Trapped In Woody Allen's Head
Woody Allen, the creative, prolific and controversial movie director of such classic films as Annie Hall, Manhattan and Zelig, reportedly watches Holocaust films to relax. I don’t know if this has ever been exactly confirmed or merely sardonic wit, offered up by Allen himself or someone else. But it seems appropriate for the times we’re wallowing around in and not only in the United States. I too have been splashing about in the slops and I suspect others have as well.
At the same time, the anti-authoritarian movement in the United States is growing, probably not as fast as many of us would like to see but it is taking on an increasingly confident edge and recognizing a hard awareness that it could get very bad and decidedly dark before getting better. The construction of the proverbial quilt is well underway with all its assorted patches and all kinds of serious priorities presented.
But unless these varied “patches” are ultimately tied together with one overarching focused goal of ridding this country of growing authoritarianism and its miserable enablers—let alone stopping actual fascism if necessary—and the destruction of any authentic form of democracy, than all the activity is nothing more than self absorbed, sanctimonious blather. No it’s not a weekend endeavor with friends or merely a feel good moment to post on your favorite social media site.
I Crave Therefore I Am
Ideology, it’s that narrative or story we humans tell ourselves about how the world works and how it should work. We’re learning more and more every day about how and why we Homo sapiens need to create a model of reality. It’s part of who we are, for good and for bad.
All of us live on a spectrum that can move back and forth depending on a host of circumstances. Some of us tend to be more rigid and some of us more flexible. What we call ideology gives us a structure. Here’s how the world works. This is how social relationships work. Here are the rules, for both conduct and thought. Now supposedly we know what we can expect.
But, and it can be a big but. While our ideologies can certainly be comforting because they can give us our tribe, our group and a community of like minded people, they can also be something else maybe not so good. Those same ideologies can also hinder our capacity for authentic thought and for the flexibility to consider other ways and other ideas.
A number of studies in neuroscience, genetics and social science have suggested that it is not intelligence that is the deciding factor, but that those folks that are most resistant to ideological solutions tend to be the most creative and flexible.
Yes, both creativity and cognitive flexibility, the entire mental process involved in knowing, learning and understanding things, are the factors that resist thinking “in ideologically closed and authoritarian ways.”
Genopolitics is a word I first came across at least ten years ago. It essentially meant back then that political views had a genetic component. It stirred up all sorts of debate. Are you saying that our amygdala acts in different ways in liberals and conservatives! A great deal has changed since then as we’ve learned about the role of genetics in all living beings and not just in humans. The controversy, however, goes on, the research continues and the debate expands, which it should.
I do believe that ideology is very much connected in so many ways to genetics and we will find some clear links growing more persistent in the near future. Yes, oxytocin, referred to as the “cuddle hormone” released during sex and orgasm probably does help in smothering the amygdala, which in turn may increase generosity, trust, etc. Yes lower serotonin levels in the brain are associated with criminality. People with high self-esteem and confidence tend to have higher serotonin levels. There are no specific genes for criminality. But personality types are heritable. Sure the dopamine rush is real; it makes you feel good. Toss the dice one more time. We all have a narrative to tell and a story to reveal.
One of my favorite stories is about Dr. James Fallon, the late professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California Irvine, who was an authority on serial killers. By accident he discovered he had all the genetic traits and brain scan patterns of a a psychopath.
But he clearly never became a serial killer or an obvious psychopath, most likely because he was raised in a loving and caring family. It is a story of Nature vs Nurture. The propensity for extreme psychotic behavior never manifested itself, in this case, because of the family environment he was raised in. In other situation it could….
SEE this video:
Psychological Signature of the Extreme Mind
Exploring That Darkness
Hitler had a grasp for the moment. He was certainly helped along by the true believer in charge of the Ministry of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. But it is Leni Riefenstahl I find the most intriguing of them all. She provided the visuals for the Thousand Year Reich and she managed this in the 1930s. She also managed to more or less cover her tracks after the war. She lived to be over 100 years old. I was merely a filmmaker of course, nothing more.
It was the goal of Riefenstahl to create the Hitlerian aura of uniqueness, grievance and omnipotence through film by staging immense spectacles for the masses. YOU ARE SPECIAL, WITH ONE MIND AND SOUL AND WE HAVE A SACRED DUTY. In this she succeeded. Attempts to emulate Leni Riefenstahl have continued ever since. Oh yes, and we Americans do love spectacle as well as anyone.
How did Hitler's filmmaker hide her complicity from the world and hide her complicity
How Riefenstahl shaped the way we see the Olympics
You will grow up to be men like those who fought in the Great War {WWI}; You will be brave and loyal. (Adolph Hitler, Nuremberg youth rally, 1930s)
The following article was written 88 years ago: Hitler rallies German youth
Far Right Groups Endorse 'Youth Clubs' Targeting U.S. Young Men and Boys
Thinking We Know What Exactly
More is certainly better …up to a point, when confronting authoritarianism as is the case in the United States right now. We still need more people deciding to engage and resist authoritarianism at the present time. For the present I’ll leave it up to political scientists and others to decide what the threshold population is in terms of nonviolent resistance movements that can destabilize an existing government.
Erica Chenoweth, political scientist, believes 3.5 percent of a population, worldwide, has the ability to bring about (nonviolent) change. In the United States this percentage would represent about 12 million Americans. We are moving toward that number but we need to be doing it faster, for a number of reasons.
We hear some people now saying that if we could just get rid of the current American government and bring back something “normal, stable and predictable,” like—pick your choice. I disagree at this point. I don’t see how we really can “go back” to the before times.
Although a functioning backbone seems to be now slowly developing among some of the so called elites and their institutions, what has struck me is the remarkable collection of mediocrities, sycophants and clueless multi-millionaires that have demonstrated little in the way of a moral compass and a willingness to defend democracy and for that matter, our Constitution. They deserve little respect and support.
Privilege, class and fear of losing the “country club membership” seems to be what drives so many of these pathetic collaborationists. No the Ancien Regime needs to be replaced. History tells us of course that this is not an easy task, especially if you don’t want to replace one thug state with another.
The Trump regime and its intellectual underpinning, Heritage Foundation Project 2025, want to move fast, create chaos and cement their coup. No this is not about policy differences between Democrats and Republicans—not even stark differences between the two political parties—but it is about the destruction of democracy, the rule of law, due process, equality and a healthy environment for all of us. Those of us that oppose authoritarianism need to move much faster and recognize that the stakes are very high indeed, much higher than far too many of us want to recognize.
The Facts and The What Is Being Proposed Are Still Important
Know what you are marching for and what you want to accomplish. Know what the legislation means to you and your family. Know the issue that lost you elections. Don’t worry or believe you’ll convince everyone … but know how many people you need to convince. Find the individuals that know what you don’t know. Stop merely complaining about it.
INFORMATION:
100 days: That's all it took to sever America from the world
Trump proposes cutting $163 billion from non-defense spending and more for military
Trump has launched more attacks on the environment in 100 days than he did before
Laughable, if it weren't so dangerous: your response to RFK Jr's autism stance
Trump's Biggest Beneficiary Himself
Why is America sleeping as autocracy approaches
A White House briefing straight from North Korea
In a Nazi-era filmmaker's compromises, a novelist find reasons to fear
Jon Stewart and Heather McGhee discuss anti-DEI Policies and Trump's Autocracy