Posted on 09/29/2006 4:24:33 AM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
September 29, 2006 - 06:54
Rejection is painful. Spurned suitors often-if-contradictorily condemn the very object of their affection, while reserving a good measure of bile for their successful rivals. Democrats have suffered a lot unrequited political desire in recent years, and the strain is really starting to show. We all know about Bush Derangement Syndrome. Yesterday I described a new strain, Gas Price Derangement Syndrome, and mentioned an even more insidious disease afflicting many on the left - Controlled Demolition Dementia.
Today comes more evidence of the left's painful struggle to deal with its diminished standing and repeated rejection at the polls. In the subscription-required Why Voters Like Values, Times columnist Judith Warner claims that "the Christian right's ability to stir voter passions is based not on values, but on psychology." Warner describes having bravely gone inside the belly of the conservative beast, recently attending a Values Voters Summit in DC, and declaring it "imbued with so much intolerance and hate."
She later describes a schadenfreude-provoking scene of the day after Kerry's 2004 defeat, picking through the rubble with Harvard psychology professor emeritus, Jerome Kagan, who tried to console Warner and presumably himself. As she describes it:
"Our conversation drifted to the Republicans’ 'values' [note scare quotes] agenda, and Kagan’s belief that values sell because they’re an antidote to the endemic mental health problem of our time: depression.
"'Humans demand that there be a clear right and wrong,' he said. 'You’ve got to believe that the track you’ve taken is the right track. You get depressed if you’re not certain as to what it is you’re supposed to be doing or what’s right and wrong in the world.”
"People need to divide the world into good and evil, us and them, Kagan continued. To do otherwise – to entertain the possibility that life is not black and white, but variously shaded in gray – is perhaps more honest, rational and decent. But it’s also, psychically, a recipe for disaster."
Got it? Liberalism is "more honest, rational and decent" than conservativism, but that's just not what the benighted public wants. They're looking for political Prozac, a Manichean worldview they can cling to, and that's what conservatism cunningly offers.
Warner accuses the right of engaging in "witch-hunting, puritanical intolerance and hatred." She explains this by asserting "people will engage in all kinds of mental acrobatics to stave off depression." Too true. Warner is surely familiar with another term from the world of psychology. It's called "projection."
Finkelstein lives in the liberal haven of Ithaca, NY. View webcasts of Mark's award-winning TV show 'Right Angle' here. Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net
NY Times/NewsBusters conservatism-as-Prozac ping to Today show list.
Man, they need to get out of the cities more often. Put down the latte, back away from your copy of the NY Times, and go for a hike in the woods. Afterwards, go to a diner and see how flyover people live. I can guarantee that far fewer of them are on any kind of antidepressants. They're too busy making an honest living and raising their kids.
I wish Judith and the good professor would spend a little time over on DU and Kos, then report back to us about all the love and tolerance they find.
Judith Warner has now been diagnosed with Parnoid Real World Denial Syndrome.
Great point.
"I wish Judith and the good professor would spend a little time over on DU and Kos, then report back to us about all the love and tolerance they find."
Post of the morning bump!
Oops paranoid.
as someone who had dealt with depression, I feel compelled to say that this professor is a dumb-$h!t. Depression is caused by circumstances, how we react to them, and our chemical makeup. You can have a strong genetic predispostion to it, but never get it. You can be predisposed to not get it, but circumstances hammer away at you to the point where it happens. Again, this professor is an idiot, teaching others to be idiots.
............ and, the LEFT relies on lies, disinformation, and keeping their lazy constituents PLAIN IGNORANT and RELIANT!
"Psychically."
Huh?
These moonbat loonies are becoming more and more unstable with each passing day... These people must consult one of those 1-900-psychic-hotlines and chant to crystals before they plan their days...
In a book review for this newspaper early last year, Warner wrote what must be among the most startling first paragraphs ever. She doesn't explain it, or come back to it in the piece.
"My father, a psychologist, spent the last three decades of his life writing what he called his Book of Love. . . . When he died, in 1995, and I sorted through his papers . . . I found a couple of old manuscripts that had been rejected by publishers back in the 1970s. And beyond that, nothing but notes -- boxes and boxes and file drawers and desk drawers and closets and bookshelves and kitchen cabinets filled with notes. All expressing his passionate and prodigious hatred. Largely of me."
Excellent idea!!!
I'm not sure why Liberals continue to make things difficult. It's really easy to understand: THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE.
Sounds like a typical liberal family, except she apparently had a father in the home.
This is laughable. The Left happily divides the world into black and white, when it suits their purposes.
Governs,
I remain in awe of your ability tolerate the venom, hate and garbage spewed by the left on a daily basis. I'm curious, though - where do you go when you want aa breath of fresh, clean air?
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