Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, also known as Yom HaShoah. I was finishing my morning prayers and my phone “dinged” announcing your latest article on Substack. The coincidence of receiving these accounts on Holocaust Memorial Day highlights thematic parallels, destruction of sacred spaces, ideological extremism, and escalating conflict although undeniably the events differ profoundly in scale and purpose. The timing encourages reflection on intolerance and the importance of historical memory, reinforcing Holocaust Memorial Day’s call to combat hatred in all forms, while recognizing the Holocaust’s unparalleled tragedy.
Yes. I was thinking along similar lines. Kristallnacht, is what popped up, the utterly physical destruction of a people's physical presence through their shops, windows, buildings.
except Jews supported the Protestant Reformation and riots like these in order to hurt Europeans and Christendom. How utterly solipsistic and historically ignorant of you to make this all about you and your faux-victimhood. Morally and intellectually disgusting post on your part.
This happened not only in the Low Countries in 1566, and in England during the reign of Edward VI, but also in Germany in 1525-26, where armed bands of peasants broke into monasteries and convents, breaking images, stealing property, desecrating relics, and setting fire to what they couldn't carry away. I (along with a group of colleagues) am creating the first-ever comprehensive map of the widespread destruction - we've found over 600 affected monastic institutions in all. Many people stood by and watched this happening, whether because they were frightened to stand against armed people crazed by a very narrow and idiosyncratic interpretation of 'religion', or because they tacitly approved.
I shudder when we use 'iconoclast' as an honorific. Iconoclasm is a perennial vice that seems to spring from a desire to (re-)assert control during a time of societal upheaval or when old orders are challenged. It is recorded not only during the Reformation, but at other times in human history.
This is one reason why the study of history is so important. We may not be able to resist the tides sweeping our societies, but we might at least recognise them for what they are and try to salvage as much as we can from the general wreck.
"We may not be able to resist the tides sweeping our societies ...". Despite being a student of history my whole life I was foolish enough to believe that with enough of us warning against the repetition of the destructive tragic patterns of history we are now beginning to witness, they may be avoided. The germ, rooted I'm sorry to say in the remnants of Western Christendom and Judaism, obviously still exists, mainly dormant or disguised until the conditions are ripe. Having driven myself half-mad and destroying my health partly in an attempt to do what I can to avert it, I have accepted defeat, that it is out of my hands and beyond my influence, beyond any human influence. It depends on enough people being prepared to stand up and not being silent and there aren't and, all signs are won't be. If I'm wrong it won't be because of any apparent human action, individual or collective. Now all I can do is pray.
I made a similar comment on the Mattias Desmet Substack recently. He lectures with Iain McGilchrist at times, I believe.
Mattias Desmet writes in his book, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", that the answer to this phenomenon is to stand up and speak the truth against the totalitarians. As if he felt he must add something at the end of the book for all those readers who ask..."But HOW?" They are very right to ask.
I find this advice quite idealistic and vague as opposed to practical. Thin gruel. I am not certain what numbers Prof. Desmet considers the critical mass, but the canaries-in-the-coalmine of 1930s Germany (or other totalitarian settings of history) had little influence in this respect, nor have the various canaries in the present era in the West.
Nice, heart-warming idea, but it does not really work. When it does not, we will be told that we haven't reached peak numbers yet, or some other excuse. And the canary usually gets throttled. Put your safety on the line for people who do not care? It is beginning to seem foolish, rather than humanitarian.
I think we might largely agree about this. My view is that indeed it's a weak political theory about this question. The more feasible answer imo lies in the strength and resilience of countervailing institutions, and these in turn probably depend most of all on the creation of more egalitarian distributions of power and resources, a strongly non-exclusionary socio-political system. Essentially egalitarianism, radical democratic participation, and justice. Nothing is stable forever and faces constant tendencies to be undermined, but the time to prevent the recurrence of periods like this is before things have fallen apart, not afterwards. That's when the numbers of active people is (possibly?) greatest and is decisive.
I need to emphasise that the system I describe is not liberalism, which I think has hardly and rarely yet begun to accept it's part in where we are now. Even now, the tendency is to deny and doubl-down, and for some collaborate with the twins of fascism and 'centrism'. Even a brilliant and humane person like Iain McG while remaining with the liberal Western worldview, while obviously genuinely alarmed and concerned about where we are going is still in thrall to Russophobic notions, encourages the idea that peace can be achieved by preparing for ear, and condemnation Western youth for their alleged unwillingness to fight the alleged external authoritarian threat rather than revolt against the internal enemies driving their societies to domestic repression, external wars, and totalitarianism. But a liberal can't see that or do that. It's too late in the day though anyway.
I suspect that the new route will be powered either by vast and specifically-channeled financial resources from non-WOKE funders -- or by a simultaneous uprising of the newly-awakened; I think here of the latter situation happening in 1989 at the Final Speech of Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu.
I do continue to wonder, however, what it is exactly that awakens them. Might we feed it to them in their breakfast oatmeal?
Thinking a bit further on this issue, I am drawn to considering the Drama Triangle concept. Initially introduced well and in detail by Prof. Stephen Karpman in 1968, it is likely an archetype which has been surfacing from mankind's unconscious for a very long while.
The Drama Triangle is a relationship pattern which has three main roles ever circling and re-inventing themselves: Persecutor, Victim, Rescuer/Hero. Although an individual tends to have a dominant role, this can morph into either of the others.
The general pattern also includes the fact that not much in these situations ever gets resolved.....they just continue the drama.
Totalitarianism strikes me as a Drama Triangle issue. Which means that standing up and speaking the truth will remain just a Rescuer role, and therefore it will go nowhere -- unless you take a different approach.
Very interesting on the drama triangle. I came across this during a supervision session, where my supervisor and I considered the model in relation to individuals who might be occupying the 'victim' role. The idea is, that as supervisor, we help the individual to invert the triangle, so that victim becomes a 'creator', solution focused rather than being problem focused when the victim. The rescuer in turn becomes 'coach', and the persecutor becomes 'challenger'. I can see this working for an individual supported by a good supervisor. I'd like to think it could work for populations...but I don't see much sign of persecutors being willing to change. Would need some very persuasive coaches....
In America it is yet another Pendulum Swing - the woke Left has veered so far off into the weeds of extremism, cheered on by obscenely wealthy elites, corporate leaders and invested politicians, that a balancing movement of the ideological Right was bound to happen.
I have been on pre-poll booths in the upcoming Australian election. I hand out how to vote cards for a progressive party. A very very angry man verbally attacked me, called me a disgusting anti-Semite, a disgrace and said I shouldn’t be there. I’m not for the record, far from it. But what on earth is he watching to make him so angry.
I agree we shouldn’t stand by and watch our world break down, politically or environmentally but when faced with a large angry man yelling in your face it takes quite a large amount of grit to stand up to bullies.
Charlotte, the widespread destruction of churches through arson and vandalism is happening today in Canada. And has been for some years.
The pattern repeats. Many have recognized this, but there has been no salvage. What would you suggest, and how? I ask the same question of you that I have asked of Mattias Desmet when he advises us to stand up for the truth against totalitarianism. Sounds noble....but it reality it simply gets the individual crushed.
I can offer no better reply than what CS Lewis offered in his essay 'Learning in Wartime'. What should you do? Your work, whatever that is. Do it as well as you can. The point of fighting is not the fight itself (that way madness lies). The point of fighting is to get back to the state of affairs where people can go about their life and work in peace. So while you can do your work, and do it well, do so. You never know what effect it will have on others.
Yes, well.....I think we need a bit more than that. We cannot simply repeat the Polyanna notions in times of grave trouble, and think these "noble comments" will actually do something. We need to find real answers.
C.S. Lewis was a good man, and I have enjoyed his writing, but he tended to live in theory and fantasy, within an elite environment. He had few applicable answers. He was cut from the same cloth as all those who talk unendingly about peace, and tell you to link arms and sing Kumbaya. Sounds lovely, but it never works just to make admirable statements. Simply gives those speakers a nice image. And tends to keep people from thinking they are allowed to defend themselves....which the predators see as a weakness and a chink in the armour.
I would suggest you read the piece I mention. If that doesn’t help, then I’m afraid I’ve nothing to suggest that will satisfy you. I wish you the best, however.
It is not that I am chronically dis-satisfied here. It is that your answers are very weak and predictable. They have never worked before. Why do you suppose they will work now?
The Polyanna approach makes a nice image for the speaker, but is very ineffective. We all need to face this.
I think of the Muslim soldiers destroying what was left of Baghdad museum. Priceless artefacts destroyed as unislamic. Same blinkered view. Painful to witness.
I wonder how many of the people involved in this had traumatic childhoods? With the right hemisphere developing largely in the first three years, early childhood neglect and abuse would disproportionately disrupt RH development. Following the printing press, parenting books advocating unhealthy parenting practices began to be published primarily out of modern-day Germany. Alice Miller referred to these as "poisonous pedagogies" -- stuff like "don't hug and cuddle your kids".
To give a more recent example, Dr. Moritz Schreber was a bestselling parenting book author in the 1800s and is credited for multiple generations of German children growing up without affectionate physical contact from mothers and other family members. Miller suggested that this laid the psychological groundwork for Nazi Germany. Research on hunter-gatherer tribes find that low physical affection in early childhood predicts violence in adulthood.
Having spent time with today's modern Puritans -- the "woke" movement -- I've noticed that most report an unhealthy relationship with their parents. If healthy attachment to the family is disrupted, it also makes sense that attachment to God/Nature would be disrupted, as the RH / master becomes wounded, the emissary takes over for psychic survival.
Martin Luther had abusive parents. So did Hitler.
Both also had chronic gut issues -- fractally, if understand God/Nature to be one fractal level above us, and our gut microbiomes to be one fractal below (ie we are all part of God's microbiome), then disruption of the connection above would be tied to disruption of the connection below (as above, so below). Chronic gut issues such as IBS have been found in studies to correlate to early childhood trauma, neglect, and abuse.
Alice Miller ("Drama of the Gifted Child") is often quoted, but the fact is that she did not practice what she preached. See what her son Martin had to say about this.
She started preaching after she practiced -- her first book (The Drama of the Gifted Child) was published after her son was already grown. She talks about the fact that she was a poor parent to him throughout her various books, and draws from her own childhood and the way she parented (not well) in her theories.
It would discredit her if she claimed to have been a good parent, but she claims the opposite and talks about how her childhood trauma contributed to her being a poor parent herself.
Although if Alice Miller was preaching in order to change others....it did not work too well in her own life, did it? So obviously simply imparting the ideas would do nothing to change the situation.
But she did receive very good royalties from the book.
She learned in part from her mistakes -- it's not like she could go back in time and re-parent her child. Do you think that someone who used to be an alcoholic, hurt a bunch of people while drunk, and then got sober cannot preach about the harms of alcohol?
She clearly believed very strongly in what she was writing about. And "For Your Own Good" -- the book I was referencing -- is research-based and includes a ton of quotes from old parenting books to back up her arguments, as well as analyses of the childhoods of prominent figures such as Adolf Hitler.
If Alice Miller made the same mistakes as everyone else, why does she present herself as the expert on this topic? She pulled together some ideas, but she failed to live these herself., She was not expert in my mind, and her main goal appeared to be status + profit. She had an education...she wanted to make a living out of it. She had to come up with something attention-getting.
If you want actual expertise in the relevant fields, you must use the cross-disciplinary approach, and better sources.
Many people have "analyzed" Hitler. Since they can never prove whatever they say.....they can get away with saying whatever they please. Actual knowledge needs to be built on more than this.
She was a clinical psychologist. It's not like she had no expertise. And, again, time travel and reversal is impossible.
I always use a cross disciplinary approach in my own essays, but is the comments section of another author. It would be rude to dump a whole essay here. If you wish, you can view my essays over on my Substack. Miller's work is discussed alongside many, many others (including Dr. McGilchrist's) in the essays "What Causes Autism", "The Drama of the Gifted Children", and "The Dark History of Parenting Books".
Learn, Meghan. Do not equate a popular general readership book with truth, necessarily. Even Miller's Psychotherapist admitted after her death that Alice Miller had been in Shadow Possession, attempting to destroy her own child....as her chosen proxy for her own abuser in life.
Most people do not understand Shadow Possession, and they make big mistakes because of their lack of understanding this concept and how it plays out.
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
Documentary film on Alice Miller, bringing out that fact that after her death, her own Psychotherapist admitted that Alice had been in Shadow Possession, and she had attacked her small child (Martin) repeatedly because she was using him as her proxy for her own previous abuse.
I recommend not arguing that Alice Miller was some kind of saint in this field, unless you know the facts of her life. And you must understand the Jungian concept of Shadow Possession....how it plays out. Commenter Meghan Bell here appears to understand neither. She was simply taken in by the general-readership books by Alice Miller. Popularity does not necessarily mean that the popular person is preaching the truth.
Absolutely! The rise of these parenting books needs to be understood in the context of rising rates of mobility and the colonial era, and that far more parents were raising children away from extended family and the cultural wisdom and allo-parenting they provide. Nowadays, early childhood emotional neglect is far more likely to be a result of the loss of village, so to speak, than it is any sort of lack of love on behalf of the parents.
Alice Miller was the same type of damaged personality as playwright Eugene O'Neill. They could both write about severe Narcissitic abuse, even as they practiced it themselves upon innocent victims.
Beware of jumping to comclusions that are vastly incorrect. A murderer can write a very gripping crime story, for instance. It does not mean that they are innocent of it themselves.
There are too many Alice Miller groupies who totally misunderstnd her life, and what she was. Severe Cluster-B personalities are actually well-represented within mental health professionals themselves. Including Psychologists and Psychotherapists. Just as we have medical professionals who will knowingy harm patients. It happens.
I hope that Meghan Bell stops spreading untruths here. And does some real learning about the Alice Miller situation.
A book by Philip Geven titled Spare the Child The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse The main text begins with a reference to Billy Graham who was very influential via his world-wide crusades. His son Frank his quite frankly worse-than-awful. Tens of thousands attended his crusades here in Australia. I was dragged along to one of them by a friend - I was horrified at the collective mass hysteria invoked by Graham
A book 1997 by Linda Kintz titled Between Jesus and the Market the EMOTIONS (my emphasis) That Matter in Right-Wing America A very scary assessment of applied right-wing politics which taps into the kind of emotions that motivates them. The kind of emotions created by the child-rearing practices described by Philip Geven.
In my opinion Donald Trump is now invoking these emotions
Meghan -- a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. You appear to have only a little bit. It is not in anyone's best interest for you to jump to unwarranted conclusions based on such scant amounts of knowledge.
Again, dude, you are welcome to read any of my actual essays on my Substack to see what level of depth and detail I'm capable of and how I structure and cite my arguments on my own space. Where might I read your work? Could you send a link? Or, at least, share your name so I can look you up? I'm here to learn.
Well Dude, you sound very much like a dilletante. I know you are a mother and you like to write. And you have read some of the trendy or general readership books in your areas of interest....but what is your actual expertise in these fields? Other than just having a general interest and wanting something to write about because you want to do Substacking.
These are very complex concepts. You are in far over your head. Spreading un-tutored conclusions does more harm than good.
Start with the documentary film, "Who's Afraid of Alice Miller?" and what her own Psychoanalyst and son revealed about her after her death. Do not simply try to make yourself an expert based on reading a few general bestseller-type books. Expertise does not work that way.
Alice Miller did much harm. But she compartmentalized it and projected it outwards. As writing. Though she failed to admit that she herself was one of the worst of the kind of Narcissistic parents she wrote about. Read what her son and professionals said about her after her death.
Someone else is going to call you on this if I do not. You do not know how much you do not know.
Okay, and yet you seem to be so obsessed with me (while refusing to read anything I've actually written) that you've posted long comments at me several times over the past few weeks well after I stopped responding. I guess you don't have a name or any publications then?
We currently have a generation of traumatised children in the making thanks to the addiction of parents to ‘smartphones’. These children are being deprived of life sustaining love by parents who are so addicted to these devices they total ignore the child crying out for attention and recognition. When the parent ignores the child in favour of a smartphone, the child processes it as ‘my parents don’t love me’.
Absolutely. My kids get mad at me when I'm on my phone, or when my husband is. The baby has even smacked it away or started pulling my hair to get my attention.
I was on a ferry with my daughter once, in the kids' play area. This little boy around her age -- three-ish -- kept trying to get my attention while I was playing with my daughter. I kind of humoured him for about an hour but wondered where his mom was. At the end of the ride, a woman who had been sitting across from us, staring at her phone for the whole two hour ride, got up and tried to collect this boy -- her son. She ignored him so thoroughly he'd given up on trying to get her attention and was trying to bond with another parent instead. He threw a tantrum about leaving, and after about a minute she got frustrated and announced "I'm trying to gentle parent, but sometimes you just need to pick them up like a football."
I mean, yes to the statement ... sometimes you just need to pick up your kid and walk out with them. I've done that. But we weren't judging her for picking up a tantrum-y kid. We were judging her for ignoring him while she stared at her phone for the two hours before that.
It’s probably a long bow I’m drawing when I say it borders on child abuse, neglecting one’s child in favour of a smartphone. Yet this tendency is now endemic in society and it seems to be largely ignored. What do you think? Jonathan Haidt is doing some excellent work in this area and putting it out there in the public sphere.
Okay thanks. It’s a fine line isn’t it? Anyway, whichever way one looks at it children are being harmed, the effects of which will play out over the coming decades.
Absolutely ... in many ways, neglect / ignoring is worse than at least some types of abuse. With abuse, children still learn how to read social cues etc (often they become more attuned to them). The parents are still paying attention to them -- negative attention is better than no attention, that's why some kids act out. With neglect, there's sensory deprivation essentially. A lack of input coming in to help the social brain circuits develop. And abuse is easier to talk about later and get sympathy for, it's a clearer narrative. With neglect, there's a feeling of emptiness, a hollowness, and it's harder to explain the pain of something that didn't happen as opposed to something that did happen. Neglect is also common in more affluent families, which makes it even harder to talk about because the kids can be seen as "privileged" when they are in deep pain.
How long before they clear out the British Museum?
The Elgin Marbles seem to be just the warmup. But all the bile, puritanical zeal for decolonisation, and absolute conviction they are correct in their assessment of our Imperial sins, it is all there animating the righteousness you allude to above.
It - A2 - holds them in abeyance and as for O’Canada, my home and native land, I think the jig is up: Alberta or Quebec will leave. Enough is enough; I’ve certainly had enough, I will help facilitate the end.
The 17th century Puritans were rightwing religious extremists who were as bad on their end of the spectrum as the leftwing WOKE on the opposite end. Hence the eventual Puritan Witch Hunts/Trials.
Both are forms of totalitarianism. Which is not solely political.
Interestingly enough, Harvard University in the U.S. is an institution founded by the Massachusetts Colony Puritans in 1636. Harvard has now unfortunately swung to the opposite polar end of that spectrum through supporting leftwing WOKE/DEI.
500 years previous to 1566, the Normans began a more centralised feudal system in England. 500 years after 1566, will the globalization be complete? (The comment by Charlotte notes that this was happening in Germany in 1525/26.) Curious!
I am no defender of trump or his maga horde who rioted at the capitol on Jan. 6. However, in light of the hundreds prosecuted and lengthy prison terms exacted, I'm amazed at how the G. Floyd rioters were able to attack police officers in Portland for at least 6 months with extremely few repercussions or prosecutions. Their tactics included fire bombing the Federal Building downtown Portland, and myriad other dangerous assaults. One counterprotestor was murdered. In Seattle they were allowed to take over a police precinct and several city blocks where murder and anarchy occurred. In Twin Cities numerous arson attacks, looting and violence.
If one places faith in humanity rather than buildings and idols we will have a chance of saving our species and the planet that supports all our needs...
A few years ago I read your great book, The Master and His Emissary, which was very helpful to me, proving a wonderful synthesis with my understanding of Heidegger. It helped a great deal with leaving the world of theory and the intellect, and moving into mystical practice.
I'd love to talk with you about it in a dialogue (and your latest work). Would you be interested in scheduling something within the next three months? It would be over the internet and take one hour. (my email is https://scottmannion.com/)
I am in the process of resuming talks with thinkers of depth. I've previously had dialogues with Sebastian Morello,Philosopher Nick Land, Malcolm Guite, Jonathan Pageau, Paul Joseph Watson. Among many others (alongside my lectures on Christian Mysticism).
If you wanted to know more about me: aside from my current vocational mission (my written work, lectures, video essays and website on philosophy, traditionalism and Christian mysticism: https://scottmannion.com/ twitter search https://scottmannion.com/I was a writer and director in the film and TV industry (16 years of experience that's not on my IMDB in various roles).
I recruited and lead a world class team on my film THE DEFECTOR (A Cold War Spy Thriller): inc Oscar Winning Cinematographer Russel Boyd (Master & Commander), Editor Matt Villa (Great Gatsby) and others of that caliber. This just sold to SONY ASIA and is being broadcast on Japanese cable networks.
I won an Australian Directors Guild Award for best directing of an Online Drama 2018 for THE DEFECTOR (national award). Previously nominated for another film ANIMA. These films were nominated and toured at various prestigious film festivals (some of that is on IMDB) and sold to Aus National tv networks (SBS)
Mr McGilchrist, I realise this is wholly unorthodox, but your work enormously influenced my own. To say your work is non-trivial is an almost comical understatement.
Your work is so profoundly salient to the terrible dysfunction and reductionist pathology that is the root cause of all, literally all our social malaise. And for all that, your work is treated like an interesting footnote. It is mind-boggling to me how the first 20 pages of The Master and his Emmissary quite literally spell out the illness and allude to the obvious cure we so desperately need. This is what forms the heart of my own tragically ignored work. Its like the plot of a Greek tragedy.
“We have made of the illness a dungeon, and within it imprisoned and tortured the cure.”
I would dearly love to speak, commiserate in part but also I would dearly love your counsel on some things. I am exceptionally neurodivergent and autodidact, As a father a deeply troubled citizen of our present moment I am nigh desperate to shine a new light on the implications of your work and reignite what I feel is overdue conversation of the implications of the atrophying of our right-brain sensibility.
I have significantly explored and extended the notions of what our remediation might entail but predictably my work struggles to make the slightest fart against the category 6 tropical storm propagated by the unholy algorithm.
I had everything to gain and nothing to lose reaching out. I do hope this reaches you. I’d love to connect, but either way, I wanted you to know that the wound of the worlds apathy and intransigence towards you brilliant observations and deductions is my wound also.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, also known as Yom HaShoah. I was finishing my morning prayers and my phone “dinged” announcing your latest article on Substack. The coincidence of receiving these accounts on Holocaust Memorial Day highlights thematic parallels, destruction of sacred spaces, ideological extremism, and escalating conflict although undeniably the events differ profoundly in scale and purpose. The timing encourages reflection on intolerance and the importance of historical memory, reinforcing Holocaust Memorial Day’s call to combat hatred in all forms, while recognizing the Holocaust’s unparalleled tragedy.
Yes. I was thinking along similar lines. Kristallnacht, is what popped up, the utterly physical destruction of a people's physical presence through their shops, windows, buildings.
🤣
except Jews supported the Protestant Reformation and riots like these in order to hurt Europeans and Christendom. How utterly solipsistic and historically ignorant of you to make this all about you and your faux-victimhood. Morally and intellectually disgusting post on your part.
This happened not only in the Low Countries in 1566, and in England during the reign of Edward VI, but also in Germany in 1525-26, where armed bands of peasants broke into monasteries and convents, breaking images, stealing property, desecrating relics, and setting fire to what they couldn't carry away. I (along with a group of colleagues) am creating the first-ever comprehensive map of the widespread destruction - we've found over 600 affected monastic institutions in all. Many people stood by and watched this happening, whether because they were frightened to stand against armed people crazed by a very narrow and idiosyncratic interpretation of 'religion', or because they tacitly approved.
I shudder when we use 'iconoclast' as an honorific. Iconoclasm is a perennial vice that seems to spring from a desire to (re-)assert control during a time of societal upheaval or when old orders are challenged. It is recorded not only during the Reformation, but at other times in human history.
This is one reason why the study of history is so important. We may not be able to resist the tides sweeping our societies, but we might at least recognise them for what they are and try to salvage as much as we can from the general wreck.
"We may not be able to resist the tides sweeping our societies ...". Despite being a student of history my whole life I was foolish enough to believe that with enough of us warning against the repetition of the destructive tragic patterns of history we are now beginning to witness, they may be avoided. The germ, rooted I'm sorry to say in the remnants of Western Christendom and Judaism, obviously still exists, mainly dormant or disguised until the conditions are ripe. Having driven myself half-mad and destroying my health partly in an attempt to do what I can to avert it, I have accepted defeat, that it is out of my hands and beyond my influence, beyond any human influence. It depends on enough people being prepared to stand up and not being silent and there aren't and, all signs are won't be. If I'm wrong it won't be because of any apparent human action, individual or collective. Now all I can do is pray.
I made a similar comment on the Mattias Desmet Substack recently. He lectures with Iain McGilchrist at times, I believe.
Mattias Desmet writes in his book, "The Psychology of Totalitarianism", that the answer to this phenomenon is to stand up and speak the truth against the totalitarians. As if he felt he must add something at the end of the book for all those readers who ask..."But HOW?" They are very right to ask.
I find this advice quite idealistic and vague as opposed to practical. Thin gruel. I am not certain what numbers Prof. Desmet considers the critical mass, but the canaries-in-the-coalmine of 1930s Germany (or other totalitarian settings of history) had little influence in this respect, nor have the various canaries in the present era in the West.
Nice, heart-warming idea, but it does not really work. When it does not, we will be told that we haven't reached peak numbers yet, or some other excuse. And the canary usually gets throttled. Put your safety on the line for people who do not care? It is beginning to seem foolish, rather than humanitarian.
I think we might largely agree about this. My view is that indeed it's a weak political theory about this question. The more feasible answer imo lies in the strength and resilience of countervailing institutions, and these in turn probably depend most of all on the creation of more egalitarian distributions of power and resources, a strongly non-exclusionary socio-political system. Essentially egalitarianism, radical democratic participation, and justice. Nothing is stable forever and faces constant tendencies to be undermined, but the time to prevent the recurrence of periods like this is before things have fallen apart, not afterwards. That's when the numbers of active people is (possibly?) greatest and is decisive.
I need to emphasise that the system I describe is not liberalism, which I think has hardly and rarely yet begun to accept it's part in where we are now. Even now, the tendency is to deny and doubl-down, and for some collaborate with the twins of fascism and 'centrism'. Even a brilliant and humane person like Iain McG while remaining with the liberal Western worldview, while obviously genuinely alarmed and concerned about where we are going is still in thrall to Russophobic notions, encourages the idea that peace can be achieved by preparing for ear, and condemnation Western youth for their alleged unwillingness to fight the alleged external authoritarian threat rather than revolt against the internal enemies driving their societies to domestic repression, external wars, and totalitarianism. But a liberal can't see that or do that. It's too late in the day though anyway.
I suspect that the new route will be powered either by vast and specifically-channeled financial resources from non-WOKE funders -- or by a simultaneous uprising of the newly-awakened; I think here of the latter situation happening in 1989 at the Final Speech of Romania's Nicolae Ceaușescu.
I do continue to wonder, however, what it is exactly that awakens them. Might we feed it to them in their breakfast oatmeal?
Thinking a bit further on this issue, I am drawn to considering the Drama Triangle concept. Initially introduced well and in detail by Prof. Stephen Karpman in 1968, it is likely an archetype which has been surfacing from mankind's unconscious for a very long while.
The Drama Triangle is a relationship pattern which has three main roles ever circling and re-inventing themselves: Persecutor, Victim, Rescuer/Hero. Although an individual tends to have a dominant role, this can morph into either of the others.
The general pattern also includes the fact that not much in these situations ever gets resolved.....they just continue the drama.
Totalitarianism strikes me as a Drama Triangle issue. Which means that standing up and speaking the truth will remain just a Rescuer role, and therefore it will go nowhere -- unless you take a different approach.
Very interesting on the drama triangle. I came across this during a supervision session, where my supervisor and I considered the model in relation to individuals who might be occupying the 'victim' role. The idea is, that as supervisor, we help the individual to invert the triangle, so that victim becomes a 'creator', solution focused rather than being problem focused when the victim. The rescuer in turn becomes 'coach', and the persecutor becomes 'challenger'. I can see this working for an individual supported by a good supervisor. I'd like to think it could work for populations...but I don't see much sign of persecutors being willing to change. Would need some very persuasive coaches....
Neal, what are the tides sweeping our western societies? Is the problem with the woke progressive left or with the trumpistas and nationalist thrust?
In America it is yet another Pendulum Swing - the woke Left has veered so far off into the weeds of extremism, cheered on by obscenely wealthy elites, corporate leaders and invested politicians, that a balancing movement of the ideological Right was bound to happen.
Yes. The pendulum can swing only so far to one polar extreme before the tension causes it to swing to the other extreme.
Totalitarianism can come in a leftwing version or a rightwing version.
Where will we be able find the map when it’s been completed Alice?
I have been on pre-poll booths in the upcoming Australian election. I hand out how to vote cards for a progressive party. A very very angry man verbally attacked me, called me a disgusting anti-Semite, a disgrace and said I shouldn’t be there. I’m not for the record, far from it. But what on earth is he watching to make him so angry.
I agree we shouldn’t stand by and watch our world break down, politically or environmentally but when faced with a large angry man yelling in your face it takes quite a large amount of grit to stand up to bullies.
Charlotte, the widespread destruction of churches through arson and vandalism is happening today in Canada. And has been for some years.
The pattern repeats. Many have recognized this, but there has been no salvage. What would you suggest, and how? I ask the same question of you that I have asked of Mattias Desmet when he advises us to stand up for the truth against totalitarianism. Sounds noble....but it reality it simply gets the individual crushed.
I can offer no better reply than what CS Lewis offered in his essay 'Learning in Wartime'. What should you do? Your work, whatever that is. Do it as well as you can. The point of fighting is not the fight itself (that way madness lies). The point of fighting is to get back to the state of affairs where people can go about their life and work in peace. So while you can do your work, and do it well, do so. You never know what effect it will have on others.
Yes, well.....I think we need a bit more than that. We cannot simply repeat the Polyanna notions in times of grave trouble, and think these "noble comments" will actually do something. We need to find real answers.
C.S. Lewis was a good man, and I have enjoyed his writing, but he tended to live in theory and fantasy, within an elite environment. He had few applicable answers. He was cut from the same cloth as all those who talk unendingly about peace, and tell you to link arms and sing Kumbaya. Sounds lovely, but it never works just to make admirable statements. Simply gives those speakers a nice image. And tends to keep people from thinking they are allowed to defend themselves....which the predators see as a weakness and a chink in the armour.
I would suggest you read the piece I mention. If that doesn’t help, then I’m afraid I’ve nothing to suggest that will satisfy you. I wish you the best, however.
It is not that I am chronically dis-satisfied here. It is that your answers are very weak and predictable. They have never worked before. Why do you suppose they will work now?
The Polyanna approach makes a nice image for the speaker, but is very ineffective. We all need to face this.
Pretty patronising, this talk of Pollyanna and Kumbaya. I feel as if you don't know what you don't know here.
I could barely read this account.
Sadly, in this lifetime I have seen with my own eyes a desecration of much of what was holy in the liturgy--i.e. music, language, posture etc.
Thank you Iain for the sober reminder from an eyewitness.
I think of the Muslim soldiers destroying what was left of Baghdad museum. Priceless artefacts destroyed as unislamic. Same blinkered view. Painful to witness.
I wonder how many of the people involved in this had traumatic childhoods? With the right hemisphere developing largely in the first three years, early childhood neglect and abuse would disproportionately disrupt RH development. Following the printing press, parenting books advocating unhealthy parenting practices began to be published primarily out of modern-day Germany. Alice Miller referred to these as "poisonous pedagogies" -- stuff like "don't hug and cuddle your kids".
To give a more recent example, Dr. Moritz Schreber was a bestselling parenting book author in the 1800s and is credited for multiple generations of German children growing up without affectionate physical contact from mothers and other family members. Miller suggested that this laid the psychological groundwork for Nazi Germany. Research on hunter-gatherer tribes find that low physical affection in early childhood predicts violence in adulthood.
Having spent time with today's modern Puritans -- the "woke" movement -- I've noticed that most report an unhealthy relationship with their parents. If healthy attachment to the family is disrupted, it also makes sense that attachment to God/Nature would be disrupted, as the RH / master becomes wounded, the emissary takes over for psychic survival.
Martin Luther had abusive parents. So did Hitler.
Both also had chronic gut issues -- fractally, if understand God/Nature to be one fractal level above us, and our gut microbiomes to be one fractal below (ie we are all part of God's microbiome), then disruption of the connection above would be tied to disruption of the connection below (as above, so below). Chronic gut issues such as IBS have been found in studies to correlate to early childhood trauma, neglect, and abuse.
Alice Miller ("Drama of the Gifted Child") is often quoted, but the fact is that she did not practice what she preached. See what her son Martin had to say about this.
I prefer the Attachment Theory of John Bowlby.
She started preaching after she practiced -- her first book (The Drama of the Gifted Child) was published after her son was already grown. She talks about the fact that she was a poor parent to him throughout her various books, and draws from her own childhood and the way she parented (not well) in her theories.
It would discredit her if she claimed to have been a good parent, but she claims the opposite and talks about how her childhood trauma contributed to her being a poor parent herself.
Although if Alice Miller was preaching in order to change others....it did not work too well in her own life, did it? So obviously simply imparting the ideas would do nothing to change the situation.
But she did receive very good royalties from the book.
She learned in part from her mistakes -- it's not like she could go back in time and re-parent her child. Do you think that someone who used to be an alcoholic, hurt a bunch of people while drunk, and then got sober cannot preach about the harms of alcohol?
She clearly believed very strongly in what she was writing about. And "For Your Own Good" -- the book I was referencing -- is research-based and includes a ton of quotes from old parenting books to back up her arguments, as well as analyses of the childhoods of prominent figures such as Adolf Hitler.
If Alice Miller made the same mistakes as everyone else, why does she present herself as the expert on this topic? She pulled together some ideas, but she failed to live these herself., She was not expert in my mind, and her main goal appeared to be status + profit. She had an education...she wanted to make a living out of it. She had to come up with something attention-getting.
If you want actual expertise in the relevant fields, you must use the cross-disciplinary approach, and better sources.
Many people have "analyzed" Hitler. Since they can never prove whatever they say.....they can get away with saying whatever they please. Actual knowledge needs to be built on more than this.
She was a clinical psychologist. It's not like she had no expertise. And, again, time travel and reversal is impossible.
I always use a cross disciplinary approach in my own essays, but is the comments section of another author. It would be rude to dump a whole essay here. If you wish, you can view my essays over on my Substack. Miller's work is discussed alongside many, many others (including Dr. McGilchrist's) in the essays "What Causes Autism", "The Drama of the Gifted Children", and "The Dark History of Parenting Books".
https://whosafraidofalicemiller.com/en#:~:text=Coming%20to%20terms%20with%20that,their%20inevitable%20toll%20on%20society.%E2%80%9D
Learn, Meghan. Do not equate a popular general readership book with truth, necessarily. Even Miller's Psychotherapist admitted after her death that Alice Miller had been in Shadow Possession, attempting to destroy her own child....as her chosen proxy for her own abuser in life.
Most people do not understand Shadow Possession, and they make big mistakes because of their lack of understanding this concept and how it plays out.
A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
https://whosafraidofalicemiller.com/en#:~:text=Coming%20to%20terms%20with%20that,their%20inevitable%20toll%20on%20society.%E2%80%9D
Documentary film on Alice Miller, bringing out that fact that after her death, her own Psychotherapist admitted that Alice had been in Shadow Possession, and she had attacked her small child (Martin) repeatedly because she was using him as her proxy for her own previous abuse.
I recommend not arguing that Alice Miller was some kind of saint in this field, unless you know the facts of her life. And you must understand the Jungian concept of Shadow Possession....how it plays out. Commenter Meghan Bell here appears to understand neither. She was simply taken in by the general-readership books by Alice Miller. Popularity does not necessarily mean that the popular person is preaching the truth.
It’s not just the parents:
“The child who is not embraced by the village will, when he is a man, burn it down in order to feel its warmth.”
African proverb
Absolutely! The rise of these parenting books needs to be understood in the context of rising rates of mobility and the colonial era, and that far more parents were raising children away from extended family and the cultural wisdom and allo-parenting they provide. Nowadays, early childhood emotional neglect is far more likely to be a result of the loss of village, so to speak, than it is any sort of lack of love on behalf of the parents.
Donald Trump is of course proof of the wisdom communicated in that proverb.
This reference confirms what Alice Miller had to say, but even more so:
http://violence.de/index.html
Yes! That was the study I was referring to! I should have included it, I guess.
Alice Miller was the same type of damaged personality as playwright Eugene O'Neill. They could both write about severe Narcissitic abuse, even as they practiced it themselves upon innocent victims.
Beware of jumping to comclusions that are vastly incorrect. A murderer can write a very gripping crime story, for instance. It does not mean that they are innocent of it themselves.
There are too many Alice Miller groupies who totally misunderstnd her life, and what she was. Severe Cluster-B personalities are actually well-represented within mental health professionals themselves. Including Psychologists and Psychotherapists. Just as we have medical professionals who will knowingy harm patients. It happens.
I hope that Meghan Bell stops spreading untruths here. And does some real learning about the Alice Miller situation.
Three more references on this very important topic
A profile of Ronald Reagan's dreadful sanity and his applied politics
http://psychohistory.com.books/reagans-america
A book by Philip Geven titled Spare the Child The Religious Roots of Punishment and the Psychological Impact of Physical Abuse The main text begins with a reference to Billy Graham who was very influential via his world-wide crusades. His son Frank his quite frankly worse-than-awful. Tens of thousands attended his crusades here in Australia. I was dragged along to one of them by a friend - I was horrified at the collective mass hysteria invoked by Graham
A book 1997 by Linda Kintz titled Between Jesus and the Market the EMOTIONS (my emphasis) That Matter in Right-Wing America A very scary assessment of applied right-wing politics which taps into the kind of emotions that motivates them. The kind of emotions created by the child-rearing practices described by Philip Geven.
In my opinion Donald Trump is now invoking these emotions
Thanks for the recommendations!
Trump's father was pretty awful to him, wasn't he? Same with Elon Musk's.
Meghan -- a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. You appear to have only a little bit. It is not in anyone's best interest for you to jump to unwarranted conclusions based on such scant amounts of knowledge.
Again, dude, you are welcome to read any of my actual essays on my Substack to see what level of depth and detail I'm capable of and how I structure and cite my arguments on my own space. Where might I read your work? Could you send a link? Or, at least, share your name so I can look you up? I'm here to learn.
Well Dude, you sound very much like a dilletante. I know you are a mother and you like to write. And you have read some of the trendy or general readership books in your areas of interest....but what is your actual expertise in these fields? Other than just having a general interest and wanting something to write about because you want to do Substacking.
These are very complex concepts. You are in far over your head. Spreading un-tutored conclusions does more harm than good.
Start with the documentary film, "Who's Afraid of Alice Miller?" and what her own Psychoanalyst and son revealed about her after her death. Do not simply try to make yourself an expert based on reading a few general bestseller-type books. Expertise does not work that way.
Alice Miller did much harm. But she compartmentalized it and projected it outwards. As writing. Though she failed to admit that she herself was one of the worst of the kind of Narcissistic parents she wrote about. Read what her son and professionals said about her after her death.
Someone else is going to call you on this if I do not. You do not know how much you do not know.
Okay, and yet you seem to be so obsessed with me (while refusing to read anything I've actually written) that you've posted long comments at me several times over the past few weeks well after I stopped responding. I guess you don't have a name or any publications then?
We currently have a generation of traumatised children in the making thanks to the addiction of parents to ‘smartphones’. These children are being deprived of life sustaining love by parents who are so addicted to these devices they total ignore the child crying out for attention and recognition. When the parent ignores the child in favour of a smartphone, the child processes it as ‘my parents don’t love me’.
Absolutely. My kids get mad at me when I'm on my phone, or when my husband is. The baby has even smacked it away or started pulling my hair to get my attention.
I was on a ferry with my daughter once, in the kids' play area. This little boy around her age -- three-ish -- kept trying to get my attention while I was playing with my daughter. I kind of humoured him for about an hour but wondered where his mom was. At the end of the ride, a woman who had been sitting across from us, staring at her phone for the whole two hour ride, got up and tried to collect this boy -- her son. She ignored him so thoroughly he'd given up on trying to get her attention and was trying to bond with another parent instead. He threw a tantrum about leaving, and after about a minute she got frustrated and announced "I'm trying to gentle parent, but sometimes you just need to pick them up like a football."
I mean, yes to the statement ... sometimes you just need to pick up your kid and walk out with them. I've done that. But we weren't judging her for picking up a tantrum-y kid. We were judging her for ignoring him while she stared at her phone for the two hours before that.
It’s probably a long bow I’m drawing when I say it borders on child abuse, neglecting one’s child in favour of a smartphone. Yet this tendency is now endemic in society and it seems to be largely ignored. What do you think? Jonathan Haidt is doing some excellent work in this area and putting it out there in the public sphere.
It's technically neglect, not "abuse", but evidence suggests that neglect can have even more detrimental outcomes than many forms of physical abuse.
Okay thanks. It’s a fine line isn’t it? Anyway, whichever way one looks at it children are being harmed, the effects of which will play out over the coming decades.
Absolutely ... in many ways, neglect / ignoring is worse than at least some types of abuse. With abuse, children still learn how to read social cues etc (often they become more attuned to them). The parents are still paying attention to them -- negative attention is better than no attention, that's why some kids act out. With neglect, there's sensory deprivation essentially. A lack of input coming in to help the social brain circuits develop. And abuse is easier to talk about later and get sympathy for, it's a clearer narrative. With neglect, there's a feeling of emptiness, a hollowness, and it's harder to explain the pain of something that didn't happen as opposed to something that did happen. Neglect is also common in more affluent families, which makes it even harder to talk about because the kids can be seen as "privileged" when they are in deep pain.
How long before they clear out the British Museum?
The Elgin Marbles seem to be just the warmup. But all the bile, puritanical zeal for decolonisation, and absolute conviction they are correct in their assessment of our Imperial sins, it is all there animating the righteousness you allude to above.
How do we stop them?
The second amendment of the constitution of the United States of America. Least wise, this is a defence measure against them.
So far, and it seems to have mostly worked. Alas the mother country lacks a second amendment.
It - A2 - holds them in abeyance and as for O’Canada, my home and native land, I think the jig is up: Alberta or Quebec will leave. Enough is enough; I’ve certainly had enough, I will help facilitate the end.
There have been hundreds of church arson and vandalism attacks in Canada in the past decade or so. Prior to that, it was a rare situation.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/592-places-of-worship-burned-in-12-years-liberals-dont-give-a-damn
The 17th century Puritans were rightwing religious extremists who were as bad on their end of the spectrum as the leftwing WOKE on the opposite end. Hence the eventual Puritan Witch Hunts/Trials.
Both are forms of totalitarianism. Which is not solely political.
Interestingly enough, Harvard University in the U.S. is an institution founded by the Massachusetts Colony Puritans in 1636. Harvard has now unfortunately swung to the opposite polar end of that spectrum through supporting leftwing WOKE/DEI.
500 years previous to 1566, the Normans began a more centralised feudal system in England. 500 years after 1566, will the globalization be complete? (The comment by Charlotte notes that this was happening in Germany in 1525/26.) Curious!
A Canadian Grandma
There is a very fine book on the effects of the Reformation on a small Devon village, Morenbath.
Disastrous in a nut shell.
First as tragedy, then as farce. With the understanding that the farcical iteration of history is at least as tragic, if not more so.
Portland during the summer of love: 2020, or whenever the George Floyd riots happened.
I am no defender of trump or his maga horde who rioted at the capitol on Jan. 6. However, in light of the hundreds prosecuted and lengthy prison terms exacted, I'm amazed at how the G. Floyd rioters were able to attack police officers in Portland for at least 6 months with extremely few repercussions or prosecutions. Their tactics included fire bombing the Federal Building downtown Portland, and myriad other dangerous assaults. One counterprotestor was murdered. In Seattle they were allowed to take over a police precinct and several city blocks where murder and anarchy occurred. In Twin Cities numerous arson attacks, looting and violence.
If one places faith in humanity rather than buildings and idols we will have a chance of saving our species and the planet that supports all our needs...
Is the MAGA cult an example of such?
Ian, this piece immediately reminded me of DOGE running amuck in the Washington bureaucracy.
I was initially optimistic at the prospect of a much-needed accounting and inventory. Our institutions could be more efficient and responsive.
I may suffer from news bias, but I don’t see an effort to improve our institutions, but an attempt to destroy them.
Change is a process, has stages, and takes time. It is early days.
Dear Iain
A few years ago I read your great book, The Master and His Emissary, which was very helpful to me, proving a wonderful synthesis with my understanding of Heidegger. It helped a great deal with leaving the world of theory and the intellect, and moving into mystical practice.
I'd love to talk with you about it in a dialogue (and your latest work). Would you be interested in scheduling something within the next three months? It would be over the internet and take one hour. (my email is https://scottmannion.com/)
I am in the process of resuming talks with thinkers of depth. I've previously had dialogues with Sebastian Morello,Philosopher Nick Land, Malcolm Guite, Jonathan Pageau, Paul Joseph Watson. Among many others (alongside my lectures on Christian Mysticism).
If you wanted to know more about me: aside from my current vocational mission (my written work, lectures, video essays and website on philosophy, traditionalism and Christian mysticism: https://scottmannion.com/ twitter search https://scottmannion.com/I was a writer and director in the film and TV industry (16 years of experience that's not on my IMDB in various roles).
I recruited and lead a world class team on my film THE DEFECTOR (A Cold War Spy Thriller): inc Oscar Winning Cinematographer Russel Boyd (Master & Commander), Editor Matt Villa (Great Gatsby) and others of that caliber. This just sold to SONY ASIA and is being broadcast on Japanese cable networks.
I won an Australian Directors Guild Award for best directing of an Online Drama 2018 for THE DEFECTOR (national award). Previously nominated for another film ANIMA. These films were nominated and toured at various prestigious film festivals (some of that is on IMDB) and sold to Aus National tv networks (SBS)
Lord bless you, and thank you for your time
Very interesting and it certainly provides perspective - thank you.
Mr McGilchrist, I realise this is wholly unorthodox, but your work enormously influenced my own. To say your work is non-trivial is an almost comical understatement.
Your work is so profoundly salient to the terrible dysfunction and reductionist pathology that is the root cause of all, literally all our social malaise. And for all that, your work is treated like an interesting footnote. It is mind-boggling to me how the first 20 pages of The Master and his Emmissary quite literally spell out the illness and allude to the obvious cure we so desperately need. This is what forms the heart of my own tragically ignored work. Its like the plot of a Greek tragedy.
“We have made of the illness a dungeon, and within it imprisoned and tortured the cure.”
I would dearly love to speak, commiserate in part but also I would dearly love your counsel on some things. I am exceptionally neurodivergent and autodidact, As a father a deeply troubled citizen of our present moment I am nigh desperate to shine a new light on the implications of your work and reignite what I feel is overdue conversation of the implications of the atrophying of our right-brain sensibility.
I have significantly explored and extended the notions of what our remediation might entail but predictably my work struggles to make the slightest fart against the category 6 tropical storm propagated by the unholy algorithm.
I had everything to gain and nothing to lose reaching out. I do hope this reaches you. I’d love to connect, but either way, I wanted you to know that the wound of the worlds apathy and intransigence towards you brilliant observations and deductions is my wound also.
Regards
Rocco.