I’ve just read the following column by conservative Lawrence Myers - http://townhall.com/columnists/lawrencemeyers/2016/08/14/defining-trump-derangement-syndrome-n2204686
In it, Myers seeks to explain liberals’ supposed Trump-Derangement-Syndrome, all while piously pretending to be completely oblivious to the Obama-Derangement-Syndrome still gripping the right, by the way. Instead, however, Myers successfully, although unintentionally, explains what’s wrong with the bigoted, racist culture on the right. In other words, he explains Trump’s base.
Myers utilizes the concept of ‘the other’, as described by Sigmind Freud’s nearly as famous pupil, Carl Jung. Being targeted as ‘the other’ within our culture is something which African-Americans have been made painfully familiar for literally hundreds of years. Reading Jung’s description, as relayed by Myers, the words kept ringing loudly in my head as a perfect description of what’s actually wrong with the bigoted culture on the right, a culture which has ripped and torn at our society for centuries.
We see Jung’s predicted response to 'the other' in effect today when the right wants Black Lives Matter to simply shut-up and stop pointing out that systemic racism is alive and well in our criminal justice system. Trump has also inspired more of it in other aspects of society beyond pure racism, such as in religious, national origin and gender bigotry. On the other hand,mwe constantly see the right only acknowledging only our cultural virtues. They’ve moved all the cultural evil on to the backs of 'the others’, leaving only cultural virtue for whites.
I’ve excerpted the key paragraphs from Myers’ column below:
In every culture, there must be a vessel that holds negative energy. It is what depth psychologist Carl Jung called the “Shadow” of the culture’s collective unconscious. It is “The Other”. It is the projection of that culture’s own dark side. The Other must be created, for it is a defense mechanism that allows the culture to avoid dealing with difficult or unwanted feelings. Thus, there is all that is perceived to be “right”, and anything that opposes that order must be – by definition – wrong. It must come from darkness. It must be evil.
For if The Other is not evil or wrong, then that which is evil and wrong must lie within the culture itself. Therefore, that culture is corrupt. It is wrong. It is imperfect. It is bad. This psychological realization must be avoided at all costs. It creates cognitive dissonance – when facts contradict the deeply-held beliefs of the culture.
Therefore, all the negative energy and attributes are projected onto that culture had to create its Shadow. The less tethered to reality the culture is, the more irrational a reaction there will be to the Shadow, and the more inhuman it will appear, and the more rage-induced the reaction to it must be. It will truly be a deranged response...
...However, unanticipated consequences arise for the culture itself when the Shadow is projected onto The Other. The culture’s own corrupt and deceptive elements are permitted to thrive. Society devolves.
