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Paranoids are Always With Us
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In 1964, historian Richard Hofstadter published an influential essay in Harper's Magazine titled "The Paranoid Style in American Politics." It came to mind recently in the context of the hysteria and hyperbole of the health care debate. Parts could have been written today.
Hofstadter observed that "American politics has often been an arena for angry minds." Recurring throughout the nation's history he found a style of mind that was paranoid not necessarily in the clinical sense but nevertheless characterized by a "sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy. ..."
Holy granny-whacking, Batman! This same style of mind has shown itself to be alive and well in the bizarre rumors of death panels, mandatory abortions, euthanasia, government takeovers, Sovietized health care, etc. - sometimes seasoned with a dash or two of speculations about the Kenyan birth of a certain elected official.
In the 1990s, we saw the paranoid style in the form of militia-related movements aimed at countering a United Nations takeover of America. Before that, there were groups like the John Birch Society, which imagined a communist conspiracy that included such noted Soviet agents as Republican President Dwight Eisenhower. Then there was Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who accused the U.S. Army of being a hotbed of subversion.
One can find it recurring from the early days of the republic, when pamphlets appeared in the late 1700s regarding the evil conspiracies of the Freemasons and the dreaded Bavarian Illuminati, a group that some people still think is really pulling the strings.
In the 1800s, some were alarmed by an alleged conspiracy involving Roman Catholicism, especially the dreaded Jesuits. One such writer claimed that "Jesuits are prowling about all parts of the United States in every possible disguise, expressly to ascertain the advantageous situations and modes to disseminate Popery."
In 1855, a Texas newspaper reported that "...It is a notorious fact that the Monarchs of Europe and the Pope of Rome are at this very moment plotting our destruction and threatening the extinction of our political, civil, and religious institutions. We have the best reasons for believing that corruption has found its way into our Executive Chamber, and that our Executive head is tainted with the infectious venom of Catholicism. ..."
Substitute a few words and this could have been shouted out at a health-care town hall meeting this summer.
Hofstadter, following sociologist Daniel Bell, found a sense of being dispossessed to lie at the root of modern political paranoia. Its proponents believe that:
"America has been largely taken away from them and their kind, though they are determined to try to repossess it and to prevent the final destructive act of subversion. The old American virtues have already been eaten away by cosmopolitans and intellectuals; the old competitive capitalism has been gradually undermined by socialistic and communistic schemers; the old national security and independence have been destroyed by treasonous plots, having as their most powerful agents not merely outsiders and foreigners as of old but major statesmen who are at the very centers of American power ..."
Adherents see the world in apocalyptic terms and themselves at the barricades at the last battle, with everything at stake. Political conflicts are not seen as routine differences of viewpoints to be mediated in a rational way. Rather, they are wars between absolute good and absolute evil where "what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated - if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention."
This unrealistic approach to social conflict and desire for absolute victory only increases the frustration felt by the true believers, even if they experience partial success. The enemy is always elusive and dangerous. The triumph is never complete.
This may explain why some hard-core right-wingers were outraged and angry not so long ago even when their allies controlled all branches of the federal government.
In the paranoid view, the enemy "is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman - sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving. Unlike the rest of us, the enemy is not caught in the toils of the vast mechanism of history, himself a victim of his past, his desires, his limitations. He wills, indeed he manufactures, the mechanism of history, or tries to deflect the normal course of history in an evil way."
There are no accidents in this view. Everything that happens is the result of someone's malevolent will. The enemy holds vast sources of power, whether through mass media, educational institutions, or financial resources and is always a master of mind manipulation.
Taking the long view of history, Hofstadter believed that the tendency to paranoid worldviews is a constant among some people, usually a small minority. But in periods of social strain or major change, these can sometimes erupt into mass movements and political parties. The adherents of such views seem to suffer whether they win or lose. No victory is ever complete. Any loss or setback only seems to confirm their darkest imaginings.
Hofstadter concluded by saying, "We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well."
Here's hoping the latest flare-up of political paranoia won't cause too much harm.
Wilson is director of the American Friends Service Committee WV Economic Justice Project and publishes a daily blog, www.goatrope.blogspot.com.
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31 Comments so far
Show AllThere is another milder word for paranoia. It's called "skepticism" and in a day where our government constantly spoonfeeds us bullshit and claims that it is chocolate cream of wheat, not taking things at face value is a good thing.
I recall many similar articles such as these in the lead-up to the war in Iraq.
There were many of us who didn't believe that Iraq had WMD's and that the whole thing was a big lie. We were painted as wacko conspiracy theorists, and pooh-poohed by people on the bandwagon. But we were right. I recall the same people laughing at Ron Paul and Peter Schiff who predicted the housing bubble. Worse than paranoia is the disease of smug assurance that infects a majority riding the bandwagon.
Let paranoia stir up questions and skepticism. Let the burden of proof fall heavily on those in charge. Reason should prevail, but it's important we make our government work hard to earn our trust.
In the last decade, the last time I saw everybody hop on the bandwagon and throw critical thinking to the wind was immediately following 9/11. We all know what good legislation and policy came from that period.
Let the debate rage, let the facts prevail, and let's stop trying to paint the skeptical minority as mentally ill and start refuting their claims with facts instead of stupid cultural psychobabble.
Agreed. We have to be skeptical.
The problems seems to be that the haves and powerful are skewing the skepticism in the wrong direction, and there is no debate, as those with an opposing viewpoint are simply being arrested. And perhaps are approaching this debate the wrong way.
On the one side there is Glen Beck, Spewing his bodily fluids on a hapless camera man, and on the otherside, is, well, the hapless cameraman.
We seem to have lost our desire to uprise.
Love
Zero
"Let paranoia stir up questions and skepticism."
You seem to be confusing, honest, rational questioning of governmental policies (true patriotism) with Quixotic "tilting at windmills."
The author is pointing out (or maybe I'm reading into it) that the 'paranoid fantasies' of a small group of, say, "tea-baggers" leads to irrational, debilitating distractions that work against the possibility of having a strong debate concerning important life-altering decisions.
That bandwagon that everybody readily hopped aboard following 9/11 was the result of paranoia put into action by our 'leaders' at the time. It is more commonly referred to as "fear."
Rational minds can agree to disagree, but if one of the minds is irrational, rational discussion is out the window.
There is a difference between opinion and being factually wrong. If you opinion is based on incorrect information (death panels), then you don't really have an opinion, its more like you're spouting hog wash.
Just like people who try to pass off the public option as saying that it is almost single payer health care when it is clearly not.
I'm not happy that both sides really fail to do the right thing, while misrepresenting what they are doing and what needs to be done. All for short term political gain, just like our corporations.
We cannot have a corrupted government without having a corrupted mainstream media, and we have both.
Single payer or single term, no other option.
And who is to decide what is "tilting at Windmills," or "paranoid fantasies," and what is honest, rational questioning? You? Rick Wilson?
And what is irrational? Staging boycotts and rallies? Marching with signs and chanting? Dressing up like Indians and throwing crates of tea overboard? How about a hunger strike? That sounds pretty irrational to me.
Hooray for a bit of sanity.
Those that buy the propaganda that the tea baggers represent a small group or that those that oppose "health care reform" (Which is nothing of the sort), that people opposing Obama are racists are living in an echo chamber.
Explain the birth certificate idiocy. Explain why on right wing sites, there are idiots speculating whether Obama is circumcised.
No, I'm not joking.
The problem is that paranoia stirs up ridiculous questions: such as rubbish about Kenyan birth certificates. Such as rubbish about Socialism Fascism.
The problem is that the questions that paranoia stirs up are often irrelevant, and distract from the actual questions that should be asked.
The problem with a default position of scepticism is that it considers all positions, all things equally unlikely.
Skepticism is a healthy, necessary part of true reason and political discourse. Paranoia is a psychotic symptom, technically a form of delusion, which is a firmly held thought at odds with consensus reality. So, let's say, someone believes that their neighbor belongs to the CIA and has placed surveilance devices throughout their home because the CIA is very interested in them, and no amount of evidence to the contrary can convince them otherwise, would be said to have a paranoid delusion.
I think it's an appropriate term to describe many on the right, though, as stated in the article, they're not clinically diagnosable.
Bring America Back !!!!
****OK, bewily==would you mind substituting the initials NSA for the words CIA, in your post !!! Then, re:read your paragraph in view of the massive felonious unauthorized
wiretapping of US Citizens under the FISA legislation, and the subsequent amendments giving immunity to the criminal acts and their perpetrators-- namely
George W Bush !!
****Let us all re{define:...'firmly held thought at odds with consensus reality'.
Paranoia is a frequently used term of psychiatry for describing those who speak the political truth, or who firmly hold to the guilt of highly placed officials !
Skepticism is a good term to describe the tendency of the mental health community to diagnose political protestors, antiwar activists, or 9/11 truth seekers as mentally normal ! But one more reason the US Healthcare system is corrupt, broken, and one of the worst in the world !
Sioux Rose
BEWILY: But what happens to "the definition" when, in fact, your government IS listening in on your phone calls, checking your emails, has begun to see you, as a potentially politically outraged citizen as one to keep tabs on? I mean is there a word for paranoia when it explains the entire fabric of national policy? Or are we all Joseph McCarthy(s) now?
Sioux Rose,
When there is real danger, the natural emotional reaction is rightly called fear. Given our present reality, we should be afraid, very afraid. That's not paranoia, it's the only appropriate response any rational individual, with sufficient facts, would have. That and rage.
But you also have do deal with denial which is really a coping mechanism and rampant on the right e.g. climate change, peak oil. Irrational as well, but it helps temporarily with making sense of the world. The right wing thinks in concrete terms and has difficulty with complex abstract concepts. So its solutions are simple, black and white, short term and unwise.
TruthKnoller,
I share your contempt for contemporary psychiatry, even though I work in it, but no competent psychiatrist or mental health professional would diagnose a political protestor as paranoid unless there was true psychosis involved. NSA, CIA, Patriot Act - these are things to actually fear. But if you personally believe that your phone is being tapped because you registered as a Democrat, or Green, or carried a sign in a march then maybe you are paranoid. There would be other symptoms as well, like grandiosity, lack of sleep, etc. There's no need to redefine the terms, they're already adequate.
- Bewily
Sioux Rose
BEWILY: Thank you for your post, one I totally agree with. By the way, you sound like an especially balanced member of your professional community. I look forward to reading more of your responses in this forum.
Bring America Back !!!!
***This paranoia comes from Rick Wilson of West Virginia.
**So-called Democratic Governor Jay Rockefeller was one of the very few Demmys who voted FOR KIng George' Torture Legislation--The Miiitary Commissions Act.. Yes, this legislation made legal the torture, waterboarding, rendition, and then set up the Kangaroo Courts of Gitmo to militarily try Detainees.
**Other Demmys voting for torture were Lieberman of Conn, and Bill Nelson of Florida--millitary astronaut. Of course, the whole host of Neocons also voted lockstep Bush !
**Don;t know if this has been blogged about by Wilson but although he mentions right-wingers in passing, his symptoms sure do describe a lot of the prevailing lefty progressive thinking about the US leadership of the past 8 years !
**So is Rockefeller a Blue Dog Democrat, or just a paranoid
right winger ???? We report, You decide !!!!
I like Rick Wilsons' article here,Hofstadters' quote in the last paragraph got me thinking.He assumes that the general dominant paradigm reflects the "real world".He also assumed in 1964 that the paranoid groups were usually a small minority.The paranoid person may often be overwhelmed by more information then "the rest of us".Even most conspiracy theories are fueled by whole or partial truths that "prevaricators" can use to support their arguments.So in the face of a delusional dominant paradigm and surrounded by propagandist conspiracy theories in the mass media,very few people have a clue whats goin' on.It is easy to exploit this type of ignorance when you control the various Media Press,access to Capitol,Student Loans ,Health care,and Election financing.
So in defence of paranoid people everywhere; If you think someone is out to get you,maybe following you.If the clicking on your phone ,the strange hang up calls,the black S.U.V. parked across the street,or a number of other strange occurrences are not coincidental,you may not be delusional.This can be particularly true if you are activist of any kind, left ,right or ambidextrous!Rick Wilson and the W.V. A.F.S.C. know this better than most! peace
The only paranoia Americans have is that they might lose their belongings or see their standard of living drop.
And to a one they know subconsciously that raping the world, stealing oil/gas; AND killing Arabs for it, sustains their standard of living.
Thus their only real fear is of change in the murky waters they tenuously tread.
The government lies to us and starts wars based on those lies. People on both sides die.
"Remember the Maine!" was the lie that started the Spanish American War.
We know that FDR new and wanted an attack by the Japanese in order to provide the justification for US entry into WWII.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident was trumped up to justify an escalation in Vietnam.
9-11 was used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
We have several multi-billion dollar "intelligence" agencies that make paranoia a way of life.
Oh, but let's focus on the teabaggers. Yeah, that's just what we need, another article attacking a bunch of ill informed nobodies.
If our leftie word slingers want to focus on the common folks, they might spend a bit more time and effort unearthing the details of the conspiracy by which wealthy individuals and corporations fund populist groups on both the right and left.
"Just Because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you!" - K. Colbain
Damn ! dreamjoehill,I could have saved a paragraph with that Kurt Colbain qoute,I forgot who said it . Thanks
@ dreamjoehill September 27th, 2009 3:16 pm: you're correct in your items except for your claim that FDR wanted the Japanese to attack us in order to justify US entry into WWII. 'We' don't know that, and the historical facts refute that claim:
-- Why didn't FDR use the German U-Boat attack on the USS Reuben James on October 31, 1941 as a pretext to enter the war, if what you say is true? 115 US sailors died in that attack and FDR certainly could have used that to whip up the public into a war fever, but he didn't. http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/a_people_at_war/prelude_to_war/uss_reuben_james.html
-- Why did Washington issue a War Warning to all US military posts in the Pacific on November 22, 1941, if FDR wanted a surprise attack to use as a device to get us into the war? It was the conclusion of the Pacific Theater commanders and the War Department that the Japanese would most likely attack our bases in the Philippines and not Pearl Harbor, but that was not FDR's fault.
This 'FDR wanted the Japanese to attack us' is a baseless canard that has been spread by the Republican right-wingers since the end of WWII to smear the reputation of one of the most beloved, successful and liberal presidents in our history.
a classic case of mass paranoia allowed bush's pre-emptive wars.
Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
Ah, I remember the past 8 years like they were yesterday...
"Bush was God's choice. He would never, ever torture people. You're soooo paranoid."
"Bush isn't going to invade Iraq, stupid. Could you be more paranoid?"
"Why would Bush and the NSA illegally spy on every American? That's crazy paranoid, dude. What's next - you're gonna say AT&T helped them? Paranoid nut..."
"Wall Street doesn't frankly own the place, Sen. Durbin. Or, should we say, Senator Paranoia?"
The latest fashion in paranoia -- Facebook:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/603.html
Hofstadter was an overrated academician and hot air blower. The right in the USA is nutty as a fruit cake, and this over generalization about conspiracy theory is so much damn BS. Just because those on the progressive side don't engage in conspiracy, doesn't in the least say a damn thing about the right. Get real. How did these types get to be power elites was it just a case of God chose them over us. Hell no it wasn't. Historically in Europe it's a known fact that those who got power plotted to get it, and they took by the sword initially where later they would take by the gun. What the hell's the diffference? Then they came out with their "defense" that they ruled by the grace of God and we're supposed to just role over and be a bunch of wimps for these lower than rat excrement types.
Sometimes "conspiracy theory" is all wet, but often it's right on the mark-- Watergate, Iran Contra scandal, the way the USA got into the Vietnam War, the Iraw War, and quite a few more doozies that our power elites got us in. "Coincidence theories' are no better than these "conspiracy theories" unless the facts prove that. Thus let the facts determine which is right. To hell Hofstadter who was pretty damn much right wing himself. But he believed in the Cold War and was as paranoid about the "terrible Communists" in Moscow as any other establishment hot air blower and wrong as hell.
AD
Hofstadter was an overrated academician and hot air blower. The right in the USA is nutty as a fruit cake, and this over generalization about conspiracy theory is so much damn BS. Just because those on the progressive side don't engage in conspiracy, doesn't in the least say a damn thing about the right. Get real. How did these types get to be power elites was it just a case of God chose them over us. Hell no it wasn't. Historically in Europe it's a known fact that those who got power plotted to get it, and they took by the sword initially where later they would take by the gun. What the hell's the diffference? Then they came out with their "defense" that they ruled by the grace of God and we're supposed to just role over and be a bunch of wimps for these lower than rat excrement types.
Sometimes "conspiracy theory" is all wet, but often it's right on the mark-- Watergate, Iran Contra scandal, the way the USA got into the Vietnam War, the Iraw War, and quite a few more doozies that our power elites got us in. "Coincidence theories' are no better than these "conspiracy theories" unless the facts prove that. Thus let the facts determine which is right. To hell Hofstadter who was pretty damn much right wing himself. But he believed in the Cold War and was as paranoid about the "terrible Communists" in Moscow as any other establishment hot air blower and wrong as hell.
AD
"The greater the concentration of power, the greater the paranoia it generates about its need to destroy everything outside itself."
Paranoia is heightened awareness.
Paranoia is a social disease--you get it from screwing other people.
"Paranoia is the delusion that your enemies are organized."
- Arthur D. Hlavaty.
"This is the Nineties, Bubba, and there is no such thing as Paranoia. It's all true."
- Hunter S Thompson
I love the American Friends Service Committee and have nothing personal against this writer, whom I simply see as having oversimplified a phenomenon which isn't at all that simple in the least. Daniel Bell was a great one. The left and right or what passes for same in this country can never be put on even plane of moral equivalency. These power elites on the right have no damn morality or less that of animals in a zoo. They only care about power, money, and getting all the other material benefits which they have a false sense of entitlement for.
I have even gladly contributed to the AFSC, and plan to continue to do the same.
AD
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw many years ago:
Help! Paranoids are following me!
Nanoo
According to Websters, paranoia is : A psychosis marked by delusions of persecution or of grandeur. I guess it's all in how one interprets. I just finished Dan Brown's book, The Lost Symbol and there's much about the Freemasons and the US capitol and surrounding stuff. Do you really think it's delusions about secret societies existence?
I believe it's very likely that AT&T was tapping my phone because of all the clicking. When that story broke about the illegal wire tapping reinforced my suspicions. Further when I then switched to Qwest and the clicking instantly stopped, that added another element of my conclusion.
To me being paranoid is taking a toke in the parking lot and not wanting to go back into the bar.
Interesting insights that may relate to this topic (synopses available in Wikipedia & other websites):
"Maslow's hierarchy of needs", Abraham Maslow, 1943: Examines human needs and their relative motivational power -- traditionally taught as a fundamental in marketing courses.
"The True Believer", Eric Hoffer: Examines the psychodynamics of fanatical commitment.
"The Stanford Prison Experiment", "The Milgram experiment": Controversial experiments conducted at Stanford & Yale universities that examined the willingness of subjects to participate in amoral behavior when so instructed by a perceived authority in a fabricated ideological context.
* * * * *
A capacity for irrational thought and an inherent vulnerability to manipulation may exist to some degree in most of us.
But not me. I am studiously pursuing a new image of apathy, indolence and cash-only transactions and am therefore of no further interest to the system. (Thank you Mr. Cheney but I done already renditioned my own self.)