. If that is the case, why does our society function so well in so many areas? You have to account for the fact that the liberals you’re describing as disordered are very competent at making a society run, leaving aside the problem areas that liberalism has also created.

Gintas writes:

Borderline Personality Disorder, on my single superficial reading (there’s pleasant background music) looks like a symptom of Western Enlightement Liberalism rather than the cause.

LA writes:

In reply to my e-mailed comment to him that I don’t get it, Robert B. expands on his view that modern liberals are all suffering from BPD. I normally wouldn’t post this long a comment, and I also must say that I don’t agree with Robert’s view. I’m with Gintas that to the extent that this BPD does describe the contemporary West, it is as a symptom of something more primary, not as the thing itself. That primary thing, moreover, has a logic to it, which Robert in his focus on mental disturbance ignores. For example, in his point three, he describes the liberal double standard as due simply to a lack of a solid identity, rather than to a consistent strategy of taking whatever position advances liberalism and puts down those whom liberals see as their enemies.

However, any attempt to understand liberalism is worthwhile, so here goes.

Robert B. writes:

Okay, first you have to understand the “ailment” as it is—there are nine criteria for BPD, only five of which need be present to be diagnosed with the disorder. They are as follows (my “leftism application is under each of the nine criteria):

(1) Frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.

WIth individuals diagnosed with BPD, this manifests itself with “people pleasing behavior”—they will say and do anything to avoid being judged as “bad” which leads to abandonment (“mommy doesn’t love me because I am bad” as opposed to mommy doesn’t love me because she is a bad mother—a child cannot see this, as adults, this is learned thinking/behavior which has become intrenched. In the world of white Leftists, one can see this trait in the willingness of whites to denigrate their history and culture in favor of the “other”. They also cave in when the “other” makes demands and blames them for their problems—think of “midnight basketball” as a means of controlling youth gangs as opposed to passing judgment on the gangs as anti- social behavior and enforcing (Eliot Ness style) the law. The individual (and thus his society) is always bad and therefore to blame and the other is seen as good and therefore “right”.

So, white leftists do not see non-whites as hating them (racially) and their culture simply because we are different and they (the non- whites) are racists who are also most likely jealous of our Western culture and it’s obvious success, they see themselves as being flawed somehow and must therefore change to suit the “others” wishes. They do this to avoid abandonment by those “others”.

(2) A pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships characterized by alternating between extremes of idealization and devaluation.

BPD’s have only “Black and white” thinking. This means that something is either good or bad, but nothing in between—no grey areas. Thus, Western culture is bad because it made some mistakes along the way— never mind that these mistakes tend to pale when placed alongside those of other cultures, the other culture is only seen as good and ours as seen only as bad—this is why the lawyer broke into tears during the trial—she could only see the good (even if it is totally fantasized and non-reality based) and could only see the Americans seeking to defend their culture as bad. When a dose of reality was shoved down her throat, she was incapable of controlling her emotions. Chances are that she will intentionally forget these lessons once the trial is over with. She may, in a rare case, have a sort of epiphany and see the “others” as bad and her own culture as good—she cannot see the middle grey ground. Because they see themselves as bad (low self esteem) They hope to make themselves appear to be better by helping someone else.

(3) Identity disturbance: markedly and persistently unstable self- image or sense of self.

This is a key one. BPD’s have no sense of self as you and I do. Their self image is one of jello’s consistency. Thus, you think you can see and feel it, but if you try to get your arms around it, so to speak, it changes and reforms. This is because they are as chameleons— constantly adapting to what they think others want in order to please them. They will take the shape and form of whatever person or peer group they are currently with—this can be one person or group in the morning—say at work, and another at night. This is why the Left would not condemn BIll Clinton for his sexual escapades but will condemn a republican for theirs. Or, in a recent case, applaud the reporters who went to jail for refusing to divulge their sources while condemning and jailing Scooter Libby (and others) for refusing to reveal their sources. Taken to the extreme, nationally publicizing a black on white crime, while ignoring the horrendous beating of three white girls by blacks or the even more onerous rape, torture, and murder of a white couple by blacks. Or, the non-rape of a black prostitute by the Duke Lacrosse team versus the real rape of a white girl by black Duke basketball players.

(4) Impulsivity in at least two areas that are potentially self- damaging (e.g., spending, sex, Substance Abuse, reckless driving, binge eating).

This is self explanatory. However, was the “Great Society” not the quintessential self-damaging (on a societal scale) impulsive spending behavior? Ditto for almost all of the subsequent spending patterns since then—right down to granting welfare benefits to illegal aliens.

(5) Recurrent suicidal behavior, gestures, or threats, or self- mutilating behavior.

Is not our society, by kowtowing to multiculturalism, committing suicide? Was not the whole of the late sixties, seventies and eighties a form of societal suicide?

(6) Affective instability due to a marked reactivity of mood (e.g., intense episodic dysphoria, irritability, or anxiety usually lasting a few hours and only rarely more than a few days).

Just witness the “high” “activists” are on while on a crusade. They feel no sense of purpose in their own private lives, thus they seek out thrills in other ways.

(7) Chronic feelings of emptiness.

No sense of self and one’s place in the world. In leftists, this compounds the need for “activism”—for a sense of meaning and to avoid the feeling of emptiness, if only temporarily. In individuals, this results (usually) in promiscuous behavior.

(8) Inappropriate, intense anger or difficulty controlling anger (e.g., frequent displays of temper, constant anger, recurrent physical fights).

See this in leftism as the extreme behavior of such groups as PITA, eco-terrorism, the group By Any Means Necessary, etc.

(9) Transient, stress-related paranoid ideation or severe dissociative symptoms.

See this as the constant and proliferating “Right Wing” conspiracies such as who “really” caused 911 or who “really” killed JFK/Robert Kennedy or MLK.

Now, seen as everyday life in the Western World, we have a society no longer capable of setting boundaries (societal morality and judgment of bad behavior)—instead, we see excuses for these bad behaviors, the usual being the accusation of bigotry and or racism. We see a “Law And Order Morality” whereby, it’s only wrong if one gets caught. There are no moral absolutes. There are no lines drawn in the sand. Reality and morals are relevant—we do whatever it is we need to find temporary happiness. Life is a series of Band-Aids being placed upon real or imagined wounds.

Gintas writes:

I have no doubt that mental disorders exist; it’s no more strange to think that someone’s brain can be broken in some way (that is, it has a physical defect) than that someone’s eyes can be broken, and he needs glasses.

However, Robert B’s list of BPD symptoms is not persuading me that it’s a “broken brain” disorder. Most of those symptoms look like learned behaviors and coping mechanisms to deal with the radical indivdualized, rootless life we live here in the West, where the words community, tradition, commitment, duty, loyalty, responsibility, and honor have no place.

I also would suggest that trying to apply psychological diagnoses to liberals is the same trick that Richard Hofstadter used on conservatives in The Paranoid Style in American Politics, as well as what Soviet Communists did in labelling dissent as a mental illness.


Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 24, 2007 09:30 AM | Send
    

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