Misery

 

 

Recently, Linda and I viewed the movie “The Pawnbroker” starring Rod Steiger on TCM. His character exemplified his emotional state of misery. Steiger was a survivor from the Holocaust, was powerless to save his family; experienced survivor guilt; repressed and reliving his tragic emotional state, and had little motivation for his future. This movie along with everyday numerous horrific human conditions counters, in many respects, Maslow’s notion of “self-actualization” and Seligman’s notion of “well-being.” This disquisition focuses on the psychological state of misery resulting from natural disasters, manmade and physiological reality. Misery is defined as “a state or feeling of great distress or discomfort of mind or body.”

Misery can be the result of human conditions common to all with the inability to control the events regardless of age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status or skin color. For instance, my dear young friend Jonathan recently passed from the treatment conditions associated with his cancer. Jonathan was a defense lawyer, superb athlete, did not drink, ate healthy and married with three athletic high school aged boys. Through no fault of their own, Tara and the boys were subjected to distress, unhappiness and hardship because of their loss. Also, this past year, my young 51-year-old physician cousin Michael passed leaving his attorney wife Nancy and their two University boys husbandless and fatherless. What a shock, what a shame and misfortune for their loving family. In addition, another dear friend an All-American and All-Pro football player is awaiting the results of having an echocardiogram. Thom’s mother has a Covid -19 diagnosis and his father, no spring chicken, has his issues as well. My friend Dave’s mother is in her 90s and recovering from a medical procedure. Dave is with her and we know what lies ahead for Dave. Furthermore, my 69-year-old friend Tom had an ALS diagnosis and passed away a few months ago leaving his wife Laura and Colt. Incidentally, Tom and Laura were one of the reasons that I moved from the Bay Area to the foothills. Sadly, Tom retired just a few years ago. Everyone faces their own mortality and the mortality of significant others in their life. Early in March is the 40th anniversary of my father’s death. Last month was the 21^st anniversary of my mother’s passing.

Misery can also be related to major decisions made with behavioral choices. Linda suffered a severe equestrian injury about four years ago. She had a punctured lung and required a shoulder replacement. Initially, she applied functional medicine in attempting to avoid surgery. Her pain and discomfort continued and she finally succumbed and had the surgery. That injury was a major ordeal, with much suffering and long-term distress. She was miserable and I experienced her misery as well. She is no longer an equestrian. A dear friend is contemplating a divorce and experiences discomfort as a result. At this early juncture, he is in a troubled state struggling with his misfortune. He knows that his misery will end but not when. I too was once an equestrian. In 2009, I was lying on my back, on the trail, with my horse Gypsy standing over me, Linda calling 911, while waiting for the helicopter to transport me to the hospital. Just think of all the individuals struggling with employment and unemployment issues during this pandemic? Many, of this number, have even lost their health insurance coverage. Tying health insurance to employment is obviously discriminatory. On another note, look at all the misery as result of health problems, in part, because of poor and inadequate exercise and dietary choices?  What about changing residence locations and the initial stress and misery? However, no one can be protected from experiencing misery during a lifetime. Playing golf everyday does not shield one from misery.  I’m not referring to Tiger and his horrible accident.

California and now Texas can thank the utility companies for subjecting millions to be without power. We can thank the profit motive and politicians for being complicit. One is totally dependent on utilities for making life easier. Being without energy is miserable. To compensate, I bought a generator to deal with PG&E’s occasional shutdown of power. My misery was very short term and it was nowhere near the massive hardship affecting the Texas citizens. We know about the devastating effects of Katrina and the hurricane damage that occurred from the inadequate levee system in Louisiana. We had an economic crash brought on because of deregulation, Wall Street greed, and the failure of “Too Big to Fail.” Yes, the suffering citizens had to deal with the bailout. How many have heard of the “American dream?”  That myth was propagated because of our profit oriented capitalistic economic system. It was supposed to bring “happiness.” Since when does a large mortgage result in positive emotions? Happiness lasts how long?

The current Covid-19 pandemic has brought misery exceeding 5000.000 deaths, far too many. Once again, man-made decisions, by those in power, with and without the hazards of nature have subjected its citizens to misery. Not only was the scientific community muzzled, public health denied, with useless and exploitative ideas propagated by the Republican government, has resulted in a  catastrophe in terms of public health and  economic misery. Thank the greedy, self-serving government individuals for their absence of protection. Once again being powerless, with Individuals subjecting others to non-healthy, sadistic and miserable situations becomes common place. Yes, one had to choose between the messaging strategy of the politician or the facts from the scientific community. How about the junior senator from Texas leaving his state for Cancun to escape misery?  How did that work out for him?

 It can’t be all that bad, what about the “Pursuit of happiness,”” Self-Actualization” and “Well-Being,” some may ask?   Maslow’s theory was based on a hierarchy of mastering needs. They ranged from the primary, the physiological or survival to the possibility of reaching self-actualization. With a failure to satisfy the basic needs, leads to deficiency conditions which would be the absence of satisfying one’s psychological health. This suggests that misery lies awaiting.

In Seligman’s theory, there were five conditions that are necessary to achieve a state of Well –Being. His 5 components: 1. Positive emotion creation 2. Engagement and involvement 3. Relationships – Friends, family, intimacy etc. 4. Meaning, creating, or belonging 5. Achievement or accomplishment. Perhaps, it is difficult to encompass all these 5 elements even without a catastrophe. On the other hand, it might be possible to maintain some of the elements in a catastrophe. In any event, achieving self-actualization or a state of well-being is very difficult for far too many of the population even during “normal” times because normal does not exist but human nature does.

It is of no surprise that members of our military, except the generals and political “leaders”, do not experience PTSD, and significant body injuries during war times. In the old days, Alexander led the charge, how uncivilized. It is also no surprise that our military has an exceedingly high suicide rate. What about the military generals and the mental health of the politicians? Misery creation seems like the norm. It is also of no surprise that our citizens have a high dependency and addiction rate on alcohol, food and drugs accompanied with exceedingly high rates of suicide especially among teens. Alcohol, food and drugs can temporarily ameliorate misery while suicide ends it permanently. Yes, there are degrees of misery that pertain to person, place and time regardless of wealth. Just ask Steve Jobs? Sadly, for too many, there’s an imbalance in the ratio of misery to well-being with too many self – defeating measures of escape.

A Failure to Communicate

 

 

 The New York Times on October 4, 2020 published an article by Deepak Chopra that was timely in regards to our political and public health divisions. This spiritual advisor presented 9 strategies about how to have a disagreement during a time of heated tensions.  In these past months we witnessed rioting, lying, Republican impeachment craziness and hypocrisy. This disquisition addresses Chopra’s 9 communication strategies.

According to Chopra, Step1.  “Choose if you even want to engage.” Chopra’s point was to make the determination if the confrontation was worth it. He suggested that it was okay to walk away and not to engage. Disagreements pertaining to religion, politics or some other ideology are very difficult to navigate and likely to result in argument. For instance, Joe Biden wants to unite the country. If he says to one of these rioting  disruptors “There was no widespread voting irregularities in the 2020 election and your leader lied to you about voter fraud,” what is the likelihood of that that MAGA individual wanting to peacefully engage?  Yes, for communication, it takes the desire for both individuals to be in synchronicity. With a mistrustful, limited knowledgeable and lying conditioned individual, good luck with meaningful dialogue.

Knowing something about oneself would be one key component in choosing whether to engage or not. If your motivation is to control or dominate; to put down and belittle; to educate; to prove how smart you, then you are likely to fail. In other words, one’s self-importance can get in the way with communication. I agree that certain interactions are not productive and waste of time and energy. For instance, engaging someone who has a racist attitude; with a nonscientific, conspiracy thinking illogical belief point of view does not make any sense at all. Just stay away from all the mistrustful, suspicious and limited educated nut cakes and you’ll be happier.

To illustrate further, religion and politics are subjects in which the attitude and belief is typically based on emotional needs. This means that those beliefs are related to an individual’s need structure. This suggests, that any contradictory information results in a psychological threat to orientation, frame of reference and sense of self. Contradictory information raises tension and thus the individual becomes defensive and dismisses the opposing idea or ideas. With that being said, the need prevails. For some there is a dumbing down intellectually with a reliance on superstition, beliefs, irrationality and ignorance. For others like McConnell, there’s sophisticated use of ego defenses like denial and intellectualization. Nowhere in the constitution does it say that a sitting president, who commits a “crime,” cannot be held accountable once he leaves office.  Yet, that was his stance .However, after the trial, he said that the x should face legal consequences for the “crime.” How’s that for logic? Therefore, using facts, logic and expert interpretations when encountering an opposite viewpoint on religion or politics, is like spitting in the wind .There is little probability of their ability of taking in the information, employing wisdom, critical thinking with facts and making an attitude change.

One commonly hears about conspiracy theory. This everyday use of the word “theory” is a misrepresentation. Untested hunches, guesses or assumptions are just beliefs based on personal experience. We know that subjective experience can be very limited at best. When I use the word “theory,” it’s based on a scientifically-acknowledged principal and/or related to research findings. The belief that Democrats devour children is crazy.  It is true that human sacrifice existed at one time and it is true and that there are Democrats in the political world. If one believes that Democrats eat children that suggests they are liars, hateful and prejudiced. Why believe or engage in someone who is a liar, paranoid, hateful and prejudiced?

One also has to take into account if the other person. Is credible; knowledgeable; and educationally proficient? How can the authoritarian challenge Dr. Anthony Fauci regarding infectious diseases? Are you going to believe, a pathological lying x or a respected, knowledgeable expert? If the individual is getting his information from the x, social media and Fox news, why bother?

Step 2.  “If you decide to engage, listen first.” Listening first is a good communication skill compared to talking first. Many do not know how or care to listen to another. Listening first means to pay attention by looking at that individual with empathy and authenticity. That takes an altruistic character type. That skill is very difficult to attain because of the potential emotions that can be activated. Some emotions might be positive and some might be negative. With positive emotions, one moves toward another but with negative emotions one tends to move against another.

Listening to a liar about voter fraud suggests that the individual has a limited sense of basic trust, is suspicious and has a tendency for paranoia. With those mental health issues in play, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to have interaction based on objectivity and facts. Without a sense of trust the other person is likely to be seen as the enemy. Listening first, would be a waste.

Step 3. “Learn about the other person’s values.” Chopra suggested going out to dinner and converse about family, mother, father or teenage years etc. He stated that strategy would show the other person a vulnerability which is a sign of strength. Knowing another person’s values is a good strategy in understanding another. It might not be practical to have dinner however. Chopra’s message is that it’s going to take time, energy and commitment to resolve issues. It may also not be a one time, short-term interaction.

Believing in voter fraud in the past presidential election as a result of misrepresentation by the leader and his followers, suggests the following attitude and values: 1. Being a racist that wants to retain power 2. Impetus to disenfranchise black voters 3. Detroit has a primarily a black Wayne County population. There were significant attempts by Trump and his Republican cronies to disfranchise by claiming voter fraud for those black voters.

Step 4. “Try awareness and a pause.” Chopra hypothesized that in listening and engaging with another, one likely reaction is anger. With anger, one initially engages in “flight, fight or freeze.” Another common reaction is likely to be “nice and manipulative, nasty and manipulative, stubborn and manipulative, and playing the victim and manipulative.” In dealing with these potential angry responses, Chopra suggests employing meditation in order to be able to use one’s insight, intuition , inspiration, creativity, vision, higher purpose or authentic integrity strategy. Do not try. Either be aware, pause or not. Eliminate the idea of the unsuccessful act of trying.

 One cannot engage productively and have the availability of cognitive strength with anger present. Being centered, being able to breathe, to be relaxed is not only helpful during times of stress, it’s important almost all the time. Learning to deal with negative emotions effectively during interpersonal interactions is a key to well-being and productive living.

It’s impossible not to feel angry when interacting with someone who does not have factual information but is simply passing on the lie. When there is too much anger present, discontinue the engagement. It might be easier on the second interaction.

Step 5. “Don’t engage in black and white thinking.” Chopra gave an example of George W. Bush’s comment to “you’re either with us or against us” as nonproductive. He also quoted Nelson Mandela” having a grievance or resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill the enemy.”

Do not put yourself in a corner with some stupid remark that can lead to the end of discussion. It’s sometimes difficult to assess what’s right, honorable, logical or moral. Use humility with your own point of view. Just think of all the differences in philosophical thinking about egoism from Aristotle, John Stuart Mill, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Frederick Nietzche, William Frederick Hagel, Karl Marx, Ayn Rand and others in determining truth. They were all were able to give terrific arguments for their position.

On the other hand, either you believe the election was legitimate or you falsely believe that it was not. If you believe that it was not, you are believing a lie pure and simple. Just review the 62 court decisions on the 2020 election for the facts.

Step 6. “When confronted, stop, take a deep breath, smile and then make a choice.” This pertains to knowing yourself while identifying your feelings, if possible. Chopra said “Am I going to be nasty?  Am I going to be reactive?  Or is there a creative solution to this?” Chopra gave some personal examples: “I’d like to hear your point of view. I also acknowledge that you are personally insulting me right now. I don’t give permission to myself to be insulted... But now let’s declare our values and our action plan…… out-of-the-way altogether.”

Once again, one has to deal with one’s emotions before one can respond objectively and appropriately. If one has a tendency to negatively respond with anger or sarcasm, the likelihood of successful communication is poor at best. Just watch Trump during an interview. He will either say some attacking remark or turn his back and walk away. So much for his passive- aggressive style.

If one looks for truth by employing empirical reasoning, it’s very difficult to engage or listen to someone that’s just espousing propaganda. With television commercials, I mute the sound. Selling the product generally has nothing to do with truth. It may be a testimonial by actors or a celebrity; there may be just opinion not based on fact or research; the commercials have nothing to do with the comparison of one product over the other; and the commercials may just have pretty people appealing to emotions and imagination.

Step 7. “Don’t try to prove someone wrong.” Chopra said the point of disagreeing is not to win but to start negotiating, and you might never be forgiven.” He added that it’s important to recognize that your adversary either consciously or unconsciously feels a sense of injustice in the matter of who they are. It’s important to engage the other person by asking them about their feeling and what they needed at this particular moment. Chopra added that individuals “they don’t want to change because you want them to change. So if you apply the same principles of attention, affection, appreciation, and acceptance with adults you might have a shot.”

It’s too easy to prove someone wrong when it’s obvious they don’t have the facts or the information especially with all the lying misinformation on TV, radio, and social media. It’s likely a waste of time to engage with someone cognitively and rationally when that opposition has emotionally based falsehoods. With cognitive dissonance, individuals don’t seek out contrary information. As a result, they are a tribe of ignorance. Walk away, when it’s clear of their stupidity. It’s too easy, to give them factual information that they cannot take in, hear, or synthesize. It’s a waste of energy. Do not spit with the wind blowing in your face.

Reframing make sense in one’s communication. Reframing takes time to think about an appropriate response. Do not criticize because one didn’t put enough water in the washing machine. For example, a response might be like the following: I heard a funny sound coming from the washing machine and I looked inside. There was not enough water in the machine so I added more water. No need to blame, just provide the necessary information. Moreover, it’s difficult to reframe as in some conspiracy falsehood. How do you, and who wants to reframe craziness and non-logical beliefs?

Step 8. “Be prepared to forgive.”   Deepak Chopra made an attempt to differentiate between an individual and their behavior in order not to condemn the individual. He added that forgiveness doesn’t mean “I’m lovey-dovey, I hug you, I forgive you, and you forgive me. It means that you stop judging someone’s past behavior.

Good luck with forgiveness. Ask any alcohol anonymous individual and ask them how long it took them to forgive? To forgive might be appropriate or not. I do not forgive Hitler? He does not deserve my forgiveness. I understand the dynamics of Trump and his followers but I do not forgive their despicable and sadistic rioting behavior. Moreover, the overt threat of racism is in the forefront and continues to divide this country. Why forgive our country or its people when we have had 400 years of hate, discrimination and systemic racism affecting all forms of our government that still continues? Communicate wisdom, objectivity and rational behavior even with all the present craziness when you can.

Step 9. “Make a (gentle) joke.” Chopra went on to say that the world would be a happier place if everyone made a point out laughing more and that it was okay to bring humor into a tense conversation. He added a reference to the current Pres. “I do trust anyone who can laugh. Have you ever seen Trump laugh or crack a joke that was moral?” Look at him now. He’s not laughing.

Laughing, smiling are characteristics of well-being. That’s one thing I miss when I run alone. With Tony, while running, laughter is an important part of the equation. Exercise, being outdoors is good, but laughing makes it better.

In essence, Chopra provides important strategies for an individual to consider when encountering another. However, when we’re talking about another, we are now dealing with different or group conditions. It’s like marital counseling. One individual may realistically want resolution; another individual may want compromise; another individual may want dissolution; another individual might want to dominate; and another individual may want to be passive. With one individual you have one perception and with two individuals you have: 1. Two perceptions 2. Different emotional histories 3. Different need structures 4. Different goals or agenda 5. Different or contradictory personality styles 6. May need a third person umpire. However, Chopra’s point is that it takes productive energy and skills to interact with many. I totally agree.

Benign and Malignant Aggression

 

The last four years can be characterized by excessive anxiety, fear, tension, aggression, hate, hostility and sadism. Let’s look inside our brain and into our political milieu for an explanation. Factually, are brains can be divided into three parts.  The first is called the “Archaic Brain” which is located in the Central Core with the functions of instinctual behavior that defends territory and keeping safe; the “Old Brain” is the 2^nd and located in the “Limbic System” with the functions of fear, fight, flight and anger responses; and the “New Brain” is the 3^rd which is located in the Cortex with the functions of higher cognition, abstract thought, usage of tools, formation and comprehension of language, and social behavior. Notice that “Hate” the feeling that causes angry or resentful emotional response which can be used against certain people or ideas and associated with feelings of anger, disgust, and a disposition towards the source of hostility; and “Sadism” a tendency to derive pleasure from inflicting pain, suffering or humiliation on others is not found in our brains at birth.  This disquisition addresses the increase of anxiety, malignant aggression, hate and sadism in our political culture.

Neural physiologically, the emergence of a newborn greets life in a state of helplessness, coupled with fear, dependency, anxiety, and tension. Yet, with loving parenting, the infant can develop goodness, love, justice and trust. But do not forget, along with mammals, sapiens have the innate mechanism for aggression and survival. However, a sapient has a much longer period of dependency and reliance for its survival and well-being. To illustrate dependency and aggression, Linda just procured a very small lapdog. Both she and the small dog bonded. Whenever she separates from her new dog, the young dog barks as in “separation anxiety.” Also, whenever, a new person comes to the door, Teddy barks as in “stranger anxiety.” Separation and stranger anxiety also occur in young developing sapiens. At a very young age, animals and sapiens differentiate and quickly experience safety and non-safety without the development of language. Crying, thrashing responses are emotional and physical. This reaction is aggressive and based on fear and/or anxiety. However, there is an absence of language, “hate” and “sadism.”

When it comes to anger, resentfulness, disgust, hostility, inflicting pain, suffering and humiliation [hatred and sadism] this emotionally based behavioral stance comes later. The newborn has a neural mechanism for survival, being safe and aggression but not yet for hatred and sadism. Within our neurological capacity, we proceed through developmental stages and have the potential to become fully human or malignantly aggressive on the other extreme. In becoming human, we learn, identify, imitate and interact with various others in our life space. We learn to have tendency’s to love, move aggressively against, and/or isolate ourselves from others. We become perpetrators and victims throughout our life space.  The effect and influence  of others include  but are not limited to parents, siblings, peers, other family members, teachers, significant others, bosses, clergy, TV, radio celebrities, political figures, movies, novels, social media, video games etc.

While becoming increasingly violent, one can easily lose faith in life and the possibility of trusting or having confidence in it. There can be many disappointments with or without memory as well as being betrayed by friend, sweetheart,  teacher, religious or political leader. These situations and experiences occur and in varying degrees within the context of our socioeconomic culture and society. All these components and factors play a part in the development of one’s character structure, thus creating the tendency for evil, sadism and destruction.

Within character structure there are varying tendencies for hate and sadistic behavior toward others. Furthermore, if there are too many betrayals, wrongs and disappointments the individual remains mistrustful and skeptical. He hopes for a miracle that will restore his loss of faith and trust. To compensate, the individual is likely to throw himself into the arms of a powerful authority as in a political party or leader to regain his lost faith and sense of insecurity and powerlessness. Often, he “overcomes” his despair at having lost his faith in life by identifying and following a powerful authority like a political leader in an attempt to regain some worldly aims. Of course, within this context, the deeply deceived, disappointed and insecure person also begins to establish the foundations for hating life and others. Being disappointed and hating life, one becomes a cynic and a destroyer. This destructiveness is one of despair and disappointment in life and leads to hating life and compensatory destructive violence.

Everyone, and I mean everyone has been subjected with varying degrees, at one time or another, at either viewing or being on the receiving end of someone’s verbal sadistic hurtful putdowns and/or receiving sexual and physical abuse. We have laws attempting to protect children and spouses from inappropriate aggressive behavior. On a personal note, I took my younger brother to our backyard to play football. “Play “for me was running over him while asking him to tackle me. Of course he couldn’t. One of my friends, had to throw a pitchfork at his older brother to get him to stop his abuse. An uncle used to hit aggressively his younger brother with the bow from his violin.

Who has not witnessed their parent’s verbal and/or physical disagreements? Shouting, yelling, slamming doors and so forth are illustrations of sadistic and hateful interactions. Who has never heard or overheard “I hate you?” Who has never gotten angry and said something vile to a significant other? In a work situation, there is a person in charge who enacts some policy that is harmful to another below him on the pecking order.

Historically, there’s some evidence to suggest that that the Neanderthals did not exhibit significant hatred and sadism toward their own. Anthropologists that study different cultures as the hunter- gatherers found evidence that some of these tribes that reside in “non-civilization” areas like the Zuni, in the old days, exhibited humane interactions between their people. Yes, they were aggressive but they were not considered violent and destructive people.

 Aggression can be classified as benign or built-in our brain and serves as a function of defense against threats to our vital interests. Three examples of benign aggression include: 1. Accidental aggression in which another person gets hurt but it was not intended 2. Playful aggression like in fencing and archery where one develops skill and mastery of a sport. I do not call boxing and football benign aggression. Playing defense, my football coach told me to hit or tackle that quarterback on every play regardless. 3. Self-assertive aggression is protecting or standing up for oneself by establishing psychological boundaries by not allowing oneself to be run over.

However, there have been barbaric atrocities committed by Sapiens. Historically the Genghis Khan dynasty, Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, Roman Empire, The Holy Crusades, the Ottoman Empire, the 30 year religious wars are just a few examples of excessive malignant aggressive brutality, hate and sadistic behavioral expression against others and other groups. More recently, in my lifetime, there was World War II and the atrocities of the Holocaust, the death marches; the Atomic bombings, Korean War, Vietnam, and the Iraq, Iranian and Syrian mess in the Middle East to name a few more current illustrations of man’s inhumane treatment of man.

Hitler, the narcissist, pathological, and paranoid started his war with the excuse that Poland attacked. We know that was a lie. He proceeded, with his intelligent and loyal followers, to attack Russia, France, Belgium, England etc. Hitler was exterminating Jews, Gypsies and others while savagely destroying much of Europe. It was relatively easy for him to express his hatred and have eager submissive followers carry out his malignant aggressive brutality. Yes, sapiens are easily misled, become hateful and seem to follow blindly a histrionic leader. The German people were not born hateful and sadistic but became increasingly hateful and sadistic. There many reasons given for the start of World War II but that are beyond this essay.

Turning to the last four years, there have been numerous examples, identifications, models, of hateful and sadistic aggression by our leader and his federal government alone. This fact is just one of the influences on the development of character with an increased concrete tendency for hate and sadism for many in our nation. Are all people affected, influenced in the some way or manner? A great number of individuals have significantly identified with the authoritarian, lying, amoral, hateful and sadistic political leader and have acted out inappropriately.

The following are just a few examples of malignant aggressive brutality directed toward others of a lesser quality: 1. Building a wall to keep out other less desirables 2. Travel ban on certain Muslim countries 3. Lying and calling legitimate news “fake news.” 4. Attacking numerous individuals on social media 5. Separating children from families at the border in cages without plans for reunification 6. Downplaying and lying about the Covid-19 pandemic 7. Having government officials telling Congress that the states do not need Covid -19 funds 8. Having the criminal justice department falsely investigate 9. Lying about the democratic 2020 election 10. Orchestrating, planning and enabling an attack on the capital to overturn the election results 11. The government attack on peaceful Black Lives matter protesters 12. Supporting conspiracy ideas and hate groups 13. Against a $15 minimum wage 14. Against reforms to encourage and promote democratic voting 15. Minimizing the seriousness of the January 6 capital attack 16. Attacking House Republicans wanting to impeach. 17. Disbanding a D. H. S. Unit established for dealing with the resurgence of right-wing extremist recruitment and radicalization; and hamstringing the FBI efforts for investigating white nationalist groups.

The above examples of malignant aggressive, hateful, sadistic behaviors toward others were carried out by numerous followers, administrators, and department heads etc. within the federal government. How can following these directives be  considered to be good for the country? Did loyalty and fear of losing one’s job supersede morality?  Hatred and sadistic behavior toward others were implemented policy by the president, his cabinet, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Party and Senators. Practically everyone, it seems, went along with this cruelty toward others. Not only did those political figures in power contribute to this sadism, but millions of voters in the 2016 and 2020 election did as well. The leader’s behavior was deplorable and significantly contributed to the criminal brutality of too many in our country.

As with Hitler in Nazi Germany, masses went along with the leader’s inhuman malignant violent aggressive behavior. There were a number of intelligent individuals in his educated country. Intelligence didn’t seem to matter as it’s easy to mislead and fool while creating a perceived irrational threat to the followers. Yes, there was a world depression and Germany was screwed in their World War I surrender. People were fearful and anxious and were easily lied to and brainwashed during that time. They were told their values, ideals and way of life was threatened by the Jews, communists and other scapegoats and it was up to them to protect their pure German race. It was a lie and a betrayal. The enemy was painted as evil and a psychological threat. Hitler was the enemy and was the real threat to the German nation.

With that being said, an authoritarian leader in Germany propagated hate, evilness, and destruction toward others. The paranoid, sociopathic and narcissistic Trump, has a similar character structure and follows, in many ways, the same playbook. Notice his followers are easily led to hate and scapegoat others. These others are called liberal, Democrats, socialists, communists, black, Bernie, Nancy, AOC, Hillary and un-American which gives permission to hate another. He like Hitler is above the law without consequences, Hitler had other authoritarian allies. The x admired Putin, Erdogan, and Kim Jong –UN. Both have a similar clinical diagnosis. Both hate democracy and exhibited malignantly aggressive, destructive, cruel and sadistic actions against others. Both were terrible for their country.

Yes, aggression is part of man’s nature. Hate and the tendency for sadism expression can become part of one’s character, in various degrees, in just about everyone, except Mother Theresa, in every known socioeconomic culture.  Yes, the last 4 years with a hateful, sadistic and necrophilia leader, increased the tendency for too many in our country to exhibit malignant, violent, hateful and sadistic behaviors as well. He added fuel to a psychological threat to their frame of reference and identity of his followers with his continued falsehoods and quite easily manipulated them by his words and actions. I can now say that hate and malignant aggressive sadism are a quiddity.

White Supremacy Threatened

 

 

Recently, his loyalists stated that an impeachment would further divide the country. This statement was not backed up with any supporting evidence just like the statement that the election was stolen. Divide as a noun means separated into parts. In arithmetic, to divide means to split into equal parts. As a noun, divide means a wide divergence between two groups, typically producing tension or hostility. In essence, we are talking about anxious and aggressive people. This disquisition focuses on the statement that impeachment would further divide the country.

The previous presidents approval rating on January 20, 2021 was 44% approve and 55% disapprove. A recent average of polls regarding removing the previous president from office was 52.5% support and 43.3% don’t support. A  Monmouth University poll found that 56% of Americans supported the impeachment on grounds that he incited the January 6 riot at the capital by his supporters with 42% disagreeing. The poll included 87% of Republicans. By 52%- 44% Americans said the Senate should convict the previous president and by 57%-41% should be barred from future office.

At the moment, there is a clear divergence and majority between those not supporting the previous president and those supporting him. Those supporting him have been reinforced and brainwashed by his lies for over the last five years. By the sheer weight of the repetition or positive reinforcement of those lies on social media, TV, radio etc., they have totally submitted to the irrationality of the January 6’s insurrection. We all witnessed the terror of the unlawful violence and intimidation emitted. These evil individuals have to employ cognitive dissonance, denial, rationalization and hold beliefs to a conspiracy ideology. Their authoritarian leader infamously stated to an evangelical group in Iowa that he could kill somebody in New York and get away with it. With that being said, what’s wrong with disallowing black votes or asking the Georgia Secretary of State to find 11,780 votes or to recalculate? With the irrational belief that he actually won the presidential vote along with additional lies by the political sycophants who know better, of course they don’t believe in impeachment. Let’s find out why?

It would prove fruitful to break down that 42% that believe he should not be impeached from office. I would ask questions like: 1. How long have you been a supporter of this man? 2. What do you like, admire or dislike about him? 3. Are you a gun owner? 4. What is your level of education and did you take a civics class? 5. Are you employed? 6. Are you, and your family affiliated with any political party? 7. Did you attend any of his previous rallies or attend on January 6? 8. Have you ever been arrested, incarcerated or had legal issues? 9. How much and on what TV or social media footage have you witnessed regarding the January 6 insurrection and your thoughts and feelings that it generated? 10. How do you receive your political news? 11. What was supposed to happen on January 6 by rioting? 12. What are your major issues and complaints? 13. What conspiracy ideas do believe?  14. Do you believe that the January 6 occurrence facilitated the aims of the X.? These questions would generate and lead to further questions that would categorize the attitude and beliefs of this 42% figure.

Of these 42%, more specifically, let’s take a clinical look at the fringe element that we witnessed on TV that participated in the January 6 riot at the capital. For this group, it’s their character development and their inability to incorporate a positive sense of self with the humaneness of the outside world. They are stuck, in their position, like in quicksand and drowning. All they needed was an excuse to act out the violence.  Freud believed that aggressiveness was biological in nature while Jung saw aggressiveness as the despicable part of man’s Shadow. With that being noted, these rioters received the excuse to act out when Trump instructed them to march with power, fight and strength to the capital and not let “them” take freedom or white supremacy away from them.

We witnessed the vile, wicked, dreadful, offensive, hateful, abhorrent shouting rhetoric of killing and verbal attacks on various governmental members. This is clearly a character tendency that is behaviorally orally sadistic with an exploitive nature. They were selfishly taking advantage of being backed by a mob with little external threats from capital police. Their evil words defined their character and were defensive projections.

We also witnessed physical behavior that was unlawful, criminal, rebellious, hateful, destructive, necrophilia, stealing, antisocial against other humans with the character structure that has a sadomasochistic tendency. These culprits initially have to masochistically submit, blindly follow, revere, and act robotic without moral values and critical intelligence to their authoritarian leader Trump .Their sadistic attack on capital police, smearing of feces and destruction of government property was clearly evident. They risked their freedom and their integrity not for rule of law or for democracy but for hate and sadism. Some never even voted. These individuals are beyond treatment, redemption and/or rehabilitation. Bring back the lobotomy!

To simplify, white supremacy skinned individuals feel threatened that their identity, way of life, entitlements, privilege, and protection are going to be lost with Trump’s removal from power. They have been brainwashed over and over with the fraudulent messages that Trump won the election in a landslide, the election was fraudulent and that liberals, socialists and black protest groups are destroying their beloved country. One way to reduce the psychological threat and anxiety is by affiliating with the Republican Party, a hate group, a conspiracy group and/or a mob. A second way to reduce the threat and anxiety is by verbally and physically attacking anybody and anything that counters their sick way of thinking. Alcohol, drugs, sex, social media, and sleep are other ways as well.

The 56% that approve of the impeachment could be asked the same questions in order to compare differences. Their answers might help delineate the capital insurrection that was positively reinforced between the two groups. In doing so, we go beyond and take a deeper look at the notion of applying consequences for the authoritarian. Do you notice that those supporting the previous president make many statements and create false moral equivalency without any supporting evidence? They also fail to address the threat on individuals, the nation or democracy as well as the underlying racism. It’s not about the vote.

What’s clearly contributing to the division between the party of the X and others are the preponderance of white supremacy, racism and lies. These lies have been positively reinforced by him as well as by his many political sycophants. Take some of the highly educated members in the Congress, who in the interest of their egoism, go along and repeat the lies at every opportunity.  Perhaps some are afraid to tell the truth because of real or imaginary consequences from his base. Perhaps, it doesn’t bother these politicians to look at themselves in the mirror every day.  Just refer to them as Judas. They are despicable as well and don’t deserve to hold office. It’s as if lying is the new norm. Having a healthy functioning conscience should be a requirement for holding office. Have negative consequences and/ or punishment for their lying behavior is required to slow down and stop the bleeding in order to confront their hunger for exploitation and power. Forget compromise until everyone focuses on the same reality. Agreeing on the same reality is healthier than relying on deceit, irrationality and illusion of unity and union.

It’s become clearer by now as to the political and racial division in the country. The racism is completely concrete and in the open. Whites can no longer pretend they are not racist. Whites can talk all they want about being politically correct. The actions by the X, his past administration, current members of Congress, capital police and former military trained were depicted on January 6. These behaviors are focused on keeping the power and the status quo of the past 400 years or so and not on unifying the country. A non-impeachment conviction would just reinforce the white supremacy status quo of our country. One group talks about working across the aisle, providing economic and heath assistance and the other about the 2022 and 2024 election and regaining power. We have been previously and continue to be the divided states of America. Impeach the X, root out systemic racism, prosecute domestic terror and then we can start talking about the political division.