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12 Aug 2008 @ 09:13, by John Grieve
The Truth, Denial and Fascism
According to Gandhi, God is Truth and he considered it the most important thing in his life to tell the truth and honour it when others did too. There’s nothing wrong with denying something which is false or obviously untrue. Yet everyday we witness people repeatedly denying things which every one else believes and there is something pathological in it. Often it is obvious that what they are denying is a part of themselves.
The sort of denial we are talking about here is nothing to do with telling white lies, being discreet and tactful or even being “economical” with the truth. It is rather the sort of falsehood and denial involving parts of oneself and disowning important characteristics of our basic humanity.
There is clearly a strong psychological reason why people engage in systematic denial and in fact Freud called the “Denial Mechanism” one of the most significant of the defence mechanisms with which we protect the Ego.
People deny things in this way in order to protect their ego from destruction or the fear of it. It’s that important to their psychological balance. Whatever you’re saying to them is perceived as so threatening to the fragile stability of their ego that they deny it at all costs. They deny it, avoid it, change the subject, brush it under the carpet, but above all they “exclude” it and get rid of any evidence of its existence. It’s something which they consider completely alien in the same way as they consider certain human characteristics as alien. They are completely ill-at-ease with the truth of what you’re saying, in the same way as they are completely ill-at-ease with black people, gays. women, disabled people or any of the other myriad identities that exist in the human constellation.
By now you will have realised that the people I’m referring to who engage in systematic denial of parts of themselves and who systematically destroy the human basis of their personality, are border-line fascists.
The Law of Analogy, which I’ve referred to many times in previous articles and essays, shows clearly as we go from level to level the sinister emergence of full-blown fascism.
On the level of the personality and everyday life it is the denial defence mechanism itself. At the economic level it is the denying of equal job and other similar opportunities to marginal groups. At the social level it is the literal physical exclusion of these same minorities from access to the common life, often called social exclusion. At the political level it becomes full-blown discrimination of a legal and political sort enforced by law and force, such as Gandhi fought against in South Africa and India. At the combined legal, political and military level it becomes genocide, pogroms, concentration camps and all the horrors of the totalitarian system.
Each level is a qualitative step from a border-line fascist personality to open totalitarian political system. It starts with excluding parts of ourselves we feel uncomfortable with, but at every level it is accompanied by projecting onto others, excluding others, scapegoating others. The real battle is obviously within. Only when we are at ease with ourselves will all this cease.
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Category: Politics
2 comments
13 Aug 2008 @ 08:09 by erlefrayne : Complete facets of fascism
Well, Partner, you already tacked the various facets of fascism in a nutshell. The battle is within as you said, approved.
26 Aug 2008 @ 09:10 by Deepwater @121.222.25.210 : Beautifully said :)
I completely agree and I like your approach, all that we can perceive is within, and when we are at Peace, so we will manifest Peace.
We see things the same way.
Thank you.
Other entries in Politics
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8 Nov 2008 @ 16:06: A Boy Named Sue and the False American Dream
7 Nov 2008 @ 16:01: No He Can't...
6 Nov 2008 @ 09:16: History is NOW
5 Nov 2008 @ 16:58: Obamas World - Africa and the World beyond Poverty !? - but how? - what world?
5 Nov 2008 @ 14:02: Proud to be An American
5 Nov 2008 @ 05:18: PRESIDENT OBAMA
4 Nov 2008 @ 15:38: Voting in North Carolina
26 Oct 2008 @ 15:26: Systemic Intelligence: How to teach Systemic Thinking effectively
26 Oct 2008 @ 10:27: OBAMA IS AMERICA’S MAN OF THE HOUR
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