Cross-posted from My Left Wing and available at Blue House Diaries
In the thread of Jeff Huber's diary, weeping for brunnhilde ponders:
Why is it that Soviet citizens knew they were being lied to, yet Americans engage in tragically blithe and reckless credulity?
There are many ways to approach such a question, but what was interesting to me was the latter part of the question, why some of my fellow Americans behave how they do.
Below was my take on the question, with some revisions.
One of the more interesting books I've read in the last year was Escape from Freedom by the famous psychoanalyst Erich Fromm.
Fromm was a socialist who believed strongly in free will and thought that it was this very free will that made people anxious. All these choices, what shall I do?
He wrote about how people adopt authoritarian characteristics as a way of escaping one's freedom. He speculated that people will feel strong and secure if they align themselves with a powerful force.
Jerry Burger, author of a college textbook on personality, points out,
"Fromm argued that authoritarian characters possess an ironic combination of striving for submission as well as striving for domination. On the one hand, authoritarian characters overcome their feelings of inferiority by abandoning their individuality and joining powerful people or organizations. On the other hand, they obtain a sense of power by dominating and exploiting weaker people" (p. 125).
Fromm continued to posit other ways of dealing with existential insecurity. He wrote about two other defenses. One he called "automaton conformity," which is the adoption of predictable lifestyles, fads, values of people around us, as means of avoiding anxiety.
Do what people expect of you, and you'll have no worries.
Burger continues:
Fromm identified destructiveness as a second mechanism of escape. Here the person attempts to overcome life's threatening situations by destroying them...They often invoke religion, duty, or patriotism to justify actions taken against people they dislike. Thus people who say they are fighting for love of country or out of a sense of duty may in reality be unconsciously striving to overcome feelings of powerlessness and isolation (p.126-127)
So, I think that's part of it.
But I think it may also have to do with American culture and this sense of egoic individuality. With an emphasis on not being any old average individual, but being an individual that is better than other individuals, there is a dream of being an entitled big shot (and why not play the role before you get there).
I mean, it seems like so many people don't allow themselves to determine their own self-worth. And feel free to substitute "self-worth" with whatever works. It could be knowing God loves you and not having to prove yourself to anyone, it could entail Buddhist practices such as harnessing mindfulness, love and compassion, or it could just be "being comfortable in your own skin." For some it's simply accepting the present moment and just being.
On one hand this internal validity is lost in our culture, people worry how others view them and determine their own self-worth based on their social status. Their goals are set by their perception of what the collective will reward. And on the other, the social hierarchy which is sought, the dream of being the CEO, the fat cat, is unattainable for everyone. So, paralleling Fromm, a sort of frat mentality arises embodying both domination and submission. With no grasp on finding internal peace or worth, one slips into the default faith in "pats on the back" and dreams of power.
It goes something like this:
My boss tells me I'm doing well, and one day I'll be in charge of other people and make them work as hard as my boss made me work. All I gotta do is stick it out!
Einstein noted:
The crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for future career.
Thus one submits and becomes subordinate to their social role in a competitive, hierarchical system. One only understands their existence in this way.
Which is to say, people submit to the power and align themselves with it. And being aligned with "the greatest power in the world" will do.
So maybe this is part of why Americans can be lied to and why they don't question the media. Because they want to be apart of that power structure. It's a false sense of identity, in the sense that it's not an individual accomplishment, it's not a deeper realization of existence, of being.
Furthermore, this powerful identity isn't sustainable existentially. It's only true insofar as people tell you it is and you both agree. It's only as strong as the delusion is. What happens if the almighty power isn't so almighty? Either the delusion comes crashing down, or the mind defends itself and makes up a new story to continue the illusion.
And let's not forget about Fromm's idea of falling into automaton conformity. It's far easier to be a robot and repeat the common narrative than to think for oneself and go against the grain.
In any event, this isn't a criticism of my fellow citizens. Paths to sanity can be hidden behind thick brush and we are to some extent products of our time.
Perhaps it's a call for people to be for themselves.