The function of public protests and demonstrations are people’s mystical expressions of their personal longings for a better life in today’s world. And the political left, freedom peddler is there ready to promise them that they will take care of them and make their wish come true. This is the pathological, highly destructive dynamic of the social relationship that is now being played out in America and the rest of the “free world.” Like sheep being led to the slaughter, the clueless public and many in government are playing directly into the hands of the Devil, the emotional plague.
Protests and demonstrations are symptoms of armored people’s helplessness and their inability to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that are still available to them to work for a better life for themselves and to fulfill their dreams.
In today’s anti-authoritarian society there are no longer genuine authorities such as parents and educators to guide young people because the authorities have given up their responsibilities to direct and teach. There are no longer the police to maintain social order so that people can run their lives in peace. Instead, the authorities have given in to young people’s hate-based, demands and have perversely accepted responsibility for their personal problems. By doing so, they have entered into a sadomasochistic relationship with sadistic, anti-authoritarian ideologues on the political left. The consequences of this pathological relationship is chaos with the political forces of the Left and the Right ending up battling each other while the functions of the family and of the government are being destroyed in front of everyone’s eyes.
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Neither Left Nor Right
The Emotional Plague
Charles Konia, M.D. 
There is a valiid role for protests in the first stages of a movement when most people do not yet know there bis a problem. A protest serves to call attention to an issue most of the public do not know exists. Protests against lockdowns are a recent example, letting people know they are not alone in tjhinking the lockdowns wrong. After the movement has become well-known, mass protests no longer serve a purpose. Killing of Black men by sadidistic cops is not new and there have been many protests about it in the past. Nobody needs to be told that it happens. Everybody has already made up their minds about which side they are on and nobody will be influenced one way or the other by a protest.
The current round of BLM protests are most likely instigated by undercover cops to distract attention from the swelling movement against the new Medical Dictatorship and provide more justification for police control over people’s lives. The government-controlled media are using the word. “riot” to include all protests, no matter how peaceful.
And none of what is being seen today on the social scene has anything to do with psychology except for the psychology of how to influence public opinion, which is a modern science that hardly existed in Reich’s day.
Reich had some valid insights at the time he was writing. But the world has moved on. Today we face a very different situation. An attempt to explain modern social events via a theory of mass psychology is about as valid as a manual on how to defend your wagon train from an Indian attack. Useful at one time, but useless today in a different world with different problems.
The art of propaganda in the 1930s was in an early stage, more a matter of the propagandists feelings than of science. Today, modern methods that have been researched and tested enable the people in control of the media to control the way the majority of the masses will think regardless of any previously existing psychological traits. It does not matter how emotionally healthy a person is or how they were brought up or how satisfactory their personal life may be. They can still be controlled by tailoring the media message to that sort of person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
The current media-driven mass panic over a harmless disease that only kills people who are already pre-dead and doomed to die soon anyway is a good example. The right buttons were pressed and the whole world fell into line and imposed totalitarian police state regimes on their whole populations. Left-wing Iceland, Finnland, and Denmark, right-wing Hungary, Poland and the Phillipines, France with it’s strong tradition of civil liberties, Germany and Spain with recent memories of dictatorships that usually bring on intense debate about any authoritarian proposal, Italy with a long tradition of a cavalier attitude to any laws, American states with both Republican and Democratic govenors in office, all fell for the constant drumbeat of fear and “science” presented by the controlled press and the censorship of alternative views.
Mass psychology is obsolete. In the modern world no personal psychological traits are needed to explain why people fall for media manipulation. Just being human accounts for it well enough. Among Reich’s many insights, many of which are still useful, his sociopolitical thinking is no longer of any use in explaining mass events and is of historical and biographical interest only.
Protests and demonstrations in today’s anti-authoritarian society are a symptom of people’s emotional helplessness.
I totally respect your knowledge Dr Konia and also I inherently dislike the public demonstrations and protests but when your business, your wellbeing or your family is at stake I don’t think it’s healthy to stay and simply watch the social destruction that is being realized day by day from the sadistic power drunk politicians. This is what happened during lockdowns and not only in USA but also in Europe. How can you put yourself straight forth and simply say to THEM that the only thing you want is to get “the enormous opportunities that are still available to us to work for a better life for ourselves and to fulfill our dreams”??
I agree that something more must be done and that is to show that what is happening today is the expression of the emotional plague as have done in my book, The Emotional Plague, The Root of Human Evil. With the eruption of the plague through the social surface there is hope that some people will finally recognize its existence.
The first step in dealing with the plague is to recognize and bring people into contact with the disease, emotional plague.
Thank you Dr Konia. Your books (and your articles also in Journal of Orgonomy and your blog) are really too important for me to understand how Emotional Plague works and its expressions in nowadays.
Dr. Konia, I find this post excellent. It is absolutely realistic and it is hopeful. So many people feel resigned to accepting the status quo. I do not. I am hopeful and interested in implementing positive change.
Thank you.
Judy
You’re welcome. I too am hopeful.
Personal liberty and safety are under attack and the battle is being lost as it is only a one-sided revolution; people are forced to recant their non-conformist ideas and beg for mercy, otherwise they are emotionally or physically bludgeoned into submission; once powerful CEO’s and media figures are resigning their positions and shredding their integrity in order to appease the leftist mobs. The sly Democratic Party has finally found its muscle as their political maneuvering against Trump and the middle class were not fully successful; they now have their new SS Blackshirts to force people into submission while the police are derelict in protecting life and property. Worse yet, the police are capitulating to the mob out of their own hierarchical immobilization and personal guilt and kneeling before them. Since your last post a few days ago where Steven Diab pointed out the dangerous times we live in, things are continuing in this vein at an even quicker pace.
Unless one reads alternative news that is well-researched and isn’t afraid to report the truth (Liberty Daily, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit), one is not aware of the organized effort to destroy free thought and personal freedom, as the MSM conveniently edits out what would shock the average viewer. The emotional plague has come full circle into the domain of the public, and now everyone who so desires can become a Little Stalin and boss around the decent citizen, with the full backing of the Big Little Stalins (politicians, media). We are now witnessing the unrestrained sadistic impulses of the unhappy youth (and others) manipulating the country into their insane ideological image.
I think we are past the time where just educating the public of the evil emotional plague is sufficient, we are at a point of no return unless the citizens actively participate in restoring the liberties enshrined in the Constitution and are also able to physically protect itself while doing so (Trump cannot do this himself as his government is infected with traitors.) When a library is burning, the librarian must take off his reading glasses and put on the helmet to extinguish the fire and save the cherished books.
Ed, the whole thing reminds me of Mao-Tse-Tung’s Red Guards. Sexually frustrated, indoctrinated young people who are now allowed to let their anger and hatred out legally under party policy.
Ed
The question I have is the following:
Where in the greater social realm can healthy life stand up to the current outbreak?
One can protect their home or business. Maybe even a small community can protect themselves (as pointed out in one the links to the articles you posted below). The EP infection that has been spreading in the greater social realm for at least 70 plus years has taken up most of the space in the social arena and left little room for health to operate.
Vincent Bugliosi described the social phenomenon that he observed for most of his life this way. “It is in the air”. He used the term in reference to the acquittal of O.J. in his book about the trial.
The scent and allure of anti-authoritarianism is in the air. As sick as that seems to any rational person it is very difficult for the masses to resist what seems acceptable to “everyone”. I really can’t repeat Solzhenitsyn’s great line about the social pressure to conform often enough.
One major problem continues to be that in the 20thC the plague outbreak in Europe could be fought on the battle field. The real battle field of the anti-authoritarian outbreak is in the heavily ocular armored majority’s minds. The infection of anti-authoritarianism has also reached into the minds of most influential leaders.
When Dr Konia, over 50 years ago, took up the challenge of Dr Baker’s hope that a functional thinker would document and explain the Emotional Plague in book form, he not only successfully completed that major task but also discovered, labeled and documented the current outbreak which took root in the 1960’s (the transformation from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian society in America and the western world).
Developing a strategy to deal with, contain and replace anti-authoritarianism (if it is at all possible) would help a decent amount of people gain an rudimentary understanding of the EP. Seeing anti-authoritarianism for the destructive force that it is may be possible one day. Eventually people will have no choice because they will have lost so much of what makes life worth living. On the other hand, I do not see how it is possible for armored human society to be sufficiently educated in sufficient numbers to have the desired effect of containing and quarantining EP characters so as to prevent future outbreaks. From my perspective and observations that is not the way that armored humans function particularly when living together in large numbers in the modern world. The best method of influence seems to necessitate that a person or persons need to have a stake in outcome that is somewhat related to their primary bio-emotional drives. Discovering how to break through the blocks surrounding the heavy ocular armor of the masses and their influential leaders is the challenge.
Steve,
I don’t think the ocular armor of the conservatives is the problem, as they feel and are aware of the sickness in the current EP outbreak. Actually, they always have been repulsed by the Left’s corrosive attacks on social institutions, but were more interested in working and living, and hoped this “nuisance” would disappear.
These core feelings are where the hope lies for a unifying reason (biological drive) to fight back—this is where their “stake in their bio-emotional drives” meets.
Trump is able to fill stadiums because of his charged persona: he is direct, aggressive and does not apologize for his insights and strengths. We identify with him because we wish we were able to do what he does. We want to be complete again and not hide our whiteness, or independent thinking as a black, nor heterosexuality, have freedom of thought, and finally, to be able to admit the revulsion with the groups that unabashedly live out their pathologies (so they don’t have to feel their neuroses, and forever imposing their ideology on others to bolster their deficient self-esteem).
If according to orgonomic theory, the conservative character is more in touch with his core and aggression, the answer lays here. I think they are educated enough and know what needs to be done, but simply cannot get out of their self-imposed “good behavior”. But how to escape their armor? Reich mentioned many times that improper modesty was the handmaiden of the plague and spelled disaster for one’s dreams and self. In a rigorous battle with a brutal enemy all tools must be utilized, one cannot withhold crucial evidence of who and what they are doing, as this self-suppression will develop into guilt feelings and losing the battle. There is a great video by Candance Owens (who is black) which destroys the false image of George Floyd as an innocent person. It is powerful and severe as it does not hold back, and thus is able to negate the whole protest movement at the roots. Trump has a watered down version of this “no-prisoners” attitude, as must be the case for a President.
To see the Left for who they really are and react responsibly, the flexible mental armor of the conservatives must be removed.
The problem is in the medical realm. Until the EP is recognized by a sufficient number of people in the social realm, the plague will continue to exist and devastate social life. The same situation exists today regarding the EP that existed in the past centuries when the bubonic plague was not recognized as a true medical disease.
Ed
I appreciate the comments. I did see Candace Owens video and read the Floyd autopsy report which does paint a slightly different picture than what can be seen on the video. After watching a 9 minute video of Floyd dying while under the knee of a police officer is tough to take and most have had the same reaction. It is understandable but this is not legal justice. This is people watching and we do not know all the circumstances. If it turns out that the Officer’s actions we not appropriate, he should be suspended, fired or convicted accordingly. But popular opinion justice based on “TV watching” is part and parcel of anti-authoritarian society. I don’t support this kind of mob reaction as a form of justice. As I mentioned many who know better have joined in with their condemnation. This is a slippery slope especially in the anti-authoritarian frenzy that we are experiencing.
Heather MacDonald and a few others have written about police statistics and how they do support the idea that the overwhelming majority of law enforcement do not enforce the law based on racism. Obviously there are “bad cops” just like there are bad politicians and bad everything else and there are processes for dealing with those exceptions..It is very human to be overly critical of others while being oblivious to one’s own problems
When I mentioned ocular armor I wasn’t particularly referring to conservatives. Conservatives, like all other socio-political types appear to be just as vulnerable to social pressure. It depends on one’s tolerance to severe criticism and the courage to stand against the crowd. This is a human problem and is not exclusive to liberals or those not as “grounded” as conservatives.
In the last sentence you wrote “flexible mental armor”. I think that Dr Konia has written that all brain or “mental” armor includes a degree of ocular armor. Maybe he can comment on this.
Although I wholly subscribe to Dr Baker and Dr Konia’s socio-political character types my experience is that there is some nuance to each character type and their reactions to circumstance. I work to avoid mechanically relying on socio-political character as the entire story when it comes to people’s reactions or actions. I think that the transformation to anti-authoritarian society has had an effect on the classical socio-political character types. Maybe Dr Konia will comment on this also.
Lastly in most of my communications, I do not refer to conservatives, liberals, democrats, republicans, the left, the far left, the alt right etc. Even though these labels do serve a practical purpose I find that they tend to pit one against the other especially in our anti-authoritarian society. My preference is to focus on the consequence of a person’s words, actions or inaction. Does it support rationality (based on functional thinking) or not? Does it support rational authority or anti-authoritarianism?
You are stressing the importance of being able to think functionally to understand what is happening.
Steve,
I agree with your assessment of the Floyd case, but this is irrelevant to the leaders of the protests as it needed a “trigger” and does not really care about facts.
With regards to the term conservative/liberal, I use it as per Baker, strictly a medical definition based on armoring, and not a political party. This being said, the majority of each faction vote for their side politically—of course there are many exceptions. In our times, a more apt meaning of a conservative would be someone that is closer to health than a liberal.
Two examples of brave fighters who are not afraid to make a stand:
https://www.itsmac.com/2020/06/02/coeur-dalene-idaho-stands-up-antifa-stands-down/
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/archbishop-viganos-powerful-letter-to-president-trump-eternal-struggle-between-good-and-evil-playing-out-right-now
Dr. Konia, this is a profound explanation of this phenomenon, which one would normally stand helpless before. But where does this self-hatred of whites come from, making them kneel before blacks? Even in countries like Sweden without a colonial past.
Enclosed is a video showing how few pestilent individuals transform peaceful protests:
Self hatred of whites comes from people’s personal guilt displaced onto social causes. This displacement is typical in white liberals. See chapter on “The Guilt of the Liberal” in James Burnham’s book, “Suicide of the West”, soon to appear in a forthcoming issue of our Journal.