No Country for Brown Children [View all]

[H2O Man]

“I read the news today, oh boy
about a lucky man who made the grade.
And though the news was rather sad,
well, I just had to laugh.
I saw the photograph ….”
John Lennon; A Day in the Life; 1967



Actually, I was re-visiting Erich Fromm's 1973 book, The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness” while listening to the Beatles. That song summed up my feelings about the news that I've seen thus far this week. But before we take a gander at some of the news' low-lights, let's do a brief review.

A number of times over the past 15 years, I've spoken about how I study “systems,” and do so by visualizing them like a mobile over an infant's crib. Add or subtract a piece, and all the others have to shift to stay in balance. That is the nature of healthy systems, be they a family, a school, a work place, or a community.

In an unhealthy system, the dynamics can be different in several ways. Other pieces can become entrenched in their positions, to prevent a smooth addition of another piece. Likewise, they can become entrenched in order to cut off a piece already on the mobile.

But the worst potential for an unhealthy system is of the type described in Fromm's book. Though he does not use the mobile model, I'd like to stick with it. Thus, the central piece on this mobile is what Fromm defined as a malignant narcissist, also known as a sociopath or psychopath. This piece, usually male, has a significant gravitational pull upon the other pieces e is surrounded with.

Before we go further, we should remember that malignant narcissists' actions, both as individuals and as a group, cover a wide spectrum. One may be a glib, thieving businessman, while another may be a murderer. And within this wide range, there are those who will, under extreme pressure, escalate in their potential level of threat. More, while the majority act out as individuals – those who are frequently said to live a “double life,” such as the BTK killer Dennis Rader – there is another type that are found smack-dab in the middle of a system.

The systems sociopath is generally more difficult to place upon psychiatrist Michael Stone's rankings of murderers. They generally do not commit the acts of gross violence themselves – rather, they have others do the dirty work. To accomplish this, they take advantage of situations by convincing those around them that they are “at risk” of being invaded or attacked by an enemy they define as “others.”

To fully appreciate this, we need to go back to the Angelo-Saxon word “yfel,” which translates to “beyond.” Society tends to make a distinction between killing in self-defense, in war, and murder. That line blurs sometimes, such as when we consider a soldier in WW2 and William Calley in My Lai. But what most sane people recognize as going “beyond” includes finding satisfaction in causing prolonged fear and suffering, by torturing and then murdering. These are sadistic features.

Now, let's focus on those pieces of the mobile that tend to surround the central character. In the cases that we are considering, we will look at a malignant narcissist who exercises political-social power. These tend to surround themselves with bureaucrats who fall into two groups: those who would normally never participate in “yfel” activities aimed at “others,” and those who may appear to be stable, but daydream about being others' nightmare.

In the first case, these individuals are often afraid of their leader on some level. When the leader says they are being invaded or attacked, they might know deep down that this is a lie. But they lack the character to take a stand opposing the leader, or to even quit their job. Instead, they bury their conscience, and obey orders. For they are bureaucratic cogs in the wheelhouse of a sick system. They will continue to be obedient until the leader gets a sniff of dissent, at which time he will cut them from the mobile.

In the second instance, we find the Stephen Millers of the world. They view the ability to cause suffering as a power they are entitled to yield against “others.” Their leader merely gives them license to do so. And their conscience never troubles them.

George W. Bush used the public's feelings of being threatened with invasion and attack to justify the invasion of Iraq. He was surrounded with individuals not unlike Stephen Miller – bureaucrats like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and a dozen other necroconservatives. But even earlier in his life, in the part-time position of governor of Texas, Bush found pleasure in suffering. Rubin Carter told me that when he met with Governor Bush to discuss the death penalty, Bush was “giddy” about his ability to send people o their deaths. As president, when he was preparing to invade Iraq in a manner distinct from previous wars, DC was filled primarily with bureaucrats afraid to challenge him, or eager to inflict suffering and death on “others.”

Today, of course, we are confronted with Donald Trump. We are witnessing his attempts to convince the public that we are being invaded and attacked by non-white others – all the while denying that we are indeed being attacked from within by white nationalists. We've seen his attempt to deny Islamic people the ability to enter the country. We are seeing his on-going war on immigrants from Central America. We've witnessed his administration's separating children from their parents, and placing them in metal cages. This is, by definition, going far beyond anything that could be mistaken for “normal.”

If we read about an adult who kidnaps a child, and tortures them by keeping them in a metal cage, we know that is “yfel,” the root of today's word “evil.” Average citizens are able to identify this as evil just as easily as theologians, philosophers, doctors, and lawyers. People had respect for John McCain's surviving being held as a POW in a cage, yet Trump consistently has said that McCain was not a hero. Is it any surprise that Trump and his followers are good with putting little children in cages? For that is surely a form of torture that causes great pain and suffering on a long-term basis.

These are the things I think about as I watch the world go round.
H2O Man