Narcissistic LeadersWritten by Sam Vaknin
The narcissistic leader is culmination and reification of his period, culture, and civilization. He is likely to rise to prominence in narcissistic societies.The malignant narcissist invents and then projects a false, fictitious, self for world to fear, or to admire. He maintains a tenuous grasp on reality to start with and this is further exacerbated by trappings of power. The narcissist's grandiose self-delusions and fantasies of omnipotence and omniscience are supported by real life authority and narcissist's predilection to surround himself with obsequious sycophants. The narcissist's personality is so precariously balanced that he cannot tolerate even a hint of criticism and disagreement. Most narcissists are paranoid and suffer from ideas of reference (the delusion that they are being mocked or discussed when they are not). Thus, narcissists often regard themselves as "victims of persecution". The narcissistic leader fosters and encourages a personality cult with all hallmarks of an institutional religion: priesthood, rites, rituals, temples, worship, catechism, mythology. The leader is this religion's ascetic saint. He monastically denies himself earthly pleasures (or so he claims) in order to be able to dedicate himself fully to his calling. The narcissistic leader is a monstrously inverted Jesus, sacrificing his life and denying himself so that his people - or humanity at large - should benefit. By surpassing and suppressing his humanity, narcissistic leader became a distorted version of Nietzsche's "superman". But being a-human or super-human also means being a-sexual and a-moral. In this restricted sense, narcissistic leaders are post-modernist and moral relativists. They project to masses an androgynous figure and enhance it by engendering adoration of nudity and all things "natural" - or by strongly repressing these feelings. But what they refer to as "nature" is not natural at all. The narcissistic leader invariably proffers an aesthetic of decadence and evil carefully orchestrated and artificial - though it is not perceived this way by him or by his followers. Narcissistic leadership is about reproduced copies, not about originals. It is about manipulation of symbols - not about veritable atavism or true conservatism. In short: narcissistic leadership is about theatre, not about life. To enjoy spectacle (and be subsumed by it), leader demands suspension of judgment, depersonalization, and de-realization. Catharsis is tantamount, in this narcissistic dramaturgy, to self-annulment. Narcissism is nihilistic not only operationally, or ideologically. Its very language and narratives are nihilistic. Narcissism is conspicuous nihilism - and cult's leader serves as a role model, annihilating Man, only to re-appear as a pre-ordained and irresistible force of nature. Narcissistic leadership often poses as a rebellion against "old ways" - against hegemonic culture, upper classes, established religions, superpowers, corrupt order. Narcissistic movements are puerile, a reaction to narcissistic injuries inflicted upon a narcissistic (and rather psychopathic) toddler nation-state, or group, or upon leader. Minorities or "others" - often arbitrarily selected - constitute a perfect, easily identifiable, embodiment of all that is "wrong". They are accused of being old, they are eerily disembodied, they are cosmopolitan, they are part of establishment, they are "decadent", they are hated on religious and socio-economic grounds, or because of their race, sexual orientation, origin ... They are different, they are narcissistic (feel and act as morally superior), they are everywhere, they are defenceless, they are credulous, they are adaptable (and thus can be co-opted to collaborate in their own destruction). They are perfect hate figure. Narcissists thrive on hatred and pathological envy. This is precisely source of fascination with Hitler, diagnosed by Erich Fromm - together with Stalin - as a malignant narcissist. He was an inverted human. His unconscious was his conscious. He acted out our most repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes. He provides us with a glimpse of horrors that lie beneath veneer, barbarians at our personal gates, and what it was like before we invented civilization. Hitler forced us all through a time warp and many did not emerge. He was not devil. He was one of us. He was what Arendt aptly called banality of evil. Just an ordinary, mentally disturbed, failure, a member of a mentally disturbed and failing nation, who lived through disturbed and failing times. He was perfect mirror, a channel, a voice, and very depth of our souls.
| | Election TruthWritten by The Independent Voice
Yes, it is true that George W. Bush received most votes of any elected President in our history. He also received more votes against him than any other elected President in history of our country. The margin of difference between those who want Bush as our President and those who do not is a measly 3%. The fact is that electoral map is almost identical to that of year 2000. Bush did win popular vote by 3.5 million votes but he nearly lost election, had just 68,001 votes switched in Ohio. The 3.5 million more votes came entirely from small states that have predominantly rural voters that typically vote Republican or lean Republican but don't always vote. Who voted for whom? If you are young (18-29), a working woman or a non-working woman, black, latino, Asian, or other, belong to a union, make under $100,000, have a post-graduate education, are a moderate or liberal, never voted before, a Jew, a Buddhist, or a Hindu, a single civilian, homosexual, don't own a gun, your values and concerns are education, unnecessary war, health care, and economy, and you believe we are less safe from terrorism, understand that things are going horribly wrong in Iraq, your family economic situation is worse today than 4 years ago, believe that Iraq has nothing to do with war on terror, believe country is headed in wrong direction, and have lost a job, then odds are that you voted for John Kerry. If you are a rich old white male conservative, a religious zealot who has some college, don't belong to a union, a married veteran who goes to church at least once a week, and your values and concerns are taxes, terrorism and "morals", you have a job but don't work more than full time, you think things are going swell, believe Iraq is tied to terrorism, your family is doing better than 4 years ago, you own a gun, think things are going well in Iraq, not concerned with health care, want abortion completely outlawed, hate homos, believe economy is just great, think attacking Iraq made us more secure, and live in a small town, then odds are that you voted for George W. Bush.
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