-----Original Message----- From: Yoshie Furuhashi
>Doug:
>The point of Lutz's analysis is that the notion of the "unconscious" was
>shaped to suit the Cold War needs. So were many other ideological elements
>(e.g. religion, family, patriotism, etc.). The use of "psychology" to
>abnormalize the defiance of the social order has a long history; for
>instance, runaway slaves were said to suffer from "drapedomania" (a "mental
>disorder" that was said to make slaves attempt to escape from masters --
>had slaves been "normal," they would have been "happy darkies").
>
>The ruling class don't even credit you with consciously adopting an
>anathematized discourse like Marxism; nor do they allow you to argue that
>you just _happen_ to have ended up with the same political position as
>Communists. It is neither rational decision nor sheer chance. They say
>that your "unconscious" has been infiltrated by the Enemy. Invasion of the
>Body Snatchers (1956)!
>
>***** Dr. Kaufman: A strange neurosis, evidently contagious, an epidemic
>mass hysteria. In two weeks, it spread all over town.
>
>Miles: What causes it?
>
>Dr. Kaufman: Worry about what's going on in the world probably.
>
>Miles (jokingly hoping they won't catch it, with the prophetic statement):
>I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out that you weren't you.
><http://www.filmsite.org/inva.html> *****
>
>That's Communism (or any other subversive ideology) seen from the point of
>view of the ruling class, and Americans were asked to adopt this point of
>view: to dissent is to be neurotic, losing your individuality to become the
>slave of a totalitarian ideology, all the while thinking that you are still
>"free."
>
Yoshie, Do you feel the anti-Communists of the 50s were engaged in a cynical manipulation of public opinion? Did they concoct the Red Menace as a PR campaign? Or did they believe their own psycho-babble? Were they selling the American people on something they knew to be fraudulent, or did they feel genuinely threatened, as if by an invasion of alien space pods?
I think this question gets to the heart of the issue.
Ted