Marx on the reactionary Donald Trump

Driven by the contradictory demands of his situation, and being at the same time, like a juggler, under the necessity of keeping the public gaze on himself, [with his promises to make America great again], by springing constant surprises – that is to say, under the necessity of arranging a coup d’état in miniature every day – [Trump] throws the whole bourgeois economy into confusion, violates everything that seemed inviolable to the [the conservatives of the deified, anti-Russian Ronald Regan], makes some tolerant of revolution and makes others lust for it, and produces anarchy in the name of order, while at the same time stripping the entire state machinery of its halo, profaning it and making it at once loathsome and ridiculous. 

The [Trump] dynasty represents not the revolutionary, but the conservative [worker]; not the [worker] who strikes out beyond the condition of his social existence, [the factory or mining job], but rather one who wants to consolidate [these professions]; not the [minimum wage workers] who in alliance with the [urban youth) want to overthrow the old order through their own energies, but on the contrary those who, in solid seclusion within this old order, want to see themselves and their [blue collar jobs] saved and favored by the ghost of the Empire. It represents not the enlightenment but the superstition of the peasant; not his judgment but his prejudice; not his future but his past...

It's got to stop.

I'm tired of Trump and his grandiosity, pettiness, paranoia, and inarticulate cluelessness.

I'm just as tired of PCism...

I saw La La Land. Ryan Gosling was a bad singer. Emma Stone had some spirit, but he was wooden. I talked to someone about the movie and the first thing they mentioned was that the movie should have had a black lead, and it was cultural appropriation that Gosling's character likes jazz.

Grow up. Both of you.

If you care about people then volunteer your time or give money to the poor and downtrodden (whether white, black, or any race or religion).

It's very convenient that you can police how people speak and complain about our backwards culture, when it doesn't cost you money or any of your luxury.

...

The right wants to allow intellectual property rights to that impede science, artistic creation, and seem to value what is "man made" with complete disregard for what isn't shaped, branded, labeled, and copyrighted.

With Trump there is no clearer example of how money can only go so far, and narcissists often have object altruistic drives to be loved and esteemed in the culture, shown on the news media, or have a public. Money is a potential tool for access to some things, but a culture can harness these drives in people without the reward or mere money.

As much as their is religious followers, associated with the right, who would block out everything that the bible, or more accurately what their preachers or ideologues tell them is outside of the bible, there are many leftist academics who are no better. They tell me that science is simply one world view among many and all are subject to cultural relativism.

Similarly, to divide up culture among racial lines that other races shouldn't cross is just as short-sighted, and misplaced as letting scientists copyright their work in genetics.

I'm all for equality between the sexes, races, and, for our historical moment, different religions. When  women earn less, or someone is discriminated against, people should prosecute and protect their rights. However, while 64% of America is white, the idea that the majority of people should feel bad that they watch a movie with two white leads, especially because one likes jazz, can only come from contemptible impulses.  There is either guilt about what one's ancestors did which should hardly become the child's "sin," or moral perfectionism that is supposed to make leftist superior to other people.

If diminishment of the bad feelings or suffering of others is someone's goal, then how can the lead in a movie compare to the suffering found in the hungry, illiterate, the broken homes, the crime filled neighborhoods...?

It is so privileged to focus on the cultural level in this way.
  

Electra and Antigone

I haven't been doing much myth work for a while, but I wanted to make a short post on how strongly I have seen the importance of both the electoral and antigonal (?) forms show up in therapy.

The electral form is straightforward in the object drives: an object egoist finds he or she has been cheated on and both the beloved and the third party are attacked. This attack at the anal level is the double murder that is so prominent in the myth and at the phallic level it's the attack on the reputation of the two. Either their "secret" is put out there to ruin their reputation or depending on the OE, he or she may even spread lies.

In the antigonal form which is the inverse of the electral form: a subject altruist finds that the beloved convinces others in the community, that one is the disgraced or fallen one and they believe it and look down or judge the subject altruist (to her intense anger). At the anal stage, one patient who was having an affair with a married man that was leaked by a friend found that he threatened her life and that his wife believed the husband, and thought that my patient was crazy and wanted to ruin her life, and my patient feared that she would murder her too. It's almost as if the shameful secret of the love object becomes reversed onto oneself.

With the subject altruist, who has suppressed or had her egoistic pole arrested in development, there is an inability to hold onto hate and anger. The person can consciously avow the anger from the antigonal complex and even have insight that their resentment is "like swallowing poison oneself and expecting the other person to die."

There are variations of ego vs. object drive, and active-egoism/active-altruism vs. passive-altruism/passive-egoism that I've mentioned in previous posts.

For example, I've mentioned before that the SA can be someone who assists who helps another person only to find their complete lack of gratitude or recognition of the help. They are again "the secret".