The Natural Function of a Political Leader

A political leader such as The President of the United States is a person whose natural executive function is increasingly becoming unclear. This is because the rational, core function of politics which is the science of governing people, is being confused with irrational expectations and needs of a clueless, emotionally sick public.

Examples of rational, core executive functions include safeguarding people’s independence, freedom and responsibility. Examples of irrational, destructive executive functions include catering to the public’s pathological helplessness and dependency needs which,in effect, is a self-serving, “political” tactic. The political left has perfected the art of welfare politics. Having nothing better to offer, the right is quickly learning to playing catch up. The focus of looking for political solutions is the reason that politicians are losing people’s respect.

But politics can never be the answer. Knowledge of people’s underlying socio-political character structure is essential because it helps to distinguish between the primary, rational functions that people can expect from their political leaders versus their own irrational, secondary, destructive drives and need to be taken care of which they project onto them. This crucial distinction is obscured by the endless ideological battles between the political left and the right. This is a manifestation of social armor.

Without making this distinction, politics degenerates into “socio-politics,” a spectacle that we are witnessing in today’s election year. The cluelessness of the politician regarding his natural function as political leader is a symptom of the same cluelessness of the public that elects him.

In selecting a president, the key question becomes: Is there a candidate that protects the functions of independence, freedom, and responsibility of the American people?

The Young and the Clueless

In “The Young and the Economically Clueless,” (Wall Street Journal February 20-21, 2016) regarding the overwhelming political support of young people for Bernie Sanders, Daniel Arbess asks: “Why are young people voting against their own interests?”

The writer cannot answer the contradiction posed by his question because it is outside the economic realm. He is unfamiliar with two important sociological facts that are discussed in my last book, “Neither Left Nor Right”:
1. The primary determinant of an individual’s social and political thinking and behavior is his socio-political character structure.
2. The anti-authoritarian transformation of Western civilization that occurred around 1960.

This transformation, the result of the so-called ‘sexual revolution,’ was accompanied by the almost complete destruction of the authoritarian family and, with this, a dramatic shift to the left in the political thinking of mainstream Americans. This culminated, in 2008, with the presidential election of a full-fledged, pseudo/liberal communist, Barack Obama.

The clueless young were not in a position to have learned anything about the destructiveness of Obama’s or Bernie Sander’s socialism because, as the writer notes, the eldest of these young people were in elementary school when the Soviet Union collapsed. Moreover, they are generally clueless about the significance of historical events.

More importantly, these children are the product of the baby boomer generation that were growing up during the 60’s. Many of these were the product of broken homes and therefore had little or no parental, authoritative guidance in their development. What many of these offspring experienced was just the opposite, brattiness and rebelliousness in their parents.

Bernie Sanders, a self-claimed socialist, is the ideal role model as a leader for these helpless, clueless young people. Incapable of caring for themselves, Sanders becomes the all giving,”free lunch” father that, in their clueless eyes, will take care of them. The economic stresses that these young people face in today’s times merely intensifies their anxieties about the future, justifies their anger at the world and increases Sander’s attractiveness to them.

Apropos of Donald Trump

Individual and socio-political character are the primary determinants of an individual’s, including politician’s, thinking and behavior. For example, is presidential candidate, Donald Trump simply a shrewd, controlling bully in full charge of himself regarding his bid for the presidency or is he just a loose cannon and a blowhard? This distinction depends on whether he is simply a phallic narcissistic character with an oral unsatisfied block, a manic depressive (“bi-polar”) character or a sociopathic character.

In the first case his judgment would be intact and would not detrimentally affect his job as president. In the second and third cases he would be a disaster. We need to know more about his decision making process and his past history in order to determine his capacity for good judgement.

The Mystery of the Missing Radicals on the Left

When radicalization is ever discussed in the news it is always understood in terms of extremists on the right. But are there radicals on the left and if there are any, where are they? The answer is that they do exist but now they are in full view of everyone and are often placed in positions of great power such as candidates in the Democratic Party running for the office of president of the United States and the current President himself. Instead of being referred to for what they are, these radical leftists are now called “progressives” or “socialists.”

Radicals on the left are not identified for what they are because of the shift of the political mainstream to the extreme left of center. These radicals politically blend in imperceptibly with today’s social mainstream. The ever shifting leftward of society is supported and maintained by a new form of social armor that was instituted by leftists, the morality of political correctness.

The Functional Relation Between the Emotional Plague on the Left and Right

The following excerpt is from my forthcoming book, “Clueless”:
The emotional plague individual on the left operates subversively using his intellect to instill confusion either by political action or by inaction. The emotional plague individual on the right operates overtly using his emotions to instill terror through political reaction. For example, the Islamic State (ISIS) movement which operates from the far right originated from Muslim militants in response to the transformation of Western Society from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian which was accompanied by a shift of the political mainstream to the far left.

These extremists reacted emotionally and murderously to what they saw as a threat to their way of life. A manifestation of the emotional plague from the political right, their barbaric actions suddenly caught the attention of a clueless public in the western world by generating terror.

Meanwhile, the free world led by our feckless, left wing president choses to focus not on the terrorist threat and the need to join and support the anti-ISIS forces against the Islamic fanatics but on ousting the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. He insists on this condition before he is willing to consider a military alliance. Knowing that he does not stand a chance to depose Assad, Obama’s political “action” is a disguised form of inaction. It is a destructive example of the emotional plague from the left because it generates confusion about what must be done. It effectively undermines the anti-ISIS coalition’s efforts to crush the terrorist organization militarily.

The Degeneration of the True Liberal into Pseudo-liberal/communism

Why are some liberals capable of consistently
maintaining their true liberal socio-political character structure and others easily shift to the political extreme left and function like pseudo-liberal communist characters?
One reason is that the liberal character lives almost entirely in his superficial layer. As a result, he has little core contact and his thinking is either mechanistic or mystical. Those liberals who have mystical tendencies in their thinking will readily shift to the political left and join the “heaven on earth,” freedom peddling mantra of the pseudo-liberal/ communist. Those liberals who have no mystical tendencies will keep their true liberal identity and will often support the destructive social policies of their cohorts on the extreme left and vote for them but when pressed for a rational reason will not be able to justify why they are doing so.

Understanding The Function of Terrorists and Terrorism

America is in a state of undeclared war with Islamo-fascist fanatics in the Middle East. The war is being waged on two fronts, militarily and ideologically. To understand the ideological war, it is necessary to have knowledge of socio-political characterology and of the emotional plague. Terrorists are Islamo-fascists belonging to the extreme right of the socio-political spectrum. The zealous fascist with his mystical reactionary belief system represents the ultimate in destructive rebelliousness. Terrorism is a manifestation of the emotional plague and it functions by paralyzing and immobilizing its victims through a frightening demeanor, terrifying threats and horrific acts of terror.
Those who are most terrified and likely to be terrorized are the liberal and other leftist characters in the Free World who, because of their pre-existing characterologically-based fear of forceful aggression, will use their rational powers to justify doing nothing and remaining helplessly immobilized at this critical time.
They are behaving in the exact same manner today as they did in England in the 1930s when Hitler was doing the same thing in Europe.

Chastising Obama Is Not The Answer

In the August 2-3 2014 issue of the Wall Street Journal “Out of Many, Two?,” Peggy Noonan writes: “The president shouldn’t be using a fateful and divisive word like “impeachment” to raise money and rouse his base. He shouldn’t be at campaign-type rallies where he speaks only to his base, he should be speaking to the country. He shouldn’t be out there dropping his g’s. slouching around a podium. complaining about his ill treatment, describing his opposition with disdain: Stop just hat’in all the time.”

But what if this is exactly how Obama feels and what he wants to do? The thought is too horrible and unbelievable for most people even to imagine. The question goes directly to Obama’s socio-political character structure, without an understanding of which, nothing can make sense. Noonan does not see the significance of the contempt toward America in Obama’s behavior. She does not see that she is hated by Obama and the entire anti-authoritarian mainstream exactly because she is associated with the past authoritarian social order. Reasoning with them is not possible because it does not stop the hate. It intensifies the divisiveness and is a political dead end.

Are All Arabs The Same?

There is currently widespread confusion regarding how Arabs are to be viewed. The simple answer is that there are two kinds of Arabs, those that have a live and let live attitude and those who identify themselves as political Muslims and have their allegiance to Islam. The former group knows the distinction between religion and the state. The latter group identifies the Muslim religion with the state and believes that it must expand and conquer the world by killing all nonbelievers if necessary.

The question brings up the importance of understanding socio-political characterology without which it is not possible to make any sense of what is happening with Arabs in the Middle East and in America. Because of their strong tribal roots and their strict authoritarian upbringing, most Arabs belong in varying degrees on the right of the socio-political spectrum. Beginning with the conservative Arab to the immediate right of center,there is the extreme conservative followed by the reactionary and finally the Islamo-fascist on the extreme right.

As we proceed from the right of center to the extreme right, the Arab’s social functioning becomes rigidified and cut off from all contact with corrupting Western influences. The separation between secular and religious law becomes increasingly blurred and the individual’s work and sexual functioning becomes more restricted. His ability to assimilate into Western ways becomes more difficult as his need to have Allah be responsible for his life reveals his underlying emotional and economic helplessness. The Islamo-fascist who says ” I love death more than life” is his way of expressing his total emotional intolerance of the freedom that there is to be had in Western democratic societies.  Seeing it as degenerate, he is sympathetic to other Arabs who want to destroy it. For him, secular ideology and religious moral law are one and the same.

The Islamo-fascist is an emotional plague character on the political extreme right. Here are some of the favorite slogans used by these ideologues to disarm America: “Islam has always been a part of America,” “Islam is not part of the problem  in combating extremism – it is an important part in promoting peace,” “Throughout history, Islam has demonstrated through words and deeds the possibilities of religious tolerance and racial equality.” These statements are effective because they all have a grain of truth in them and that is all it takes for liberal-minded Americans to give them the benefit of doubt.

However, the Islamo-fascist has no contact with his biological core. Cut off from his natural sexual feelings, he operates entirely from his secondary destructive layer and his ideology originates from it. The following are some examples: “All people are born Muslim and start off as pure but they become corrupted by living in a world of infidels. It is the duty of all good Muslims to bring them back to the ways of the Prophet.” “The world including most Muslim societies are in a state of racial impurity and it is our holy duty to cleanse it.”

According to Reich, “The ideology …of purity is the ideology of asexuality, of ‘sexual purity.’  it is, basically, a result of patriarchal authoritarian sexual suppression and sexual anxiety… the core of fascist race theory is a mortal terror of natural sexuality and its orgasm function.”

We can add that, in the case of Islamic race ideology and in contrast to the purity of Muslims, infidels including all Westerners are equated with racially impure, unchaste people.  Reich continues: “With the development of distorted, lascivious, sexual structures, patriarchal man became enmeshed in an ideology in which ‘sexual’ becomes inextricably associated with ‘filthy,’ ‘low,’demoniacal’.”

As the level of  emotional zeal of Islamists becomes more revolutionary, their ideology becomes more reactionary. There is a new wave of extremists who believe that a pure State of Islam must be instituted not gradually through social consensus but swiftly by military force. With the social turmoil in the Middle East there is a flood of sexually frustrated, displaced and disillusioned youth who are ready and willing to embrace Allah’s cause.

The American people’s general state of complacency and confusion regarding Arabs is exacerbated because the political mainstream is far to  the left of center. Liberals and other political leftists are strongly defended against perceiving their own destructive secondary layer. Therefore, for them, evil does not exist in others even when it is staring them in the face.

Putin’s Socio-political Character Structure

A person’s political character structure is a primary determinant of social events. Therefore, it is necessary  to have an understanding of political characterology which is the study of social and political behavior from the perspective of the individual’s socio-political character structure.

Even as America is sliding further to the left and turning into a socialist state and the Soviet Union no longer exists, the emotional plague in Russian politics continues to fester, reorganize and gather momentum. The emotional plague in Russia is now operating from the political far right under the leadership of Vladimir Putin. An ex-KGB officer and a rigid authoritarian, from a characterological standpoint Putin is an example of a reactionary politician belonging on the political right.

The reactionary character resists change. Sexually, he is very moralistic and restricted which is the basis for his sadism and mysticism. His mystical beliefs are rigidly held and are not subject to reason or proof.

As a politician, Putin has the mystical belief that Russian Society should be resurrected to it’s pre-Soviet “glory.” He has a great deal of brutality in his structure that is frequently overtly expressed or thinly disguised, and always rationalized and justified as necessary. Coupled with his brutality is his reputation for graciousness and hospitality – a reaction formation. Unlike the communist on the extreme left, Putin is governed not by his intellect alone but by his emotions that are rigidly contained in his muscular armor. This is particularly noticeable in the posterior muscles of his neck – He is “stiff-necked.” He does not set himself against religion but emotionally and politically aligns himself with the great Russian Orthodox Church which he attends regularly.

Putin is a militant nationalist, righteous in his political beliefs and intensely resentful of outside political interference in Russian ways of  life. He is adept at providing rationalizations for justifying his aggressively expansionist impulses toward other countries and assumes that these sentiments are shared by the Russian people. His reasons for the annexation of Crimea, for example, were justified by his appeal to Russian nationalistic feelings and by trumped up grievances against that country.

However, Putin’s decision to annex Crimea was not based on mystical feelings alone. As an aggressive plague character on the right, he is excited by the fear of aggression and the fecklessness that he perceives in his opponents led by the President of The United States and he knows that he will get away with the seizure without firing a shot.

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