PSI Blog
20200106 Why do ideologies exist?
It should
be clear from last week’s PSI Blog that weird ideas like the Big Bang Theory
serve some important societal and cultural function. As in ideologies, in
general, the outright dismissal of opposing ideas is mandatory for the survival
of the relativity and Big Bang paradigm. Dissidents can point out Einstein's
errors all they want, but that does not trump the “Einstein is always right”
trope taught to youngsters for generations. One can point out there are better
interpretations of data said to “confirm” relativity.[1]
One can repeat Newton’s Second Law of Motion demanding that every acceleration of
something (such as gravitation) simply requires a corresponding deceleration of
something.[2]
All that remains futile, because there is something else going on.
I have
been aware of that “something else” for some time. Now comes a particularly
excellent essay written by Richard Koenigsberg, which I just
received in an email. He writes:
“Social
theory rarely addresses the reasons why certain ideologies exist. Scholars
write about "dominant discourses," but the question is why particular
discourses become dominant. To answer the question of why particular ideas are
embraced and perpetuated, I suggest a psychological approach: What does this
ideology do for the people who embrace it? What role does the ideology play in
the psychic life of its adherents?”
Dr.
Koenigsberg is a psychologist who is Director of the Library of Social Science.
He specializes in the ideological causes of violence. I would broaden his last
sentence by removing the word “psychic.” All causes involve univironments:
microcosms and their macrocosms. In other words, the development of mental
states result from interactions with the environment. Fascists live with
fascists; cosmogonists live with cosmogonists; regressive physicists live with
regressive physicists. Above all, economic conditions are paramount.
No one can live on air alone.
Do read
this essay. It is a good start at understanding why folks are encouraged to
believe the entire universe (of over 2 trillion galaxies, no less) exploded out
of nothing:
Richard’s
email introduces the essay with this:
“The
current President may be narcissistic, delusional, even occasionally psychotic.
However, this explains nothing. The question is what is he saying that causes
tens-of-millions of people to embrace his ideas?
Politicians
articulate their own emotions and fantasies through the vehicle of ideas put
forth upon the public stage. If a politician is to become successful, the ideas
he conveys must resonate with the populace. The leader's words must evoke
emotions and fantasies within his audience not unlike the emotions and
fantasies his words evoke within himself.
Metaphors
and images within the rhetoric of political leaders contain, evoke and bring
forth latent fantasies into reality. An ideology constitutes a modus operandi,
allowing unconscious fantasies to be activated and externalized into the world.
Ideologies "capture" or harness energy contained with latent desires
or fantasies, making this energy available for concerted, societal action.”
[1] Borchardt, Glenn, 2017, Infinite Universe
Theory: Berkeley, California, Progressive Science Institute, 327 p.
[http://go.glennborchardt.com/IUTebook].
[2] Borchardt, Glenn, 2018, The Physical Cause
of Gravitation: viXra:1806.0165.