Isn't Mark Ames just reiterating the theory of the authoritarian personality that was formulated long ago by folk like Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and the good people of the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Marcuse, Horkheimer)?
Of course back when this theory was originally formulated the question at hand was why so many Germans of the working class and lower-middle class were willing to cast their votes for the National Socialists rather than for the Social Democrats or Communists, as they presumably would if they were simply following their economic interests.
On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 18:06:58 +0000 "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com>
writes:
> [With the mass media keening for Ronnie and saluting his restoration
> of
> American pride, I offer this tonic rant from Mark Ames' column in NY
> Press:]
>
> ... This is America, not Denmark. In this country, tens of millions
> of
> people choose to watch FoxNews not simply because Americans are
> credulous
> idiots or at the behest of some right-wing corporate cabal, but
> because
> average Americans respect viciousness. They are attracted to
> viciousness for
> a lot of reasons. In part, it reminds them of their bosses, whom
> they
> secretly adore. Americans hate themselves for the way they behave in
> public,
> always smiling and nodding their heads with accompanying really?s
> and
> uh-huhs to show that they're listening to the other person, never
> having the
> guts to say what they really feel. So they vicariously scream and
> bully
> others into submission through right-wing surrogate-brutes. Spending
> time
> watching Sean Hannity is enough for your average American white male
> to feel
> less cowardly than he really is.
>
> The left won't accept this awful truth about the American soul, a
> beast that
> they believe they can fix "if only the people knew the Truth."
>
> But what if the Truth is that Americans don't want to know the
> Truth? What
> if Americans consciously choose lies over truth when given the
> chance—and
> not even very interesting lies, but rather the blandest, dumbest and
> meanest
> lies? What if Americans are not a likeable people? The left's wires
> short-circuit when confronted with this terrible possibility; the
> right, on
> the other hand, warmly embraces Middle America's rank soul and
> exploits it
> to their full advantage. The Republicans know Americans better than
> the
> left. They know that it's not so much Goering's famous "bigger lie"
> that
> works here, but the dumber the lie, the more they want to hear it
> repeated.
>
> And this leads to another truth that the left still has trouble
> understanding: Millions of Americans, particularly white males,
> don't vote
> for what's in their so-called best interests. Thomas Frank recently
> attacked
> this riddle in his new book What's the Matter with Kansas? but he
> fails to
> answer his own question. He can't, in fact, because his is a flawed
> premise.
> Frank, who is at his best when he's just vicious, still clings to
> the
> comforting theory that Middle Americans are being duped by an evil
> corporate-political machine that subtly but masterfully manipulates
> the
> psychological levers of cultural backlash, implying that if average
> Americans were left to their own devices, they would somehow make
> entirely
> rational, enlightened choices and elect sensible New Deal Democrats
> every
> time. This puts Frank in a bind he never quite gets out of. Like all
>
> lefties, he is incapable of taking his ruthless analysis beyond a
> certain
> point.
>
> The reason is simple. The underlying major premise of
> humanist-leftist
> ideology states that people are intrinsically sympathetic. If people
> are
> defiantly mean and craven, the humanist-left structure falters. "Why
> the
> fuck should I bother fighting for Middle Americans," they ask, "if
> they're
> just as loathsome, in their own petty way, as their exploiters, with
> whom
> they actively collaborate?"
>
> Rather than grapple with that dilemma, the left pretends it doesn't
> exist.
> This is why they will forever struggle to understand the one
> overriding
> mystery of why so many working- and middle-class white males vote
> against
> their own best interests....
>
> <http://www.nypress.com/17/23/news&columns/MarkAmes.cfm?page=1&last=2>
>
> Carl
>
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