Quote:
In fact I would agree with a great deal of the article and its discussion on how the ignored dark side of individuals and groups can reach such a mass that they can effectively control their behavior. Those whose "shadow" are most dangerous are those who have ignored it the most. It is by leaving it forgotten and ignored that our dark side can manipulate and control us. The key is that we must all become acquianted with what is most excrable in ourselves. Only by understanding that part of us can we learn to keep it under our firm control than allowing it to "wag the dog" to use a phrase. Many if not most organized groups are designed to provide comforting answers so that one never has to look into their own demons and learn their nature. This is why they are so easily suborned and become puppets of their own collective inner darkness.
[/quote]
eternal,
I think you do the article justice with your comment here.
Here is a paragraph from the article that I like particularly:
Quote:
The invasion of American Democratic institutions by fundamentalist, historically militant (as in crusades,[*] witch hunts, inquisitions, and support of slavery) Christianity has significantly increased the stench coming from the already disturbing dark side of U.S. politics. It’s like a nightmarish replay of the Christian crusades—politics with a militant, convert-the-heathens dark side. Potent, cult-like group dynamics combine with unacknowledged and unseen shadow qualities to easily overwhelm the individual’s sense of right and wrong, often unleashing pure evil en masse.
ADVERTISEMENT
As the political world and the media divided the U.S. into red and blue states, I found myself feeling uncomfortable even thinking about driving through one of those “red” states. I would imagine that every red-state person must be a card-carrying, right wing fundamentalist. From the other side of the mountain, those “blue” states are full of liberal, soft-on-terrorism, big government socialists. Both are examples of projecting our group’s shadow onto the “enemy.” And both views prevent us from “seeing” individual human beings. We see only that group, those people. With remarkable ease, we slide into a “programmed,” either-or, group-think: we’re the good guys, they’re the bad guys. The group mind set is pulling the levers, directing individual reasoning and logic. It’s like seeing everything through red or blue-tinted glasses that color all we see and think—we’ve been swallowed. The blind lead the blinded with ludicrous comments like this: “I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq,”[2] Paul Wolfowitz declared, clearly not seeing his missionary, neoconservative dark side—the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
It is the phrases like cult like group dynamics which really catch my attention because we are after all dealing with a religion here. The Christian religion, whose members are buying into this stuff that George Bush is inflictiong upon them. He is allowing their dark side to flourish and hence achieve his objectives.
What is really going on is you have created good and evil with this shadow dynamic here. The unknowing Christian is sucked into the psychology. He is told he is fighting an enemy and loses sight of right and wrong in the process. In your battle with evil, however, and this is born out in the article, you become evil through your actions.
The general sense that I am getting from the article now is that what is taking place in America is simply " mob psychology or mob rule " This is my personal take on the situation. And, this current conditon, if I may further say is pushed and reinforced by the Administration in concert with the Main Stream Media.
NB. The bold print in the quote is mine. "Potent, cult like group dynamics"