Complex
n.
1. A whole composed of interconnected or interwoven parts: a complex of cities and suburbs; the military-industrial complex.
2. In psychology, a group of related, often repressed ideas and impulses that compel characteristic or habitual patterns of thought, feelings, and behavior.
3. An exaggerated or obsessive concern or fear.
4. Medicine. The combination of factors, symptoms, or signs of a disease or disorder that forms a syndrome.
[Latin complexus, past participle of complectī, to entwine. |
Pro·gres·sive
n.
A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government.
Progressive A member or supporter of a Progressive Party.
| Re·gres·sive
adj.
Tending to return or revert.
Characterized by regression or a tendency to regress.
|
Since Regressive is the opposite of Progressive, members of the deservedly discredited hence nearly defunct Right Wing Style Conservative Movement, are "The Regressives"
Ray Taliaferro made the promise to henceforth call Republicans and the people of their ilk, "The Regressives", and as far as I know, he officially coined the application of the term and is keeping his promise.
As the tattletale that I am, I passed the word to Bernie Ward who holds the belief that today, the Sociopolitical Labels such a Left, Right, Conservative, Liberal, etc.; are meaningless. He has an standing challenge for anybody to call him and accurately define any one of these terms by specifically enumerating the individual characteristics of each label.
If we analyze the political positions of a person claiming one of these labels, we will see that in today's USA, in addition to their label's core beliefs, most(?) people hold positions specific to other, allegedly contrary, label(s) -
Anybody who cares and tries to ascertain the veracity of Bernie's proposition, will find out that the characteristics intermingle and crossover in a wide range of the Sociopolitical spectrum hence rendering these label's definitions, meaningless.
Bernie also feels that non Progressives are Regressive, so, that's how he refers to the "Conservatives". I fully agree with him that the Progressive and Regressive terms are more descriptive labels under the current USA's Political Climate.
With utmost sincerity, I must say that I'm abysmally unqualified to dissertate on the topic, my intention and hope is that I might pique the interest of better prepared Kosak(s) to delve deeper into this issue.
In posts and conversations, I noticed many discernable patterns of the Regressive in the form of multiple 'belief sets' that control their behavior and actions, all sets being equally absolute for them creates easy to manipulate 'hot buttons' and any of them produces the same result when pushed.
More than intrigued in this perplexing social condition and in trying to understand it's mechanics, I always came full circle to perplexity at the social phenomena; that is, until I looked at the characteristics as symptoms of a condition.
Seeing it in this light, a 'conditioned complex' begins to emerge as a possible cause for the political anomaly, in the most extreme cases of Regressiveness, it seems almost pathological.
I did not find anything written about this issue as being a complex, I do not know if anybody else has looked at it from this perspective, lacking any info, I decided to write this Diary and address this topic with the title: "The Regressive Complex" - Syndrome also crossed my mind but 'Complex' seemed a closer fit to the 'Conservative Condition'
I have listed in no specific order, a few possible symptoms/characteristics of
The Regressive Complex.
Always a victim.
An arrogant or hostile state of mind or disposition.
Arrested development in the areas of sex, religion and social/individual responsibility.
Absolute beliefs and attitudes.
Jingoistic concepts and precepts.
Inability or unwillingness to utilize critical thinking.
Aggressive biases and phobias; fear and hate of anything that doesn't follow or contradicts their tenets.
A need to control others in lieu of their failure to control their own repressed feelings.
Blind allegiance to a figure of authority regardless of it's merits.
Placing Political Party before Country.
Easily manipulated with their fears.
Gullibility due to preconcibed ideas.
Holding beliefs that are not factual.
Uncaring.
Unreflective.
Judgmental.
Disciplinarian.
Reckless.
Ruthless.
Remorseless
Unforgiving
There's a quality of immaturity in the Regressive, elections for them are a contest for the contest's sake, the main objective is to win the horse race, a "Wining is the only thing" is their motto, always giving absolute justifications or just blaming elsewhere without reflecting on the self, 'atack the messanger' rather than address the message is their SOP.
And then there's an odd report on a study from the Journal of Research Into Personality of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years.
The results show that the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints, the chances are he grew up to be a conservative.
The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.