Last weekend, I was reading Christopher Browning's Ordinary Men, which seeks to explain how a group of seemingly ordinary middle-aged German family men could actively participate in the extermination of Jews in Poland during World War II, including acts of outright murder.
At the end, the book discusses Theodor Adorno's theories of the authoritarian personality, which he formulated as his response to why ordinary men became Nazi killers, and I found the description eerily familiar:
Rigid adherence to conventional values; submissiveness to authority figures; aggressiveness toward outgroups; opposition to introspection, reflection, and creativity; a tendency to superstition and stereotyping; preoccupation with power and "toughness"; destructiveness and cynicism; projectivity ("the disposition to believe that wild and dangerous things go on in the world" and "the projection outward of unconscious emotional impulses"); and an exaggerated concern with sexuality.
I had decided to post about it, and in preparation, began researching Adorno. I discovered my association between the authoritarian personality and the republican base was not original.
John Dean applied Adorno's "authoritarian personality" to far-right conservatives in Conservatives without Conscience, and Canadian psychologist Bob Altemeyer (whose work is well respected) studied the relationship between this personality type and conservative movements worldwide. He called them right-wing authoritarians.
Altemeyer developed a test to determine someone's "RWA" score (similar to Adorno's "F-scale"). He found that conservatives had higher RWA scores, on average, and were
-more likely to exhibit cognitive errors and symptoms of faulty reasoning, including making incorrect conclusions from factual evidence and holding contradictory beliefs.
-more likely to uncritically accept insufficient evidence in support of their beliefs.
-less likely to acknowledge their own limitations.
-less open to experience.
-more conscientious.
-more favorable to punishment and control than personal freedom and diversity.
-more willing to suspend Constitutional rights on personal liberty.
-more likely to advocate strict, punitive sentences for criminals and more likely to say that they obtain personal satisfaction from punishing people.
-more likely to be ethnocentric and prejudiced against racial and ethnic minorities and homosexuals.
High scores on the RWA scale did not correlate to intelligence.
Next, Altemeyer conducted experiments in which he pitted people with high RWA scores against those with lower RWA scores in roleplaying games. He found that authoritarians tried to dominate non-authoritarians by being "competitive and destructive" as opposed to "cooperative."
In a study by Altemeyer, 68 authoritarians played a three hour simulation of the earth's future entitled the Global Challenge Game. Unlike a comparison game played by individuals with low RWA scores, the simulation by authoritarians became highly militarized and eventually entered the stage of nuclear war. By the end of the high RWA game, the entire population of the earth was declared dead.
In Adorno's research, he asked a question many of us still ask:
In a world where so much progress has been made in science, medicine, and industry, how can some people seem to remain so mind-numbingly ignorant, so brutal, and so willing to swallow fascist dogma? Adorno concluded it was "reason becoming irrational."
People often ask whether a second Holocaust could happen in Western society, with many insisting we are much too enlightened now. I believe such a view is misguided.
A subset of people in this country fit the "authoritarian personality" mold. They believe we are under constant threat, and they are very hostile toward the "other."
This "other" they fear and loathe so greatly represents an empty vessel, waiting to be filled with whatever their respected authority chooses. Their authorities in this country include people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and other harsh conservatives. The other often changes in this country; it has been Native Americans, blacks, "welfare queens," communists, immigrants, and Arabs. For many people, everyone who is not a white Evangelical conservative is an "other."
Zygmunt Bauman, who also studied the Holocaust post-WWII, disagreed with Adorno. Bauman said "Nazism was cruel because Nazis were cruel; and the Nazis were cruel because cruel people tended to become Nazis."
I think Bauman and Adorno are both right. Bauman's mistake is an assumption that everyone who became a Nazi did so for the same reason. Yes, cruel people established Nazism, and other cruel people gravitated to Nazism and used it to express their sadistic tendencies. These tended to be the leaders, and they retained and expanded their power by stoking the animosity and fears of "authoritarian personalities," who truly came to believe the Jews they persecuted so mercilessly were their enemies and persecutors. They did not see what they were doing as brutality but instead were taught to view it as punishment and revenge, something in which this personality type takes satisfaction. Part of them likely knew what they were doing was wrong, but like sociopaths, they found ways to justify their actions.
Today's Limbaughs, Hannities, Coulters, and Palins possess an innate cruelty and hatred toward "others" (and this includes liberals). They have ascended to a position of authority by promoting these views, by portraying themselves as operating in solidarity with the "authoritarian personalities" who follow them against the "others."
After Palin's selection, we saw a rise in racist attacks in the US. At her rallies, we saw extreme ugliness by Republicans which they felt Palin and her conservative media supporters had given them liberty to display publicly.
The Limbaughs of this world know that the only way they remain powerful is to make sure there are people left to have power over. They know that to cement their hold over authoritarian personalities, they must diminish any other would-be authorities, like Barack Obama, and convince their followers they are being victimized by the "other."
Are we safe because the conservatives are now an obvious political minority? It is worth remembering that the Nazi party came into power with only 35% of the vote and worked rapidly to change the situation in Germany after their ascent, singling out Jews as the "others" to be ostracized and marginalized and using propaganda to enhance their followers' sense of victimization. As Browning explains, it was an easy progression for some Germans to go from marginalization to active abuse to dehumanization and murder.
As an example of how this progression works, consider that the voices of conservative authority in this country often single out undocumented immigrants as the "other." They tell their followers that they are the victims of these destitute people who come to this country looking for a better life. "Illegal immigrants are taking your jobs." "Illegal immigrants are getting college tuition breaks that your kids can't have." "Illegal immigrants are getting free healthcare on your dime."
Then they attempt to dehumanize them by pointing out every instance of crime committed by an undocumented alien. They call them names (I believe it was Michael Savage who equated them to excrement). They mock them and ridicule them.
Next, their followers start passing laws that prohibit undocumented workers from going to college, from getting emergency care at hospitals, and even from being able to rent an apartment. They call for fences on the border to keep them in their "ghetto."
Last month, when a border agent murdered a Mexican attempting to cross the border illegally--a crime for which he was convicted--conservatives howled and are demanding that Bush pardon him. Apparently, just as the Nazis made it legal to shoot Jews who dared to step outside their ghettos, they think it is justifiable to murder an "other."
I do not know how we reach these people or whether they are capable of introspection and reason. I believe (hope?) such views are more prevalent among people raised in a certain era. As the demographic has begun to shift, we have seen a move away from conservative dogma.
Now the conservatives are afraid--afraid that they will be further "victimized" by the "others," and you can expect them to double their efforts in an attempt to regain their prior period of ascendancy. We must never relax or let down our guard. We need to remain active and vigilant and take the mid-term elections as seriously as we took the elections this year.
I don't believe "authoritarian personalities" are evil. Rather, I think they are easier for those who truly are evil and obsessed with power (like Rove and Cheney) to manipulate.
We may never change them, but we must continue to push back against their ignorance, bigotry, and anger at every turn. And, we should periodically step back and examine our own values and beliefs to make sure we are not authoritarian personalities who have succumbed to manipulation.