Comments
[Sign Guestbook]
545 Entries
Comments: Ever wonder how far an RWA will actually go to defend their in-group members? Remember Philip Garrido...the guy who kidnapped then fathered a couple kids by a 11 yr.old girl? Well, it seems the "Rev" Garrido had a blog which naturally became a target of some very hostile voices. But not all of them were detractors...... Behold! (enter theme from Twilight Zone) <g> "This case has just broken and already you've convicted him with your animalistic lowlife mob psychology. Let's wait for the facts to come in before lynching someone with your godless barbaric violence. If you were intelligent enough to understand the principal that someone is innocent until proven guilty I would point that out but judging by the your supreme profanity this would be like trying to explain relativity to a 2 year old. Thank the heavens that there are some civilized law abiding people left in your george bush influenced country, like judges and lawyers. You can see for yourself by looking at this website, all the tireless good work this man has done in the name of the lord. I for one have benefited very much from his teachings and wisdom, and I'm going to stand by him like a true brother in his darkest times, even while you pagans dance around in your circles shoving your spears into him. You obviously were raised in the gutter if you cannot show any respect for a man of the cloth. This is another prime example of the lack of family values of your sick country. Phillip Craig Garrido is a kind and caring man who tried to give an 11 year old girl a stable environment. And he kept her safe for two decades. And she and the rest of their family were found in good health according to the authorities. So why do pretend to know better than the authorities when you make your libleous accusations that he was harming her. Read the bloody newspaper, listen to the news.. they were found in good health, so must have been taking good care of them, and at his own expense I might add. Now that she is of working age and all the bills have been paid for her upbringing, now she abandons him. Seems like some civil action might be in order to recover lost expenses of feeding her pie hole for all those years. What a scandal that she couldn't show some gratitude, for this man's efforts. Did anyone read the media accounts of how she was dressed when he found this girl on the street? He was probably trying to save her from a life of prostitution. Before you go having your little hissy fit, I'm not alleging that this is what she was doing on the street dressed like that and that her family was pimping her, just that this is how it may have appeared to the minister and this may very well have been his motivation- to RESCUE her. Since most of you seem to be too stupid to understand something the first time it's said I'll repeat that, I did not say that it's certain that her family was pimping her, only that we need to keep a level head hear and wait until all the facts come out before we know what was going on. Listen to Reverend Garrido's interview, he is clearly indicating that there are some important things to be understood about this case. Don't go off half cocked here people, he is an upstanding member of the community and if anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt here it is the minister, not the sketchy stepfaher, who the police themselves suspected for a long time..... now they switch everything around, so we know they lied at least once.. the question is which lie are we to believe. Reverend Phillip said, in his very own words, and he obviously has too much on the line to make a silly lie because no one would believe him about anything then, "this may turn out to be a heart warming story". Obviously he loved his children and grandchildren, as any parent would, and they must have loved him as well or surely after two decades they would have found some chance to escape, to deny this stretches all credibility even past the dubious standards of this lot of commenters. Now all of you take a chill pill or smoke a joint or whatever you do to calm your criminal proclivities, and remember the bible tells us not to judge. God bless." God Bless indeed.... Wow! So the next time any of you 'libs' out there get the silly notion in your head that a well-reasoned argument is a solution for getting an RWA-follower to reject their liberal = fascist/communist/Muslim/terrorist/racist/traitor ideology in favor of yours, be a good low-RWA by integrating the above into your "epistemological complexity" <g>. You'll save yourself a lot of time and keep a lot of hair. Admittedly, it's taken me about 6-7 years and I'm almost bald for it. And to Dr. Bob...I apologize if you had meant for this site to remain in the simple " Question - Answer" format it has been so far. But raising awareness of this research is something I really do think this is perhaps one of the more important things any man can currently be doing. Given the dire consequences of our political leaders remaining as prone to magical thinking when at their most lucid, or in complete and utter denial about things critically important the rest of the time.........well... 'nuff said. So I've been referencing yours and your predecessors work now virtually every day for a couple of years (not an exaggeration! Obsession perhaps. But exaggeration....no <g>  in my desire to have it become the common cultural meme that future voters and career recruiters will reflect on when considering what to do with those advocating high-RWA conservatism. To that end, I guess I've "taken liberties" you might say, by going ahead and posting something more typical of the wider discussion, something I believe has more appeal to the regular folks out there, but without abandoning the basic premise of what the RWA-SDO's influence on society happens to be. I hope I'm not wrong, but if so, you have the final say of course.
Comments: The ancient dinosaur of Authoritarianism has been around since the beginning, and won't go away. I believe that it is perpetuated in the family of ordinary citizens, who parent their children in an authoritarian manner. This early childhood socialization becomes embedded in the child's personality, and plays out in their adult life. By bossing children, demanding obedience that is enforced by punishment or the threat of it, the child is learning how to be authoritarian. I've written a book, Raising Children Gracefully, that identifies the problem and gives a solution.
Comments: Very interesting material. I've been utterly baffled at the mindset of right wingers. You've explained a great deal, and now it makes much more sense, especially considering the manner in which George Bush et al maintained control, and won re-election, by promoting fear. But what does it say about society if such blatantly obvious tactics can work?
Comments: Have you considered that your description of social dominators who run the authoritarian right wing fit the classic description of high functioning sociopaths? These are the ones who often rise in strictly hierarchical systems, such as traditional corporations. Look at the personal histories of such right-wing leaders as Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney and you find distinct similarities that are often found in profiles of sociopaths, such as being abused or abandoned as children, etc. And in times of social and economic disruptions these are the same personality types as Hitler who take advantage of rising fear and insecurity. I am not as worried (yet) about our current situation because things have not fallen apart to the same degree as the Great Depression, but if things get worse, who knows...? The authoritarian right could cause even more damage than they have over the past 30 years.
Comments: To "I Prefer Coffee." Yes, I quite agree that many in the Tea Party movement are angry because "outsiders" made Obama president, not the voters like themselves whom they consider "the good people." The "birthers" are trying to provide a rationale to cover this underlying emotion, I think, but it's the emotion that's motivating the protests. (Which have largely disappeared, as the movement tries to get a grip, on itself.) To Joe Ryan. I think the "co-determiner" of authoritarianism and religion would be, in most cases, the parents. However, fundamentalist religions tend to advocate authoritarian parenting, so the two form a feedback loop reinforcing each other. To Gary Williams. I agree about the "RWA cocoon," and I don't think there's any way of penetrating their ethnocentrism. But Obama and congressional Democrats are losing the independent voters who will decide 2010 and 2012, who are not in a cocoon, but who (after a while) blame the party in power for things that are wrong and haven't gotten fixed. Viz. the economy, and the Gulf oil spill. They still blame the people who caused the problem, but as time passes the blame gets shifted. It's unfair, of course, and it motivates the Republicans to obstruct things so things will stay bad and hurt Democrats at the polls. And it still looks like the Tea Party will give Democrats a chance to slip out of this trap at the polls in November. Thank you for your other two comments as well. To L.M. I'm more inclined to say that societies have evolved away from authoritarianism than humanity has, since the latter might imply some biological determinant has changed. But yes, things are better, in general, for sure. Others have approached this from the other direction, and asked isn't it natural to be authoritarian, doesn't it make for a smooth-running society? ("Don't the trains run on time?") And democracy is a very "unnatural" form of government in some respects. But it gets my vote. And yes, it's pretty clear that crises increase the yearning for a "man on horseback" and it's very much in the interest of people who favor democracy to stay calm and keep the fear factor down. The knuckleheads who have been setting police cars in Toronto on fire as a "protest" against the G20 meeting aren't doing anything to further the causes they may say they espouse. To Bob and John and Steve: Thank you both very much for your kind words, and especially for referring the book to others. Yes, there's nothing like a new useful "schema" for understanding what otherwise seems so nonsensical. Further to John: Sorry about the size of the print in the Lulu version of the book. I figured if I can read it, anybody can. I was wrong. (I did make the print bigger in "Sex and Youth.") And I doubt anyone's collected any data on authoritarianism in North Korea, and if they have, I hope they keep it under their hats for the time being. To Crystal: Like you, I'm not inclined to trust conspiracy theories about vastly powerful groups. Such theories can usually explain everything. That's not a plus in science, since it means you can't find out if they're false. Does Big Business control everything in the USA? Well, it controls everything it can, I'm sure, and since it owns a great part of the national wealth, that's a lot. But if it had all the power that some theorists on the left think it does, I think Mitt Romney would be President now, and if not him, certainly John McCain rather than President Obama. And however disappointed the left is with the the Wall Street reform bill that was finalized last week, it is certainly not the one Wall Street would have written. I think the American voter still calls the shots, and the public's opinion of banks, Wall Street, oil companies, etc. has probably never been as low in my lifetime.
Comments: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Gramsci Last night while reading the Wikipedia entry above, something suddenly made a lot of sense to me. It was an answer to questions I've pondered for a very long time. Not generally one to espouse conspiracy theories, still, there has been lurking in the back of my mind a general suspicion that maybe it's not out of the realm of possibility. Being an artist, I [I]have[/I] espoused freethinking. It's my great cause, if I had to pick just one. As the adult child of staunch Catholics, my family has been a great case study, as well as people I come into contact with in my mostly-Christian region. I listen closely to their rhetoric to figure out what makes them tick. I've researched this question extensively: How can they be so completely taken in? The answer: Mass mind control. By whom? Follow the money. It's about power. The preachers are mere pawns in this game. I really started to suspect something during the whole Clinton debacle, marveling at how organized his opposition seemed to be. It's even worse now; Obama doesn't stand a chance against their machine. I think it goes back decades, perhaps centuries. My point, for those who don't care to read the Wiki entry, is that I think... no, I now [I]believe[/I] there is a concerted effort by Big Business to use religion to further their aims. Gramsci, among other theorists (think Machiavelli), laid out an entire program for controlling the culture in a very calculated way, and it's being used quite successfully by the ultra rich. I mean, really folks. Don't take my word for it, do the research. Look around. The evidence is there for all to see. Manufactured consent, indeed. Read "What's the Matter with Kansas," or "What Liberal Media?," or any number of good books out there today. The statistics say it all.
Comments: Great read! A lot of things in the political arena start to make sense in this context. Thank you for writing this and making it so accessible. I have posted it to my Facebook page and would encourage others to do so. I am also making it a must-read for my older family members.
Comments: I read your book two years ago, and have recommended it to many since. Only complaint - the type on the Lulu edition is so small that my parents had a hard time reading it! I hadn't checked your website for several months, but I looked it up to forward the link to somebody and I was glad to see that you posted an addition recently regarding the Tea Party. Thanks. I've recently been reading "Nothing To Envy," about the lives of some North Korean defectors, which is a fascinating book, and even more so if the reader is aware of your studies. One defector mentions that early on in the famine of the 90s, those most likely to strictly follow the rules were also frequently the first to die. They couldn't bring themselves to go against the authorities, even when the only methods of finding food were illegal. Have any studies on the authoritarian personality looked at the situation in North Korea? Have revelations regarding the conditions there had any effect on the field? Thanks.
Comments: With the release of the report looking into what went wrong with the handling of the Air India bombing, I am once again reminded of how predictable - and therefore avoidable - so many of these failures are. Over and over again these failures come as a result of simply hiring and promoting individuals who display many of the traits Dr. Altemeyer and others' research reveals as being characteristic of those with authoritarian personalities. When I read through a list of these traits, one can't help but think that, besides a willingness to do the job of a policeman, soldier or security guard, most of them represent a serious threat to the proper functioning of a security agency no matter who or what is being guarded. The public expects that the right person be caught and convicted of a crime. Yet we have police and security agencies staffed by people who are predisposed toward unjustly blaming peope based on their race or political attitudes, sexuality, nationality, etc. Hiring persons who are prone to both rushing to judgment then being extremely reticent to change their minds once made up ....cannot do anything other than lead to the arrest and imprisonment of inocent people. People who are lacking in empathy while at the same time being prone to aggression against homosexuals, blacks, drug-addicts, foreigners and others simply creates a perfect recipe for the kinds of attacks on civilians we saw happen to that Polish fellow out at the Vancouver airport. These are but two of a long list of cognitive or personality deficits that I believe should disqualify someone who comes looking for a job as a policeman, soldier, etc. These jobs endow a person with a great deal of authority and responsibility over other peoples lives. And reading through the research while deciding who would best suit such a career, it seems one must inevitably come to the conclusion that persons displaying high RWA-SDO characteristics should in fact be THE LAST type of person we should be hiring to fulfill that role in society. But of course they are the people most likely to volunteer themselves for these careers, as well as being the last to admit any such problem could exist. Or .... should the miraculous happen and they actually do become aware of the problem, their fear of change will compel them to do nothing about fixing the problem. Which of course is just one of the many shortcomings spelled out in the report into the Air India investigation by CSIS and the RCMP.....fshortcomings that were perfectly predictable to anyone familiar with the good doctor's <g> research into authoritarianism.
Comments: Thank you! This book has given me quite a few new mental tool for describing and understanding social issues. Amazing work this.
Comments: Over at the journal Nature website they have a podcast of one of the authors of a study looking into exactly who it is that is muddying the waters re: the scientific consensus over climate change. And what the author found was extremely interesting, not just from a social science perspective, but also from a political and historical viewpoint. It turns out that the same group of physicists, rocket engineers, etc. who lobbied for Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" initiative -- a position that ran against the rest of the scientific community at the time --- are, by and large, the very some bunch who are now doing whatever they can to create the impression that there is no consensus with regards to AGW. It seems they formed a think tank called the George C. Marshall Institute out of which they apparently direct much of the propaganda. While I'm not at all surprised at the ideology of these deniers, I had been wondering what the connection was with the so many physicists and mathematicians whose names appeared on that "Oregon Petition"....an effort sponsored by a group who I keep running across repeatedly when investigating far right-wing causes or sources of rhetoric. So, apart from the obvious connection between right-wing ideologues and the authoritarian personality, I decided to bring the conversation over here because the author makes a specific recommendation that social scientists should acquaint themselves with with the situation, and do what they can to reveal the nature of the problem. Click the second podcast down titled "No doubt?" and it'll open from a player built right into the page (no need for any further players, sites, etc. ) http://www.nature.com/nature/podcast/ The correlation between what they've been promoting and what the Tea Partiers now believe is startling.
Comments: I'm sorry I found this book so late. It's by far the best book I've read this year (I purchased the audiobook). I've been postulating that humankind have actually evolved away from RWA views on a long-term scale. In other words, people are generally less authoritarian now than a century ago, and even less than two centuries ago, etc. I've come to that conclusion after reading a lot of history, and I really do think that modern society would not tolerate the likes of Mussolini, Mao, Oliver Cromwell, or Napoleon, etc. I think you provided helpful pointers that should be looked at more carefully-- the way children are raised AND the amount of FEAR we live under. I suspect people in early- and pre-modern times lived with much more fear, and less expectation of real justice than we do nowadays. It would have been natural (and even advisable) to want to align with the local strong-man. In difficult times, this RWA tendency looks like a highly-evolved survival mechanism. RWA tendencies would be an important factor in human survival in many chaotic situations. Unfortunately, in modern times it could also lead to our destruction!
Comments: I thought the following excerpt from a Time "magazine" article was exceedingly relevant here with regards to how high RWAs travel in their own tight little circles then project their own beliefs and observations back out onto the larger population. GW ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "The late, longtime New Yorker critic Pauline Kael was said to have expressed confusion over Richard Nixon's landslide re-election in 1972 — because no one she knew had voted for him. To borrow that notion, conservatives today imagine that everyone views the current occupant of the White House as they do: Barack Obama is the worst President ever. Conventional wisdom posits that this potent right-wing, anti-Obama sentiment will diminish the President's power — enough for Republicans to vanquish Democrats in November, regain control of Congress and weaken the incumbent for 2012. But this myopia has been created within an electronic cocoon of Fox News, talk radio, conservative websites and rhetoric from Republican leaders, all passionately reinforcing the message that the Obama Administration is disastrous on a historic scale. It's a message that is being transported as gamely by rank-and-file Republicans as it is by erudite conservative columnists with national readerships." cont....http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1993050,00.html Read more: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1993050,00.html#ixzz0pp2bhISA |
| < Previous 15 | Next 15 > |
Back to The Authoritarians