Fantasy Ideology, Lacan

[RE]

Not sure why this is seen as Lacanian, it could be written by anyone who
wants to emphasize the narcissistic aspect of someone's political
involvement, or perhaps to characterize that person as a narcissist who
cannot engage others except as objects.    For that matter, it's not really
that far off from writers like Harold Lasswell; in "World Politics and
Personal Insecurity" (1938?) he offered a nifty little formula (something
like P --> W) that boils politics down to psychodrama.   It's quite likely
the author is doing to his hapless subject what he depicts his subject doing
to the hapless commuters.

Randy

By participating in a violent anti-war demonstration, he was in no sense
aiming at coercing conformity with his view - for that would still have
been a political objective. Instead, he took his part in order to confirm
his ideological fantasy of marching on the right side of history, of
feeling himself among the elect few who stood with the angels of historical
inevitability. Thus, when he lay down in front of hapless commuters on the
bridges over the Potomac, he had no interest in changing the minds of these
commuters, no concern over whether they became angry at the protesters or
not. They were there merely as props, as so many supernumeraries in his
private psychodrama. The protest for him was not politics, but theater; and
the significance of his role lay not in the political ends his actions
might achieve, but rather in their symbolic value as ritual. In short, he
was acting out a fantasy.

From: "Al Qaeda's Fantasy Ideology
By Lee Harris"

http://www.policyreview.org/AUG02/harris.html