political thoughts

The political import of psychoanalysis has become very clear to me. Those of lower classes and those who face sexism and racism are much more likely to face narcissistic injuries in their drives to find success or be dismissed when they seek to share the ideas they love by father-substitutes in positions of power. Those from higher classes and who don't face the sexism or racism are more likely to get access to institutions and companies without being treated unfairly and have the backing to move on to another avenue if they do.

The rational chooser model simply makes it a choice for these people to decide to continue to strive for their success or to share what they love. It doesn't want to see that we are primarily related by the ego and object drives.

Those who are narcissistic may regress and be unable to work or love and those who are neurotic continue to interact based upon social identities (i.e. conformity) but without the passions of the drives (once the injuries are defended against).

This has always been recognized in religion. Jesus saying that we should be like children is to recognize the individual before the injuries and disappointments caused them to defend themselves. In Taoism 'the Way' is the path of eros or at least continuing on in the defused castration complex without succumbing to defense against the drives.

...but this leaves things in a very awkward position. The passion of youth is needed for people to want the change but youth lacks wisdom and experience and all the radical positions of either left or right are too simplistic and misunderstand one another.

Those who have lost their youth and gained experience, as 'My Dinner with Andre' does a good job of showing, either want their creature comforts and security and, those who are more egoistic, don't like to see upcoming generations come into prominence without having to endure the same knocks that they endured and require submission to the paradigms they have adopted. The wisdom they'e acquired is noticeable through the strong reactions they have to more subtle work, even if it is to dismiss it, from their laziness or from its failure to to reference their work and respect their legacy.

In either direction, youth or elder, the fight to come won't be easy.

However, the bourgeoisie, in pandering to the masses though giving them reality TV and superhero movies to stimulate their sense of heroism and hopes of mobility is preparing this fight. It's just a question of how long people will be content with this fantasy and what amounts to 'masturbation' in the ego drives, before they are ready to bite into something real.

This isn't a rising up of all the lower classes. It isn't a case of pamphleting or fighting in the streets. Technology has ensured that a smaller group can gain control of mass communication.

...who is done with masturbation, and won't back away from the crudeness of the formulation or see it as an invitation to satisfy their lust? This is a union of both compassion for others and a vision that rises above both the chaos and boring security of trading in the business world. It's a union of wanting the city to be more beautiful instead of being filled with potholes and abandoned buildings, and for their to be divergent projects in ways of living and not a single way.