political correctness | Charles Konia, M.D.

Clint Eastwood’s Skit At The Republican National Convention

When the truth cannot be expressed in seriousness because of individual or social armor, it can nevertheless be expressed in humor especially in politics. Clint Eastwood’s skit at the Republican National Convention last week that broke through the barrier of political correctness was a case in point. In it, Eastwood is conducting an imaginary interview with Barack Obama. Eastwood asks Obama to comment on some contentious issues involving his policies as President. We only know what Obama is saying from Eastwood’s response to it which is repeatedly said in his typically quiet, no-nonsense style: ” I can’t do that to myself.”

The audience’s response showed they understood the significance of the exchange. It not only gave a clear picture of Obama’s utter contempt for anyone who questions his policies but also his relentless determination to unilaterally carry them out.

In my book, The Emotional Plague, The Root of Human Evil, I characterize the pseudo-liberal/communist as someone who expresses his genital revenge against society through his intellect. This central aspect of Obama’s character and his defense against it, his churlishness when challenged, was clearly revealed in Eastwood’s humorous, imaginary interchange.

September 3, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama, Clint Eastwood, political correctness, pseudo-liberal/communist, Republican National Convention . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 5 Comments

The Origin Of Armored Morality

Natural morality originates from the biological core and is directly expressed through the surface undistorted by armor from the destructive middle layer.

The differences in the armored morality of the political right and the left has to do with how each group deals with their destructive middle layer and also with the anti-authoritarian transformation of Western society. During the authoritarian era (prior to around 1960) the predominant form of morality was authoritarian: From a biophysical standpoint, impulses originating from people’s biological core passed through their destructive middle layer and were expressed through the superficial layer. The amount of destructive middle layer that was contained in the moral impulse was proportional to how far the individual was to the political right of the socio-political spectrum. Because impulses passed from the core through the destructive middle layer, most people in those days were in contact with both layers and, as a result, the distinction between good and evil was easily discernible to them; Good and evil, right and wrong were moral absolutes. Americans were more united in seeing the good and the greatness of their country. They saw the evilness of both red and black fascism and the need to fight when necessary to preserve their freedom. In today’s anti-authoritarian era, these people belong somewhere to the right flank of the political spectrum.

With the anti-authoritarian transformation of society, an entirely different kind of morality has developed. Called political correctness, this morality is the result of a change in the functional relationship between the superficial and destructive middle layers in people’s bio-psychic structure. Now, the superficial layer including the intellect, is not in the service of expressing impulses from the core and middle layers as in the case of authoritarian morality but in defending against the perception of impulses from the core and destructive middle layers.

This change in the bio-psychic structure of armored humans accounts for the morality of political correctness. It is the morality of those belonging on the political left: For them, all moral thinking originates from the social surface since contact with the core and destructive middle layers is lost. They distance themselves from having contact with the deeper layers by their defensive use of intellectualism and by having contempt for core feelings. Morality that originates from the superficial layer becomes a relative principle. For example, a person’s intentions which originate from the superficial layer is the ever changing yardstick which is used to measure what is valued as good or bad. Moral relativism means that nothing is intrinsically good and nothing is intrinsically bad. Thus, for example, in the case of the green “save the earth” movement, people who are involved in it are the good “morally superior” ones. They are the progressive ones on the wave of the future compared to others who are not involved in this noble quest.

A new kind of collective morality is set in place to replace the old, individually based, authoritarian form. This new morality is an attempt to eliminate the problem of the destructive secondary layer by pulling energy up into the head and thereby cutting off contact not only with the secondary layers but also with the biological core. In doing so, it throws out the baby with the bath water. By getting rid of the biological core from where the emotions originate, this new morality helps to bring about the de-humanization of the human race.

July 14, 2012
Categories: emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: armored morality, political correctness . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 19 Comments

From The History Of The Emotional Plague: The Solution Of Liberalism

Because the existence of the emotional plague is not recognized, every new attempt to deal with its ravages turns into another, even more destructive expression of the plague than the one before. Beginning around the 17th century, the liberal movement in Europe was an attempt to break away from the chains of Christian repression and mysticism that held people in bondage for over a thousand years. In the 21st century, this liberal movement has shifted far to the political left and has developed into pseudo-liberal/communism which is an anti-authoritarian form of secular repression. Pseudo-liberal/communism is the application of mechanistic mystical thinking to daily life in America. It is a far more invasive and deadly manifestation of the emotional plague than the authoritarian system that it has replaced.

Liberals function primarily from the superficial layer of their bio-psychic structure. Their mode of operation is through the use of their intellect in a defensive manner. to protect them from experiencing the destructiveness that is contained in their middle layer. From their defensive intellectualism originates the two other characteristics of the liberal syndrome, a mechanistic explanation of natural phenomena and a collectivistic attitude toward social living.

There are several important socio-political consequences to the liberal’s living, perceiving and thinking primarily from their superficial layer.

1) Since the liberal has no contact with his secondary layer, he also has little contact with his biological core. He therefore has no deep emotional sense of the existence of good and evil or of the emotional plague of mankind. This is the reason for his moral relativism and his believing that all human beings are essentially good and that even hardened criminals can be rehabilitated.

2) Living from the superficial layer, the liberal perceives everything from the surface. For example, the liberal physician looks at medical illnesses exclusively from the perspective of the superficial symptom or the immediate biochemical manifestations of the disease. Not capable of understanding the deeper biological causes of disease, his therapy is focused on eliminating the disturbing symptom. The liberal economist and politician does the same in the economic and political realms. The liberal sociologist has no sense that a social transformation of catastrophic proportions from authoritarian to anti-authoritarian that began around 1960 is rapidly undermining the stability of Western civilization.

3) Because the liberal’s defense against feeling is from his intellect and not his musculature, the liberal political leader relies heavily on his rational powers derived from his well developed intellect to deal with domestic issues and threats to national security. His fear of open aggression prevents him from being able to take a forceful aggressive stand and, by misleading our enemies to think of America as weak, is capable of putting this country and the world in mortal danger.

Political correctness is cultural Marxism. It is Marxism translated from economics into cultural terms. When the morality of political correctness becomes firmly anchored in the superficial layer of the liberal individual’s bio-psychic structure, the liberal’s socio-political character rigidifies and changes into one of pseudo-liberal/communist. The individual functions as an emotional plague character. With the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States in 2008, the pseudo-liberal/communist character entered the mainstream of American politics on the left and became legitimized.

May 28, 2012
Categories: character structure, emotional plague, Politics, Social Sciences, socio-political character . Tags: Barack Obama, christianity, liberalism, political correctness, pseudo-liberal/communism . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: 14 Comments