Maybe the best way to understand this moment in American political history is to put the nation on the couch for some analysis. It turns out Freud gave a lot of thought to what attracts voters to tyrants and strongmen. "Freud had no compunction in calling the relationship that crowds forge with an absolute leader an erotic one. (In this he was seconded by Hitler, who suggested that in his speeches he made love to the German masses.) What happens when members of the crowd are 'hypnotized' (that is the word Freud uses) by a tyrant?" This piece by Mark Edmundson in the NYT (Gift Article) is from 2006, but it's definitely worth resurfacing. Freud and the Fundamentalist Urge. "We want a strong man with a simple doctrine that accounts for our sufferings, identifies our enemies, focuses our energies and gives us, more enduringly than wine or even love, a sense of being whole. This man, as Freud says in his great book on politics, 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,' must appear completely masterful. He must seem to have perfect confidence, to need no one and to be entirely sufficient unto himself. Sometimes this man will evoke a god as his source of authority, sometimes not. But in whatever form he comes -- whether he is called Hitler, Stalin, Mao -- he will promise to deliver people from their confusion and to dispense unity and purpose where before there were only fracture and incessant anxiety. But, of course, the price is likely to be high, because the simplifications the great man offers will almost inevitably involve hatred and violence." + This all reminds me of an old Barry Blitt cartoon from The New Yorker.
2Search and DestroyGoogle enables you to search the internet. But searching its own internal communications is an entirely different matter. In the NYT (Gift Article), David Streitfeld explains how, in an effort to avoid antitrust suits, Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment. "Even as the internet giant stored the world’s information, it created an office culture that tried to minimize its own. Among its tools: using legal privilege as an all-purpose shield and imposing restraints on its own technology, all while continually warning that loose lips could sink even the most successful corporation." (I'm not sure how unusual this behavior is among large companies, but it's interesting to see how it works, and worth noting the contrast with how much big tech often encourages users to share.) 3Truth Decay"Longtime denizens of this town of 20,000 recalled widespread tooth decay among children before the city council voted to add fluoride to the drinking water two decades ago. But a group of residents remained unconvinced. They urged neighbors to do their own research, insisting it would reveal that the mineral embraced for generations to improve oral health was actually a dangerous substance that could harm their organs...The skepticism prevailed on Election Day as voters narrowly voted to remove fluoride from the water supply, mirroring how more Americans are starting to question a practice experts have lauded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century." WaPo (Gift Article) with a look at the politics of science: RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming. 4Triple WhammyApologies if today's edition arrived a bit soggy in your inbox. We're experiencing our first major storm on the West Coast, and these days, as this headline suggests, no storms are normal storms. California storm hits ‘triple bombogenesis’; torrential rain, hurricane-force winds expected. (This is just shy of quadruple bombogenesis, when you could expect to see people walking down the street wearing a wet suit, mask, and snorkel.) 5Extra, ExtraBringing Out the Big Guns: "The United States said Wednesday that its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had closed after receiving 'specific information of a potential significant air attack.' The decision came after Ukraine’s first strike on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons and President Joe Biden authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine to help fight off Moscow's forces." Ukraine has also fired UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for first time. These new rules of engagement seem to be a response to Trump's election win. But they're also related to recent gains Russia has made. BBC: Ukraine front could 'collapse' as Russia gains accelerate, experts warn. 6Bottom of the NewsAs we approach the holidays, we can expect a whole lot of travelers to take flight. And that means more work for the Beagle Brigade. A beagle’s dream job: Sniffing food that shouldn’t be packed in luggage. (Interesting. My Beagles' dream job would be on the jerky tasting team.)
|
