Friday, August 29, 2008

The Fantasy-Based Community and their Messiah

So much for the Supercilious Bowl. The only way to make Obama's otherwise vapid speech interesting is to perform a Fantasy Analysis on it, a technique invented by psychohistorian Lloyd DeMause to supposedly reveal "hidden emotional messages embedded within seemingly bland and boring speeches and press conferences of leaders." Its purpose is to "capture how it feels to be part of a nation's emotional life" by focusing only upon emotionally charged "fantasy words" that resonate with the unconscious mind. It operates under the assumption that any leader is also a fantasy leader who necessarily answers to the group's unconscious emotions, needs and impulses.

A leader who fails to resonate in this unconscious manner simply will not be perceived as an effective leader, no matter how competent he is. For example, from even before Day One, because of resentment over Al Gore's unsuccessful attempt to exploit the judicial system to overturn the 2000 election, President Bush has been unable to use language in such a way as to bind up the anxiety and hatred of liberals. As has been evident for all to see, their raw hatred has been completely unbound for nigh on eight years. Truly, they're like fatherless children.

In order to perform a fantasy analysis on a text, one records all strong feeling words (including anything related to the family, e.g., mother, father, baby) regardless of context, plus any unusual metaphors or gratuitously repeated words. One also eliminates negatives, because of the symmetrical logic of the unconscious, which converts a negation to an affirmation (for example, the more Obama insists his forbears were from Kansas, the more it emphasizes that he grew up in Indonesia, or the more he complains about people questioning his patriotism, the more it emphasizes the lack thereof).

If you found yourself dozing off during Obama's speech, it's because, as DeMause writes, "most political meetings are usually held not to make decisions but to deepen the social trance, to switch into political alters, and to entrain the group's unconscious emotional strategies for handling the inner emotional problems of its hidden world." Because Democrats are by nature such emotional creatures who project so much undisguised emotion into politics, they are much more transparent in their fantasies (indeed, as is true of any more primitive group).

So without further ado, here's what Obama was transmitting to the Democrat underworld, unconscious-to-unconscious (I've inserted paragraph breaks where there was a lengthy stretch with no new material, or else a sudden change of emphasis):

profound gratitude... great humility... inspiration... love... love... proud... sacrifice... dreams... dreams...

jeopardy... courage... war... turmoil... lost... plummet... beyond your reach... broken... illness... disaster... chokes... drowns before our eyes... enough! enough... bravery... gratitude... respect... broken... strong anxiety... suffering... whiners... whiners... burdens... whiners... tough luck... failure... strength... sick... strength...

protect us from harm... provide every child... safe... help us... not hurt us... cut... cut... security... dependence... dying... sick... sick... sick... ailing... protected... strength... crime... despair... children... war... threats... stubborn... threats... strained... harm’s way... war... fight... conflicts... aggression... threats... genocide... disease... died... abortion... gun plagued... violence... criminals....

love... passions... mother... separated from her infant... child... undercuts... strength... happy talk... firmer... abandonment... scare... people should run... hopes have been dashed again and again... something is stirring... children losing a limb... floodwaters rise... powerful ... strong... envy... anger and discord... fear and frustration... cried... children...

First of all, we should probably ask the question: does fantasy analysis actually work?

I have no idea. It sounds good on paper, but it can obviously be subject to abuse. Plus, in the hands of an unskilled person, I suppose they could prove anything they wish. It's very much analogous to free association, which is the cornerstone of psychoanalysis. In that case, the therapist is "listening with the third ear" to what the patient is saying, in that one part of the mind follows along with the explicit words, while another part must always be attentive to the subliminal message and emotional undercurrents. Very much like being married to a female, actually. No, I didn't say that.

Furthermore, as the patient begins to surrender conscious control over speech, it is assumed that another Subject begins to organize the material, very much in the manner which (as Grotstein calls it) the Ineffable Subject of Being -- the Dreamer -- organizes our dream material. But once you start to appreciate this alter Subject, you begin to realize the extent to which it has been pulling the strings of your life all along. Yes, life is but a dream, dreamt by the vast Subject beneath, behind, and above your little ego-object.

Oh, forget about Obama and the Democrats. Those sleepwalkers are entirely predictable. I could have written the speech myself, and done it in half the time. First, I'd spend maybe ten minutes putting the delegates into a light trance, and then utter the following, in rhythm with their breathing:

children... babies... mommy... security... mmmmmm... love... milk... warmth... happy... mmmmm...

danger! daddy! violence... abortion... abortion... abandonment... separation... independence... be a man, Fredo!... welfare cuts... safety net... social justice... turmoil... walmart... haliburton... katrina... gitmo... torture... torture... scared... what happened to the breast... suffering... victim... victim... victim... whiner... whiners... whining... victim... victimizing... victim... I blame Bush...

mommy!... drowning... help!... powerful... powerful... rescue... safe... government... breast... government... breast... breast... breast... mommy...

Okay, moving on. As we were saying yesterday, you can learn a lot about the sane by studying the insane. I don't know how effective fantasy analysis is with relatively normal people, but it wouldn't be difficult to do on Hitler, since his fantasies were so close to the surface anyway. For example, Mein Kampf is like one long fantasy. Hitler is such a pure case, in that he lived in an explicit fantasy world, and yet, expressed the fantasies so directly (e.g., racial "pollution," the "Jewish bacillus," the "Aryan race," etc.).

Conservative texts are boring (in terms of fantasy analysis) for another reason, which is that they are so rational and straightforward. It's very easy for a conservative to just come out and say what they are for: limited government, low taxes, judges who do not legislate from the bench, school choice, religious freedom, etc.

But for an American liberal, they can never just blurt out what they believe, on pain of never winning an election, or of getting no ratings. Air America is a case in point. Like Hitler, they make no attempt to conceal their liberal agenda, so it is deeply unpopular, except I suppose in crazy places such as San Francisco.

So the liberal -- if he wishes to gain power -- must necessarily revert to either conscious or unconscious distortion and trancemission. It reminds me of what movies were like before the sex could be shown explicitly. Instead, everything had to be suggested and implied. This can be done in an artless manner or in a masterful way that is obviously more powerful than contemporary films, because of the unconscious resonance. Most people will agree that the sexual tension between, say Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, or Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity, is much more interesting than that between... I don't know, you name it. Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon. {shudder}

Now, the most primitive psychological defense mechanisms are 1) denial 2) projection 3) splitting, and 4) projective identification. All are related, and are actually necessary conditions of each other. For example, what is denied doesn't just disappear, but is split off and projected, usually into other people. Likewise, what is projected is necessarily split off. The group unconscious relies upon all of these mechanisms -- for example, scapegoating is just group projection.

When one engages in projective identification, one is necessarily in denial. (As the wiki article states, projective identification involves projection into another, followed by behaving toward the recipient of the projections in such a manner as to invoke in the other person precisely the thoughts, feelings or behaviors projected.) For example, the primitive Palestinians project all of their sadism into the Israelis, and then, when Israel responds, it "proves" to the Palestinians how sadistic and oppressive the Israelis are. Or, closer to home, the left projects so much hatred and viciousness into President Bush, that most anything he does or says is proof of his hatred and viciousness.

One of the fascinating things about watching the train wreck over at MSNBC is how unhinged and undefended Keith Olbermann is. The more slack he is given and the more power he gains, the less he needs to conceal his evident madness. So it is a sight to behold, very much like the old days of the Jerry Lewis telethon. You just never knew what a drug-addled and disinhibited Jerry might say or do after Hour 23.

So, what have we learned in today's rambling and disinhibited post? I have no idea. Perhaps someone should perform a fantasy analysis on it.

56 comments:

vanderleun said...

"Very much like being married to a female, actually."

Not that there's anything wrong with that....

Jim said...

"So, what have we learned in today's rambling and disinhibited post? I have no idea. Perhaps someone should perform a fantasy analysis on it."

Workin on it, now where did I put my Physiology 101 textbook? (Wanders off muttering)

Gecko said...

Thank you Bob, I really don't know how I would be functioning without your posts, posters, racoonmendated reading and how hard you make us laugh.

Gecko said...

Glad 'ya said that, Gerald.

walt said...

Gecko has a good point! If it was just me vs da news, I would have indigestion, and frazzled nerves. OC provides needed therapy!

Niggardly Phil said...

Don't know about OC, but I did one on Ray's comments, since I happen to be a Fantasy Analyst expert in my off time.

very Enlightening:



Numbers... evolution... Darwin... change... mmmmmm... chaos... quantity... numbers... happy... mmmmm...

danger! substance! universals! violence... stability... abortion... sameness... being... responsibility... quidquid recipitur!... prior to science... quantify... measure... unknowing... mmmmm... Aquinas... Aristotle... medieval... torture... torture... essence... what happened to the measuring... no universals... Enlightenment... sensations... sensations... depends... objection... objectify... subject... subjective... perspective... I blame Plato...

Truth!... drowning... help!... Einstein... relativity... relativity... no certainty... knowledge... breast... science... physics... number... sensation... sensation...

Unknown said...

If you get rid of cable, then you don't have to watch anybody's speeches. It is kind of nice actually, I read them and that allows for a little but more process time without all the flash and hoopla of the talking heads on the tv.

But, it is like the old joke, how can you tell a politician is lying? His lips are moving!

Thank you I'll be here all week.

Anonymous said...

Is it just me, or did he gratuitously repeat the word "promise"?

Anonymous said...

You know, Obama's only half black, but Palin looks all woman to me.

Gagdad Bob said...

Plus, she has plenty of white house experience. True, it's an igloo, but still....

Anonymous said...

The anti-Ted Stevens.

Brilliant!

McCain/Palin FTW!

walt said...

I heard her speech, and told my wife she spoke very well.

My wife, who did not hear the speech, asked, "Did she squawk?" (a reference to Hillary)

I said that she sounded fine, and was inspiring. But now it is only mid-morning, and I've got a sudden hankering for a mooseburger!

Gagdad Bob said...

How is Palin qualified to be president? She's never written a self-absorbed autobiography.

Gagdad Bob said...

And does she have any experience as a community agitator?

Gagdad Bob said...

Given the experience issue, people won't be able to avoid asking the question: is Obama really ready to be vice-president?

Gagdad Bob said...

Her husband looks like a real man's man. I'll bet he could even take down Michelle.

Anonymous said...

Gagster,

Re Mr. Palin -- he's a union steelworker and a competitor in a 1,900-mile annual dogsled race, as well as being part Inuit. A big slice o' testosterone, indeed.

Gagdad Bob said...

Still, I'd only give her even odds against Michelle. She has hands like matured hams.

Anonymous said...

lol ... the paranoid Queeg has already outed Palin as a creationist.

Gagdad Bob said...

True, Obama does have more first hand experience dealing with terrorists. But enough about William Ayers.

(inspired by Ace)

QP said...

My 1st choice for McCain's VP was picked and now The Anchoress ( I knew she would) is Livebloggin Palin![with lots of links].

One commenter pointed out an interesting situation ->

"Assuming McCain wins, which is the most likely scenario (it was prior to today but is more so today) and he serves out his 4 years but chooses not to run again because of age (another perfectly plausible scenario), then look what happens in 2012:

Sarah Palin (R) vs. Hillary Clinton (D)"

robinstarfish said...

One of the fascinating things about watching the train wreck over at MSNBC is how unhinged and undefended Keith Olbermann is.

No kidding, more psychofun than Das Speech.

Sarah Palin, a University of Idaho Vandal - woohoo! Slam dunk for me.

Plus she's got an instant high subliminal likeability index because of her uncanny resemblance to Tina Fey, but shhhh, don't tell anybody. Good for a million easy votes right there.

Dem's will be treading on thin Alaskan ice (not that it will stop them) on the abortion issue, with the Palin's "gift from God", their Down Syndrome child. TKO.

a tiny sharp pin
and a helium balloon
pop goes the weasel

Van Harvey said...

"mommy!... drowning... help!... powerful... powerful... rescue... safe... government... breast... government... breast... breast... breast... mommy... "

Heh heh... ha

Gerard said "'Very much like being married to a female, actually.' Not that there's anything wrong with that...."
heh...ha!

Cousin Dupree said "You know, Obama's only half black, but Palin looks all woman to me."

Hoo! Ha heh ha!

'McCain/Palin'

YES!

Obamama/BIDEN

(stare)

(blink... blink)

AH Ha HA! LOL!

Woo-HOO!

Lance said "Thank you I'll be here all week."

ehh heh "Don't forget to try the prime rib"

Ah tee hee...

Anonymous said...

It gets even better: the PUMAs are stoked on Palin, examples here and here. Pro-life is no impediment as far as these gals are concerned:

"Speaking as a lifelong Democrat who has marched FOR a woman’s right to choose:

Palin’s stance on abortion will NOT keep me from supporting a McCain-Palin ticket.

I will take my chances on the abortion issue because I believe Barack Obama presents much greater dangers to the country.

PUMA for McCain-Palin!"

Tammy Bruce let the Obamabots have it:

"B. Hussein and his mob are now in damage control after their petty and insulting initial response to the Palin nomination. I guess they realized insulting small town Americans (again!) and women (again!) gave people too much of a peek behind the curtain."

Hurricane Sarah Baracuda hands Obambi a dead-cat-bounce: take that you loser!

Oooooooh, this is gonna be fun!

mushroom said...

I heard part of the press conference in the truck and got so into it that I missed my turn. I suppose that was the Alaska state song the band was playing at one point -- sort of a Aaron Copland-like sound. I almost cried.

All the coon girls need to ignore this next line.

the VP debate: Plugs versus Jugs

Old Uncle Joe might as well phone it in from the Junction.

Anonymous said...

So we now have the party that defends life, believes in sacrificing sons so others can live free.

Versus the anointed one who would do well selling abortion equipment, and could give a damn if others ever gain liberty, as long as others died to make sure he has enough freedom to become the projection screen for the thumb-sucking segment of America

Anonymous said...

It took Queeq all of ten minutes on the first Palin thread to drag the stinking corpse of Darwin into that thread of all things!

He is so filled with rage and poison he cannot help now to view all things through the dead eyes of ichthyosaurs.

ge said...

w/ apologies to mushroom:
VP debate= Baby-maker vs. Bio.-faker

Anonymous said...

Look at the regression of the Dem party over the years. If we start from Roosevelt you first have people that wanted security and comfort during the great depression. They decidedly look to a father figure in Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But as the secular humanists take over the educational systems and begin to feed their pupae the same mono-diet, you get Kennedy (Skip Truman as he is just a watered down Roosevelt, not really a father, something of a Uncle I suppose.)

Now Kennedy is the raffish cad of an older brother. Not so much a daddy figure as the boyfriend most liberal girls wish they could go down on, but didn't have the chance. Liberals are not looking so much for an authority now, but the beginning of the anti-authority, presaging the teenage rebellion years.

The seventies bring McGovern, full blown rebellion to the machine...ahh blessed adolescent indulgence and liberation!

Then on to Carter...liberals have now learned to disguise their liberalism, much as those that refuse to grow up must strive to disguise their Peter Pan dreams of perpetual childhood. Give it the folksy peanut-farmer latex coat.

Then on to Clinton, now you have the full on adolescent...the virtual king of liberals, the high point of liberaldom. Blow jobs in the Oval Office...O, the glee to demean authority in the highest places....a great teenage vandalistic act they all get to be in on...tee hee!

And then to Al Gore, the regression is accelerating. Not a teenager, but a pouty spoiled child! Remember the plaintive sounds it made as it almost with cuteness and faux-rage talked of "fighting for you." One who had to have a woman tell him how to dress like a man.

And now Obamma a man who must feel threatened by the unborn as perhaps they are competing for the same geographical space, as he is militant in seeing as many are killed as possible, all in the name of choice (not theirs).

It actually looks like the liberal secular humanist is so wedded to fantasy that their ultimate goal is to climb back into the womb, with their wonderful Obammamessiah leading them, Oprah-like crying and thumb sucking back to egg and sperm, and hopefully out of existence, what a blessing for all!

walt said...

Mushroom -

I noticed that music as well - what a fine sound!

Anonymous said...

Well said, kep.

It's clear that Odumbo is not running to be a president. Instead, he wants to be the socialist nanny for a nation he believes to be comprised of whining crybabies (a projection of what he actually is).

Anonymous said...

Something funny I read: "... nononono, not God bless the DNC, God**** the DNC, God**** the DNC. In November, the DNC chickens are gonna come home to roost."

Yes, the chickens of identity politics are gonna come to roost.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

POW/WOW '08.

Van Harvey said...

Mushroom said "...the VP debate: Plugs versus Jugs..."

SPLORF ISS

ahem.

Well... I for one will be watching for the debate... um... points.

Ok... kidding aside, I really know nothing about her, haven't seen more than her profile pic, speech or anything, nothing but the barest ... ahem... google news headline, but the circumstantial buzz... hockey player, basketball player, beauty contest winner, hunter, married to a guy who's either a fishermen or oilmen?, mother of 5, including one many would have thrown back, mayor, governor, and a reformer with balls... and perhaps a touch of overreaching enthusiasm regarding an ex-brother in law... believes in tax cuts and limited gov... this is all just the barest of the gloss media snapshots, but from the few seconds of commentators I overheard throughtout the day, Rush, Hannity, Ingraham and a few others... sounds like they thing McCain hit it out of the park.

And one other thing... my 20 yr old called this morning to tell me about it, and all I said outloud when he asked if I'd heard about McCain's pick, and which could be heard in our cube area was "I heard a rumor... from Alaska", and then "Interesting, thanks" and hung up, and the super panty-knot lib in our area got up and said "We all KNOW Obama's gonna WIN!", "Hmm... well we'll see soon enough" I said, and he said "Yes We WILL, He'll WIN".
"Does it make you feel better to say that?"

And he huried purposefully out of the cubes.

Gonna be an interesting couple months!

mushroom said...

GE gets extra points, though, for being more tasteful.

Susannah said...

I remember very well the news reports and pictures when baby Trig was born. She (and her husband) won me over right then and there. I'm glad McCain chose her.

Not to mention I'm only two up on her with my brood. It would be nice to have a mother in office who knows what it's like to have more than 2.5 children--with the same man! (Moms of large families often get asked that rather eyebrow-raising question: all by the same dad?)

I'm curious to see how she'll do infant management + campaigning (I mean, is she still nursing? wow, another first if so), and how she'll fare in the debates. She's authentic, not image-d up, and it comes across. I like that about her.

Gagdad Bob said...

Yes, speaking of the Darwinian ethics of the left, how about this beauty, courtesy of Ace of Spades:

"Sarah Palin's judgment is despicalble. She knowingly whelped a Mongoloid child earlier this year, probably to pander to the Right to Life Nutbags.

"Irresponsible decisions like hers dilutes the viability of the American Gene Pool. No wonder why we are falling farther and farther behind in an increasingly competitive global economic environment.

"Her OB should have cut her tubes after her first child!!!"

Van Harvey said...

O.
M.
G.
!

Gagdad Bob said...

Or how about this, from kos: she faked her pregnancy in order to conceal the fact that the baby was actually her daughter's.

Anonymous said...

Re those remarks ("whelped a Mongoloid child",

These people aren't like brownshirts, they ARE brownshirts. They are formed of the same thug template, and I have no doubt whatsoever they are capable of the same deep evil. Even America -- since it is composed of fallen men -- is not immune from Darkness.

/clean your guns regularly

Van Harvey said...

I'm leary of saying anything one way or the other about someone I don't really know anything aobut... but... every tidbit I've found on her so far... well... so far she succeeds in making McCain look like someone I want to vote for.

(These kos & co people are so disgusting)

NoMo said...

Reality versus Fantasy. The choice has never been more clear. Thanks, McCain!

And just when I was about to check out of this whole thing. I might even get a bumper sticker for my Prius (just to rub it in).

Sweet.

NoMo said...

McCain / Palin...the only sane choice!

Unknown said...

I have to say that while I have misgivings about Palin. I in no way am happy about the way people at those other blogs are talking about her. It seems as if the internet has allowed for us all to lose our humanity.

julie said...

Lance,
I think it's not so much that the Internet makes us lose our humanity as that it confers a type of perceived invisibility. The irony of anonymity is that it allows people to reveal who they really are. They say and do things they would never say or do in real life, precisely because nobody can see them. Which gives them a chance to really let it all hang out. Often unfortunately. Of course, the flipside is that the same anonymity gives some people the chance to be at their best, a truism demonstrated here on a daily basis.

Susannah said...

True, Julie. Out of the abundance of the heart, the aninnymouth speaks.

Anonymous said...

The Swedish MSM has already outed Sarah Palin to be a “gun slinging, anti abortion conservative who will appeal to the right wing Christians”.

I guess they somehow think of that as a bad thing…

/Johan

Gagdad Bob said...

The Idiossey, by Iowahawk. Man's a genius.

Anonymous said...

Glenn Reynolds is unhappy that Palin is a "creationist". Charles Johnson (who calls himself a "stauch anti-creationist") however is convinced she in fact isn't so benighted.

I've read enough of the posts on this blog -- and plenty of other material -- to grasp that the "anti-creationists" are in the end further from Truth than people like Palin, even though they superficially grasp aspects of modern biology (i.e., micro "evolution").

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to be 100% aligned with my conservative athiest friends and colleagues. The small percentage of people in the big cities who are not liberal tend to be libertarian fiscal conservatives who are fairly hardline atheists, and who I suspect secretly consider their Christian to be somewhat akin to the country bumpkin cousins from Arkansas -- decent folk, but far too naive to be taken seriously.

We REALY need people like the author of this blog to shed some light on this woefully misunderstood "debate". Then otherwise fine men like Johnson and Reynolds might be less squeamish about a dynamo like Palin, whose compass needle points true north.

Rick said...

“Or how about this, from kos: she faked her pregnancy in order to conceal the fact that the baby was actually her daughter's.”

So then they should be all for her. I don’t get it.

Rick said...

Oh wait…it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up.
Sorry…forgot.

Anonymous said...

Forget everything I said after hello.

Sarah, my resume will be a lot thicker in 10 years. I’ll include a photo.

Anonymous said...

Send another one in 16.

Van Harvey said...

Lance said "It seems as if the internet has allowed for us all to lose our humanity."

While I appreciate the sentiment, I suspect it's more along the old adage that "Sports don't build character, they reveal it", I don't think the internet has allowed for anyone to lose their humanity, it has given people the ability to reveal the humanity they do or don't have, without their normal social pretenses, and bad as it sometimes is, I think it is ultimately a good thing in that it alerts the rest of us to what really is out there.

Isn't a big part of what a psychologist works to do, is get behind the masks that a patient attempts to present to the Dr. (and perhaps themselves)? The internet gives us that peak behind the "Some of my best friends are..." and "I support the troops" facades.

Van Harvey said...

(Ah... gotta remember to read ahead, I see Julie's already been there)

Anonymous said...

Some of our beast fiends are anonymous.

Van Harvey said...

Gagdad Bob said "The Idiossey, by Iowahawk. Man's a genius."

LOL!

Can't wait for part two, The OddAssSees, when Obamacles becomes trapped between the McCainyla and Palinybdis.

His ship be goin' down....

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