Part
One. The Authoritarian Character (culled from Erich Fromm's Escape from Freedom)
1. Meeink needs his ideology to inflate his
self-admiration, but in reality this grandiosity is a feeble mask for his
self-loathing. This is the first trait of the authoritarian: He adorns himself
with bluster and grandiosity in a failed attempt to hide his self-hatred.
2. Like all humans, the authoritarian faces the
unbearable human condition: a sense of isolation and powerlessness.
Well-balanced people overcome isolation and powerlessness by finding love and
work, but the authoritarian does not. Instead, he relies on mechanisms of
escape, mainly becoming dependent on masochistic individuals who submit to his
dominant, sadistic behavior.
3. Other mechanisms of escape: MECHANISMS OF ESCAPE
FROM FREEDOM
Authoritarianism. Submission or domination. In masochistic form, we allow others to
dominate us. In sadistic form, we try to dominate and control the behavior of others.
A common feature of authoritarianism is the belief that one's life is
determined by forces outside oneself, one's interests, or one's wishes, and the
only way to be happy is to submit to those forces. The authoritarian submits to
those who are higher up and steps on those who are below.
Destructiveness. "The destruction of the world is the last, almost desperate
attempts to save myself from being crushed by it." Destructiveness is
often rationalized as love, duty, conscience, or patriotism.
4. Automaton Conformity. People
cease to be themselves and adopt the type of personality proffered by their
culture.
Part
Two. Unable to Overcome Isolation, Like Meeink, You Become Disaffected
1. You lack confidence to engage with others so you
withdraw into yourself. Perhaps you were hurt in the past and don’t want to get
hurt again, so you avoid people.
2. You get married more for convenience and to shelter
you from the world.
3. You become addicted to your routines, which shut out
the outside world.
4. You are reflexively hostile to anyone new because they
represent a threat to your existence. You hate change.
5. You act like a churlish (grouchy) know-it-all who has
all the answers, a person who dismisses everything as a “joke” and “utter
nonsense.”
6. You are incapable of listening to others. The only
thing you listen to the Cynical Voice constantly grumbling inside your head.
7. You are lethargic in your self-centeredness and numb
yourself with various addictions in order to undergo your “slow death.”
8. You teach yourself that there is no hope for change or
a better life so you succumb to learned helplessness or you desperately cling
to an extreme ideology.
9. Unable to connect, you retreat into the authoritarian
world of solipsism: Solipsism, failing to connect with others, is a form of
insanity. The telling signs of solipsism are self-pity, resentment, and
narcissism (you’re the only one who matters, your suffering is worse than
everyone else’s, your grievances are more compelling to everyone else’s). Tell
the students about the doctor whose wife left him and the student who never
dated after 20 years. These are two examples of people who are withdrawn into
themselves and cannot connect with the outside world and as such are insane.
Part
Three. Meeink’s Racist Ideology Is a Chimera, a Phantom or Illusion
Chimera’s Definition, Causes and Effects
1. The chimera is a mirage that draws us in slowly,
starting with a burp or a trifle, a tease, an iridescent color that flashes
before our eyes or it hits us over the head. In either case, it grows into an
obsession and consumes all our energies, thoughts, and dreams.
2. The chimera is based on unconscious longings for class
ascent, acceptance, love, popularity, wealth, parental unconditional love
(Rosebud), the Chanel Number Five Moment, distinction, proving our doubters
that they were wrong.
3. We project our fantasy onto a tabula rasa.
4. Often the chimera is a panacea, a cure-all for all our
woes.
5. The Absolute Fallacy (success, fitness, perfection,
perfect absolute relationship)
6. The Transcendence Fallacy
7. The Bitch Goddess Fallacy
8. The inevitable despair of the chimera. George Bernard
Shaw said there are two great tragedies in life: Not getting what we want and
getting it.
9. The cycle of ongoing chimeras, people who never learn
and who go in circles, jumping from one chimera to the next.
10.
The paradox of the
chimera: Chimeras destroy us but they also feed our dreams and in some ways
give us strength, drive, motivation, and vitality that we otherwise wouldn’t
have.
11.
The need for the
chimera: We must have stars in the horizon for which he can row our oars.
Examples
of chimera (have students come up with some):
1. The low-carb diet or the South Beach Diet
2. Yoga
3. A Lexus IS350
4. Viagra
5. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft
6. Dianobol
7. Having a six-pack
8. Cosmetic surgery, botox or nose job or implants.
9. G-Star Jeans (underground store for special jeans, not
the ones you can buy at Nordstrom)
10.
the cognoscenti.
11.
Becoming famous
12.
Angelina Jolie; she’s
more than a human. She’s become the great bitch goddess, every man’s dream and
every woman’s nightmare. The fantasy of the seductress.
13.
Jennifer Aniston, the
myth of the good girl, the myth of innocence.
14.
Celebrity of all kinds,
an autograph, a sighting.
15.
Las Vegas
16.
Palos Verdes (my
neighbors in Torrance are bitter that they haven’t moved to PV yet. Peevers.
17.
UCLA
18.
iPod
19.
Anything sold on the QVC
network
20.
Marriage. Not all
marriages but most are built on the Goody Box chimera. When I want a goody I
reach into the goody box. But what happens when all the goodies run out.
21.
Me-Time. People who have
lots of me-time are miserable.
22.
A racist ideology that
promises a future of “racial purity.”
Part
Four. Class Activity
Write
down a chimera that you pursued only to find it a cruel illusion worthy of your
contempt.
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