The Psychology of Modern Leftism- Theodore Kaczynski

Continued from above...
www.davesag.com...

29. Here is an illustration of the way in which the oversocialized leftist shows his real attachment to the conventional attitudes of our society while pretending to be in rebellion against it. Many leftists push for affirmative action, for moving black people into high-prestige jobs, for improved education in black schools and more money for such schools; the way of life of the black "underclass" they regard as a social disgrace. They want to integrate the black man into the system, make him a business executive, a lawyer, a scientist just like upper-middle-class white people. The leftists will reply that the last thing they want is to make the black man into a copy of the white man; instead, they want to preserve African American culture. But in what does this preservation of African American culture consist? It can hardly consist in anything more than eating black-style food, listening to black-style music, wearing black-style clothing and going to a black-style church or mosque. In other words, it can express itself only in superficial matters. In all essential respects leftists of the oversocialized type want to make the black man conform to white, middle-class ideals. They want to make him study technical subjects, become an executive or a scientist, spend his life climbing the status ladder to prove that black people are as good as white. They want to make black fathers "responsible." They want black gangs to become nonviolent, etc. But these are exactly the values of the industrial-technological system. The system couldn't care less what kind of music a man listens to, what kind of clothes he wears or what religion he believes in as long as he studies in school, holds a respectable job, climbs the status ladder, is a "responsible" parent, is nonviolent and so forth. In effect, however much he may deny it, the oversocialized leftist wants to integrate the black man into the system and make him adopt its values.

30. We certainly do not claim that leftists, even of the oversocialized type, never rebel against the fundamental values of our society. Clearly they sometimes do. Some oversocialized leftists have gone so far as to rebel against one of modern society's most important principles by engaging in physical violence. By their own account, violence is for them a form of "liberation." In other words, by committing violence they break through the psychological restraints that have been trained into them. Because they are oversocialized these restraints have been more confining for them than for others; hence their need to break free of them. But they usually justify their rebellion in terms of mainstream values. If they engage in violence they claim to be fighting against racism or the like.

---

Please, please, know that this "oversocialization" is not something just invented by a raving-mad Kaczynski. In fact, a majority of the last century has seen an effort by the people in power (both corporate and government power) to mold people into a more compliant, more docile, and more consuming form.

For a most part, this effort to "socialize" the human being has not been done secretly but it remains largely unknown because only a few people within the psychoanalyst, political, and business communities are in close contact with the people planning the process. By and large, the psychoanalysts' and opinion-shapers are in agreement that their efforts are changing people for the better.

ADDED:
To Kaczynski the "liberal" was a personality who sought to appropriate the power of the state to force his viewpoint unto others. In doing so, the "liberal" personality has the feeling of being in more control of their lives and of living in a more moral and orderly world. This definition of "liberal" could be as easily applied to as many modern Conservatives as modern Democrats.

He was, basically, identifying a new mental disorder but uses a poor name - one with too many connotations already attached. He should have just made up a new term like "egoists."

Kaczynski is apparently pointing out the part of socialism that is liberal ..or... the part of liberalism that is socialist. What I think I mean is that he was pointing out the growing tendency of all modern powerful political ideologies to socialize, federalize, or legislate everything and elevate every issue (even family or couple issues) to social, federal, or national levels.

Jon

[edit on 12.20.2008 by Voxel]

Oh, I'll be back to discuss this with you guys. First, I need to reply to semper about a few things, and then I need to address the more bogus claims.

I know this is an old article and the lefists of 2005 certainly didn't agree with Ted then but look what they've been up to recently. Someone disagreed with the fact that leftists will invent problems, but what are the recent "movements" we've been seeing? Fat shaming is now a big one, one would think telling someone that being fat is unhealthy (you can argue all day but it is and you know it.) is reasonable and based in science (again, it is) but recently we've seen a massive (pun not intended) surge in fat people complaining about their stigma, with no facts behind their feelings. We've also seen a major push for allowing kids to start taking hormone pills in a fruitless attempt to change their sex. We're talking pre-teens with television shows glorifying this mental disease with a suicide rate of about 40% even after "transitioning". Beyond insane and dangerous. To keep it short we can end on the current election, where it was stated by Hillary Clinton that Donald Trump was a threat to our democracy. Hilarious since shortly after her loss we saw major violence from the left not just on college campus' (which is a whole issue in itself) but in the major cities as well. Celebrities mourning as if a loved one died and sending a message of despair throughout Hollywood, and I don't even want to talk about the poor mentally disabled kid who was kidnapped by black lives matter supporters and tortured live on facebook while people cheered them on and defended their actions on the news, youtube andvarious social media outlets. Oops I guess I kind of talked about that one. Anyway this is just one point Ted was absolutely correct on. Factor in their violence throughout all this and that makes 2.

a reply to: d3adleaves

I know this is an old article and the lefists of 2005 certainly didn't agree with Ted then but look what they've been up to recently.

Too much trolling aphorism others noted the same thing..

I felt that the reference of Herbert Marcuse (the leftist 20th century philospher who advocated an increase in technological advances to reduce labor-related stress) and the neglect of Erich Fromm (a psychoanalytical philosopher interested in questions of politics and technology) and Friedrich Nietzsche (whose theories of Dionysian activity of the will and rejection of leftist passivity seem directly lifted in the opening section of Kaczynski's 'Industrial Society..') seemed curious. I thought I might add the latter two to the 'Related Works' section, and perhaps attach a disclaimer to Marcuse.