The Relationship Between Fanatics and American Liberals

In 1998 Charles Konia, M.D., discussed the widespread contactlessness in modern society and pointed out: One of the most dangerous social consequences of the state of contactlessness is that people are often not aware of being in jeopardy. During Hitler's ascent to power, millions of European Jews did not recognize that their very lives were in danger until it was too late. Today, the same state of mass contactlessness in the face of a serious threat to world peace explains the lack of effective response to radical Islamic "fundamentalists." While they openly announce their intention of committing genocide and while they carry out acts of carnage globally the helpless world does little to address and eliminate the danger.

Three years later, on September 11, 2001, the reality of that statement was brought painfully home to Americans.

What I most want to emphasize is that the murderers who are attacking the United States and its people destroy life by creating

Global mass murder as perpetrated on September 11, 2001 is a form of infectious social pathology. Pathology means disease or sickness. Just as medical disease requires a response based on medical science, social pathology also requires a response based on social science. We must first have an accurate diagnosis.

Terrorism is a form of what Wilhelm Reich called "the emotional plague of mankind." The emotional plague is a twisted form of human functioning that is associated with certain highly energetic individuals, whom we call emotional plague characters, are so incapable of tolerating the feeling of energy within their own bodies that they must destroy life itself. The emotional plague is a form of social, not just individual, pathology because of the following mechanism: When the emotional plague character comes into contact with the natural life functions of living human beings, he experiences an intolerable stirring up of the energy in his own organism and feels that he must destroy the functioning of others, whose very existence torments him by exciting his own trapped life energy.

By natural life functions we mean such things as natural sexuality, love, kindness, generosity, productive work, hard earned success, peaceful cooperation, and all the other manifestations of human health and decency.

The liberal tends to perceive the terrorist from a superficial moralistic perspective, for example, attributing their actions to superficial factors such as "social injustice," "oppression," or "imperialism," which are viewed as moral failings on our part. On the other hand, the conservative tends to perceive the terrorist from a deep moralistic perspective, i.e., as simply "evil." It is true that the individual terrorists are, in fact, evil, and must be dealt with as such. We cannot understand the emotional plague scientifically unless we are able to accept that the existence of evil is a reality. However, the moralistic concept of "evil" as elaborated by the conservatives, overlooks the vicious repression in matters of sexuality and child-raising which murders life in the infant and child, and thus creates the emotional plague character in the first place. The concept of "evil" also cannot explain how the emotional plague can temporarily infect otherwise decent individuals, for example, great masses of Germans during the Nazi era. The emotional plague is best viewed as an infectious process which is chronic in a small number of very sick, high energy individuals who can spread an acute form of the infection to the average person. Today, masses of conservative Moslems in the Middle East and masses of liberals in the United States are at high risk of infection from the emotional plague, and many, though not yet the majority, are already infected. By the way, the use of the term "infection" does not refer to a bacteria or virus, and infection by the emotional plague cannot be cured with antibiotics. The infection is an emotional infection which is why it is called the emotional plague, as distinguished from a bacterial or viral plague.

As far as the masses in the Moslem countries who look up to the terrorists, this is a result of human biological helplessness and craving for a "great leader" who can "do it all." It is important to the terrorists that they create the illusion that they can seriously damage "the great superpower" and it crucial for America's survival, and for peaceful and constructive life in the Moslem countries, that this illusion not be allowed to persist.

The mass sociological forms of the emotional plague comes in two varieties, the emotional plague on the right, such as the Nazis, which we call "black fascism" and the emotional plague on the left, such as the communists, which we call "red fascism." The colors red and black which are used in this terminology are those which have traditionally been used as symbols by left-wing and right-wing revolutionaries, respectively. More recently we have used the term "pseudo-liberal" to refer to the emotional plague character on the left, such as the communist and others on the left who function virulently by posing as liberals. As. Konia points out, the Islamic fanatic murderers and Islamic extremist religious leaders are typically black fascists. However, there is often a synergistic relationship between black and red fascism. Failure to recognize this synergy can lead to disastrous miscalculations. It is often said that Britain and France underestimated the threat posed by Hitler, which is true, but Britain and France's most disastrous miscalculation was in assuming that the Soviet Union would fight with them against the Nazis. In August 1939, the world had finally decided to confront Hitler over his desire to invade Poland. This was the last chance to stop Hitler and to avoid world war. At that crucial moment in history, Stalin treacherously allied himself with Hitler and Europe's hopes of successfully stopping Hitler at an early stage came tumbling down like a house of cards.

For two years, from August, 1939 until July, 1941, the communists of the world did everything they could to stop the democratic nations from fighting the Nazis, just as the extreme political left, the pseudo-liberals, today are vocal in attempting to stop us from fighting the terrorists. The Communist Party of the U.S.A. claimed that fighting Hitler was merely defending capitalism and actively campaigned against the U.S. giving any aid to Britain, although this cost the Communist Party much of their American membership. Communist activities in the U.S. included strikes at American weapons factories. In France, the Communist Party worked to persuade French soldiers, on their own soil, not to fight against the Nazi invaders. At the time, the British ambassador to Berlin noted that Stalin personally admired Hitler. The red fascist is incapable of expressing his aggression in a gut level way and of communicating a high, sustained emotional charge, thus he admires the black fascist's ability to do these things.

Conversely, the black fascist expresses himself emotionally, sometimes in a nearly incoherent way. This can be seen in some of Osama Bin Ladin's speeches and in Hitler's diplomatic communiqués, which are emotionally charged, but don't hold together logically. Thus the black fascist benefits from the red fascist's ability to use logical arguments to persuade liberals into immobilizing any nation's effort to forcefully oppose the black fascist's aggression. Eventually the red fascist and the black fascist will turn on each other and one or the other will prevail, but they are temporarily united as one in their hatred of life. This is seen today in the synergistic action of the covert hatred of America on the part of the pseudo-liberal and the overt hatred of America on the part of the Islamic fanatic.

A similar combination of left-wing and right-wing emotional plague is very common in the Islamic world. Many years ago, the Shah of Iran referred to this phenomenon as "the unholy alliance of red and black." Atheistic leftists and right wing Islamic fanatics worked together in Iran to overthrow the government starting in the late 1940s. After thirty years they finally succeeded. The Shah had modernized Iran, given women full rights, and led the successful efforts of the Moslem nations to obtain full market price for their oil. Nonetheless, Iranian and American leftists successfully manipulated Islamic and Western public opinion by portraying the Shah as a dictator and a puppet of the United States who was holding back democracy in Iran, thus preventing the West from doing anything to stop the Ayatollah Khomeini's takeover and subsequent fascist regime. Similar efforts are underway in Saudi Arabia today.

I would like to emphasize again that the emotional plague succeeds only to the extent that it induces confusion and immobilization in its victims. This occurs as a matter of course in every emotional plague attack and takes many different forms, but there is one form that was particularly relevant on a mass scale in the 20th century and which will be even more important in the 21st.

Fatal Attraction: The Sadomasochistic Relationship Between Fanatics and American Liberals

It is important that the comments I am about to make not be misunderstood as a personal or moralistic attack on liberals. A large proportion, perhaps half, of the general population has a biophysically liberal character structure, and the great majority of these individuals are decent people. By liberal character structure, we mean one who primarily uses the intellect to defend himself against disturbing feelings. The liberal makes his own contribution to society, and was a prime force behind such positive events as the Enlightenment, the separation of church and state, and the eradication of slavery. I believe that when confronted in a respectful and objective way, most liberals are capable of being concerned about the fact that their liberal structure makes them susceptible to certain forms of infection by the emotional plague. Because this process is contagious (and dangerous), it is important to deal with it frankly. The type of emotional infection that will be described is not perpetrated by the true liberal but by the pseudo-liberal. However, the true liberal is vulnerable to temporary bouts of the infection.

If the reader regards himself as a liberal but finds that the following comments do not apply, then he probably is not as liberal as he thinks. If these comments do apply, then I hope the reader will find them useful. It should also be said that biophysical conservatives, particularly those with a degree of masochism and those who work in strongly liberal environments such as academia and the mental health professions, can also be susceptible to the types of reactions and thinking that will be described.

Konia describes a functional attraction between the masochism of the liberal and the sadism of the Islamic fanatic. It is worthwhile to describe in more detail what is meant by masochism. Contrary to popular belief, masochism does not mean the enjoyment of pain, but rather a specific way of functioning that generally results in a person becoming stuck in a state of chronic suffering. This can be illustrated with a clinical example of masochism in the realm of individual emotional functioning.

Imagine a woman married to an abusive, sadistic man. If she stays with him and cannot defend herself it is often because of a masochistic attitude on her part. This attitude arises either because of previously existing masochism in her character structure which perhaps put her in the marriage in the first place, or because she has lapsed into a masochistic pattern as a result of the relationship. What we mean by masochism can be illustrated by the following scenario: Suppose her husband hates it when his beer is not cold. He comes home, asks for a beer; she serves it to him and he explodes when it is not cold enough. He beats her severely and storms out of the house. Rather than pack her bags and leave, she resolves that from now on she will be very careful and make sure his beer is always cold. She remembers that she bought the beer that morning, but didn't put it in the refrigerator until 20 minutes before he came home and berates herself because, "He's made it clear how important it is to him that his beer be cold. I knew that, but I screwed-up anyway." This type of self criticism is masochistic. It involves a misperception of the world based on the inability to muster the aggression necessary to defend herself, to live alone, or to find a decent, non-sadistic husband. One could not change her opinion of the situation by pointing out the fact that many non-sadistic husbands in her community also like their beer cold, but in the same situation half of them would do no more than complain a little and then forget about it, and the other half would back down when their wives informed them that from now on they "can put their own damn beer in the refrigerator." Anyone attempting to help the abused wife to leave the situation would first have to deal with her helplessness, which would cause her to initially reject any solution as impossible. "I can't call the police, that would only embarrass me and inflame him." Then move out and get your own apartment. "I can't earn enough money for an apartment and he might stalk me." Then go to a women's shelter. "It would be too upsetting for the kids to change schools in the middle of the year," etc. etc. Even a well documented example of a previous wife who left the same man, stood up to his threats and made him leave her alone may not change the masochistic attitude. Finally, even if all considerations could be dealt with there would still be a belief that any expression of aggressive self-defense will be clumsy, stupid, awkward, and doomed to failure.

attempting to appease the attacker, i.e., believing that if one is nice enough, the attacker will stop attacking

coming up with reasons why any proposed solution will lead to an unmanageable consequence, and

a belief that any attempt to aggressively defend oneself will be clumsy, stupid, awkward and doomed to failure.

All of these features result from an incapacity to express aggression. In the masochistic character this incapacity comes from an inability to expand and blocks all aggressive expression except complaining and spite. The liberal does not suffer from a general state of masochism, but is prone to react masochistically in certain situations, particularly one where authority must be exerted. The liberal tendency to retreat from the body into the head makes the masochistic reaction especially strong when the situation requires the exertion of physical force, because the impulse to use physical force comes from deep within the body.

Thus, when his nation is attacked, the normally decent, true liberal is at risk for having the following masochistic reaction, particularly under the influence of vocal pseudo-liberals who occupy opinion-making positions (academia, the clergy, the media, etc.):

He will develop a guilt-ridden or anxious desire to "solve" the problem by being nicer to those who might hate or dislike his country.

He will elaborate various disaster scenarios which he fears will occur if force is used aggressively. Usually the imagined disaster is a variation of "it will only make them hate us even more" or a feared dramatic escalation of violence which we will not have the will or the strength (so the liberal believes) to handle.

He fears that his nation and its leaders (especially if they are not liberals) are stupid and clumsy, and he may insist on replacing a directly aggressive defense with half-hearted responses which actually would be clumsy and ineffective.

This type of masochistic reaction only increases the sadism of the terrorist, leading to new attacks which further increase the masochistic response, and so on in a vicious cycle. The September 11th attacks were the culmination of a decade of such a cycle of sadomasochistic interaction.

Our previous failure to fight back has also antagonized many Moslems who are not terrorists themselves. Our lack of a response was incomprehensible and inappropriate, therefore it aroused suspicion in the Islamic world, creating more antagonism than if we had responded forcefully. The failure to fight back is also a failure to engage with those who threaten or hate us and, as such, it is much like turning one's back on one's opponent during a heated argument, which is the surest way to inflame hatred to a fever pitch. Note that the reality is exactly the opposite of the masochistic belief that it is dangerous to fight back. The reality is that it is dangerous, indeed fatal, not to fight back. Nor is there any reason to assume that fighting back will make the world hate us. In its history, America has had only two foreign opponents with whom it warred with absolute fury and to the bitter end, finally occupying their countries with millions of our armed troops, and even inflicting the death penalty on some of their leaders. Those two countries are Germany and Japan, and their citizens and governments show no evidence of hating us for what we did.-Robert Harman

Those familiar with textbooks in most Muslim countries know the twisted view of the world they propagate and the hatred they promote. Their media, editorials, articles on the Internet, their sermons in virtually every mosque, including many in the West, are vehemently anti-Western, especially anti-American.7 These are expressions of the emotional plague.

The Sociopolitical Component

Since fanatics belong to both extremes of the political spectrum, they are either black or red fascists. People belonging to the fundamentalist religions are to the extreme right. The further they are to the right, the greater is the degree of sexual repression and the greater is their tendency to express sadism and brutality in the form of sex-negative laws and religious wars. Since Islamic fanatics are black fascists, their hatred originates primarily from their emotions and not from their intellect. Their intellectual defenses that are in the service of expressing their hatred are not as well developed as in the case of the red fascist (communist). Therefore, the irrationalism of their ideology is easy to detect. Nevertheless, there is enormous emotional power behind their mystical thinking.

Without an understanding of the operation of the emotional plague it is not possible to satisfactorily comprehend why America is the object of Islamic fanatic hatred. It is characteristic of the emotional plague that the stated reason for a destructive act is never the real motive. Some of those alleged reasons are the following: outrage over Western social, political, economic and military dominance in the world, indignation over U.S. support of Israel, the sense of grievance for the perceived humiliation of the Islamic people at the hands of the West, the decadence of Western society and so on.

The real reason that the Islamic fanatics are driven to destroy America is that they cannot tolerate the free-flowing, direct and life-positive impulses originating from the biological core that are part of and identified with American life. In principle, the American government embodies the core functions of human life (freedom, responsibility, independence, honesty, decency, fairness, generosity and so on). Since the emotional plague individual is incapable of experiencing pleasure from the biological core, life in America creates an intolerable, viscerally felt longing within the Islamic fanatic, which immediately becomes murderous hatred directed against the source of his emotional excitation. He must therefore kill Americans and destroy America. In order to accomplish this end he is actively aggressive and certain of his success.

The Enemy From Within

If it were not for the presence of the emotional plague in everyone, this behavior in an individual or particular group of individuals would be easy to deal with. In the current attack the dangers come from those groups belonging on the extremes of the sociopolitical spectrum, the black fascists (Islamic fundamentalists) on the right, and the red fascists (pseudo-liberals) 11 on the left. The black fascist terrorist rationalizes his behavior to his fellow Islamic fundamentalists so well that it is accepted by many of them as something desirable, for the common good. His effectiveness is also enhanced by striking a chord of emotional plague impulses residing in others at the opposite end of the spectrum, those of the liberal and pseudo-liberal character type. Because of pseudo-liberals feelings of guilt, their intellectualism and inability to act aggressively, they are quick to find fault with anything in American life that can be used to morally equate the Islamic fanatics and the United States-a form of moral masochism-thereby justifying the terrorist atrocities. Because contact with their biological core is either weak or absent, they are unable to fully sense the existence and destructiveness of the emotional plague.

While Islamic fundamentalists teach Arab children to hate America, many American high school teachers and college professors on the Left masochistically tell their students to "understand" why Islamic fundamentalists hate America.

On a national scale, the belief system or ideology of the American Left that "Everyone is entitled to his or her point of view, that in general, one person's opinion is as good as another's, that all questions are open questions" is a highly destructive social force that threatens the well-being of society, especially in times of crisis. In past wars (except in the case of the Vietnam War) individuals holding these and similar views were suppressed because people were in better contact with themselves, their survival instincts were more intact. They would have had no difficulty in identifying the life-inimical nature of the Islamic fanatics of today. The degree of core contact of many people, especially of those on the political Left, is dangerously weak. Hence they are simply unable to recognize the enormous danger posed by the Islamic black fascist threat.

What is needed is a special effort directed from the highest governmental level to counteract the distortions disseminated by the Islamic world and to expose the true motive of the Islamic fanatics. American broadcasting to the Islamic world must be greatly expanded and intensified, as news not as propaganda. Preposterous charges such as blaming the Israelis for September 11th should not go unanswered. Western news media must be made aware of and prevented from disseminating pro-fundamentalist propaganda in America and in other non-Islamic countries. This information is highly inflammatory and excites the political Left to agitate for an end to America's defensive efforts. The war against the ideological component of the emotional plague attack against America must be waged as effectively as the military component. To this end a governmental agency must be established whose function is to publicize and respond to national and international manifestations of the emotional plague.

Drastic measures?

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