Tag Archives: Sanders
Blog, Politics
Three Worldviews Fighting for Our Hearts, Minds, and Souls
March 21, 2017 imitroffElitist, Populist, Revolt, Sanders, Trump Leave a comment
Originally published March 20, 2017 on The Huffington Post
Three wildly different worldviews are fighting for our hearts, minds, and souls: 1. The Populist Revolt, 2. The Elitist Revolt, and 3. We Need to Heal and Come Together.
The Populist Revolt is of course what propelled Trump into the Presidency. It's marked by extreme anger and distrust of elites and government. It's also fueled by intense feelings of anger, despair, and hopelessness due to the loss of well-paying jobs and the respect that they once brought. At its core is the intense anger towards elites who have nothing but contempt for working class people. Give Trump a fair chance is the prevailing mantra. He's their only hope.
The Elitist Revolt is just recently emerged. It's based on the fact that the Red States receive back far more in federal dollars for support than what they initially paid out in taxes. In short, the Blue States are footing the bill of the Red States, who of course are anything but grateful in return. The Elitist Revolt actually hopes that President Trump and his Republican cronies eliminate federal taxes altogether so that they will then be free to set up their own healthcare plans, social support systems, etc. In effect, the Red States can all go to hell because The Elitist Revolt doesn't care anymore about "What's the Matter with Kansas?". Oppose and resist Trump in every way possible is the rallying cry.
The We Need to Heal and Come Together worldview says that it's fundamentally wrong to lump all the members of the Red States together and denigrate them as a whole. They all don't think and act alike anymore than any group does. The different states basically need one another precisely because they are so different. What we gain by being part of a united whole is so great that it greatly outweighs the losses if the states go their separate ways.
Depending on one's worldview, it's all-too-easy to dismiss the others. But this is precisely what we must not do, for each contains a substantial element of truth. To appreciate this, it's necessary to feel, and not just understand abstractly, the emotions that underlie each worldview. Both The Populist and The Elitist Revolt are fueled by anger due to the pains of enormous loss. Each feels hugely disrespected by the other. Overcoming disrespect is the onerous task facing the We Need to Heal and Come Together worldview. Given the tremendous rancor and deep polarization, it feels that it's virtually impossible.
Those who subscribe to the Elitist Revolt feel that only way in which the proponents of The Populist Revolt will come to their senses is by being deeply burned by President Trump and the Republican Party, for example with respect to health care. In comparison, those who subscribe to the Populist Revolt feel that the only way in which the proponents of The Elitist Revolt will come to their senses is by being forced to face again and again that they are no longer in control.
It's precisely because we are so bitterly divided that We Need to Heal and Come Together. Senator Bernie Sanders shows that it can be done. By going into West Virginia and listening honestly and respectfully to those who voted for Donald Trump, only then could he counter some of Trump's ideas and those of the Republican Party. Indeed, nearly everyone he spoke to was deeply afraid of being thrown off the Accordable Care Act.
If we were truly smart, we would send Secretary Clinton and Senators Graham, McCain, and Sanders on a joint nation-wide tour to promote We Need to Heal and Come Together.
Blog, Politics, Psychology
Melanie Klein and Today's Highly Fractured Politics
February 23, 2016 imitroffChild Psychology, Melanie Klein, presidential campaign, Sanders, Splitting, Trump Leave a comment
Originally published February 22, 2016 on the Huffington Post
If she were alive today, Melanie Klein, the highly influential child psychoanalyst, would have a field day analyzing the blithering pronouncements of the current crop of Republican and Democratic candidates for President. Klein's ideas are indispensible in understanding the phenomenon known as Splitting. Splitting is important because it's responsible for the basic division of the world into "good versus bad guys." Needless to say, Splitting is a major component in the campaign statements of all the Republican candidates as well as Senator Sanders.
By means of play therapy, which she literally invented, Klein was able to get at the earliest, preverbal, unconscious fantasies of children during the first two to three years of their lives. In this regard, it is said that if Freud discovered the child in the adult, then Klein discovered the infant in the child. Klein thus pushed back even further our understanding of the roots of human behavior.
One of Klein's earliest discoveries was that the fantasies of very young children revealed that there is an extremely powerful and destructive side to humans during the first years of their lives. The fantasies were basically due to the fact that very young children experienced extreme anger and frustration over the fact that they didn't have complete control over the primary caretaker who was responsible for feeding them both physically and emotionally. When Klein wrote early in the 20th century, this was primarily the mother.
Klein established that under the age of three, children split the image of the mother into a "good mother" who cared and administered to the child's every need exactly when the child wanted it and a " bad mother" who had to discipline the child and couldn't be there exactly on the child's schedule. Because the child's mind was not yet mature enough, it couldn't comprehend that the "good" and the "bad mother" were one and the same. In other words, to the young child, there were two separate mothers.
This helps to explain why fairytales are so appealing to young children. The "good witch" and "bad witch" help young children cope psychologically with the issues they are struggling to comprehend. Namely, how can young children reconcile that the good and the bad mother are one and the same? Thus, fairytales allow children to "act out" safely the emotional conflicts they are experiencing. That's why the "bad witch" is always killed–indeed, has to die–and the "good witch" eventually triumphs.
One of the critical functions of the parents is to provide a "healthy container" to help the young child literally "contain" the raging emotions that pulse through them uncontrollably. If the parents do not either over or under react to the child's emotions, verbal outbursts, and fantasies, then the child eventually learns to contain his or her emotions and hence heal the split images between the "good" and the "bad" parents. The child eventually comes to accept emotionally that the "good" and the "bad" aspects of the parents are located in the same person. He or she also eventually comes to accept that there are good and bad sides to everyone, especially themselves. Nonetheless, even under the best of circumstances, Splitting lasts for a lifetime.
Klein termed the earliest stage of human development "the paranoid-schizoid position." It was "paranoid" because the young child feared that the parent would either hurt or abandon him or her; "schizoid" because of the phenomenon of Splitting.
Most children naturally develop out of this earlier stage, but some form of Splitting stays with us our entire lives. Indeed, in times of extreme stress or threat, we shouldn't be surprised at all to find people regressing or reverting back to the paranoid-schizoid position. Thus, I'm not surprised in the least that Splitting plays a major role in the campaigns of the Republican candidates, but especially that of Donald Trump with his constant denigration of blacks, Hispanics, women, Muslims, etc. But sadly, it also plays a major role in Senator Sanders' campaign as well with his constant, unrelenting attacks on Wall Street, and his near inability to see anything positive in Capitalism.
In brief, both Trump and Sanders are playing handily to one of the primary fears associated with Splitting, i.e., the feeling that "they are out to get us." This is not to say that there are not legitimate fears and things that deserve justifiable anger, but to deal with those that are legitimate, one first has to root out those that the product of irrational, unconscious fears.
Klein also identified a subsequent, follow-on stage of human development that she termed the "Depressive Position." In this stage, the child finally accepts that the "bad" and the "good" mother are one and the same. At lest for the time being, the child moves beyond Splitting. Klein termed this stage "Depressive" because the child feels sad for his or her previous hostility towards its mother.
Above all, it's important to understand that all of this takes place unconsciously. One certainly cannot explain this to the undeveloped minds of children. And, one cannot necessarily explain it as well to adults who are under the grips of Splitting. More than ever, we need friendly, nonthreatening adult figures who can provide desperately needed hope and reassurance that the world is not breaking asunder.