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| "Just have an election" |
The 'main stream' news media is abuzz with harangues about elections purportedly being agents for saving or destroying 'our democracy'.
Another intense subject which gives new meaning to the term 'breaking news' is the Covid-19 pandemic.
Together, with the response to the pandemic (many people do not think that the pandemic really exists), those two things are breaking more than just the news.
Both sides of these reactionary groups (in the sense of not having seen it coming) seem to think that elections are a cure for these problems.
This Dredd Blog series has discussed the "elections are a cure" notion for quite some time (2010-2021: Will Elections Cure The Disease?, 2, 3, 4, 5).
A recent article by Robert Kagan says that we are in a constitutional crisis:
“The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves. The warning signs may be obscured by the distractions of politics, the pandemic, the economy and global crises, and by wishful thinking and denial. But about these things there should be no doubt: First, Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for president in 2024. The hope and expectation that he would fade in visibility and influence have been delusional. He enjoys mammoth leads in the polls; he is building a massive campaign war chest; and at this moment the Democratic ticket looks vulnerable. Barring health problems, he is running. Second, Trump and his Republican allies are actively preparing to ensure his victory by whatever means necessary."
(Our Constitutional Crisis Is Already Here,Washington Post; Wayback Machine; or Bespacific).
This Dredd Blog series has specifically mentioned this type of problem, (historically and herstorically); pointing out that the subject matter is composed of:"This series assumes, for the purpose of discussion, that civilizations can become sick.
I am not referring to a pandemic composed of physical conditions that render the populace physically sick, such as Covid-19.
Instead, I am referring to psychological sickness such as denial, depression, mania, and psychosis that isn't physically apparent (in the pandemic sense).
It's a mental realm type of discussion.
A historian who was at one time the most often quoted historian, alluded to this type of sickness:
"In other words, a society does not ever die 'from natural causes', but always dies from suicide or murder --- and nearly always from the former, as this chapter has shown."
(A Study of History, by Arnold J. Toynbee). Mass psychosis is involved when a large group either kills itself, or kills another group."
(Will Elections Cure The Disease? - 5). Likewise, in that post Dredd Blog pointed out that the "father of psychoanalysis" saw these things coming and warned that a new type of therapy (not politics) must be brought forth:
"Another famous "old timer", who is called the "father of psychoanalysis", was on to this phenomenon:
"If the evolution of civilization has such a far reaching similarity
with the development of an individual, and if the same methods are
employed in both, would not the diagnosis be justified that many
systems of civilization——or epochs of it——possibly even the whole of
humanity——have become neurotic under the pressure of the civilizing
trends? To analytic dissection of these neuroses, therapeutic
recommendations might follow which could claim a great practical
interest. I would not say that such an attempt to apply psychoanalysis to civilized society would be fanciful or doomed to fruitlessness.
But it behooves us to be very careful, not to forget that after all we
are dealing only with analogies, and that it is dangerous, not only
with men but also with concepts, to drag them out of the region where
they originated and have matured. The diagnosis of collective neuroses,
moreover, will be confronted by a special difficulty. In the neurosis
of an individual we can use as a starting point the contrast presented
to us between the patient and his environment which we assume to be
normal. No such background as this would be available for any society
similarly affected; it would have to be supplied in some other way. And
with regard to any therapeutic application of our knowledge, what
would be the use of the most acute analysis of social neuroses, since
no one possesses power to compel the community to adopt the therapy? In
spite of all these difficulties, we may expect that one day someone
will venture upon this research into the pathology of civilized
communities. [p. 39]"
...
"Men have brought their powers of subduing the forces of nature
to such a pitch that by using them they could now very easily
exterminate one another to the last man. They know this——hence arises a
great part of their current unrest, their dejection, their mood of
apprehension. [p. 40]"
(Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud, 1929, emphasis added). The gist of it is that "group psychology" of the type we have developed nowadays is not what Freud had in mind."
(ibid). While another 'seer' did not have a degree in psychoanalysis, it does not take a degree to note that SUICIDE IS A MENTAL DISEASE RATHER THAN A POLITICAL PROBLEM (see the quote from "A Study of History" by historian Toynbee above).
One of the psychoses which both historian Toynbee and the Founders of the USA mentioned as a 'show stopper' was addiction to war, i.e warmongering (How To Identify The Despotic Minority).
"We spend more on national security than the rest of the world combined ..."
"The Military is the lead federal agency on climate change ... and that is ... extremely dangerous ... we may lose the republic ..." - Professor Wilkerson (video)
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