"In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People."
~ Eugene Victor Debs
I read an article that was analyzing the psychology of people who prefer authoritarian government. It mentioned a RWA test -- a test you take to see if you have a "Right Wing Authoritarianism" mind-set, and to what degree.
I took the test online. The score was supposed to range from 20 to 180. Higher scores mean the person has some tolerance or even enthusiasm for authoritarian rule; a lower score indicates that you don't believe in authoritarianism.
Somehow I got an 11.9....
A reader comment on the article said:
~ Every culture has this stripe of person. They are the kind that would have been Nazis in Germany, communists in the Soviet Union, revanchists in Spain, or monarchists in any number of kingdoms.
It isn't left or right, it's belief in a ruler that will kick in the teeth of the guy you don't like while giving you the due you have wrongly been denied.
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Goodness.
Or -- yikes.
It had occurred to me in recent years, that some people sound like they vote based on - they think their candidate is going to "get" someone. I didn't want to think that, but it kind of looked that way sometimes. So when I read that comment I thought, Yeah, someone else had entertained this theory too.
An example of this way of thinking -- a woman spoke to the media in early 2019 on the subject of Trump's presidency. She said, "He's not hurting the people he needs to be hurting."
WHAT??! Why would she vote for someone hoping that he would hurt people? -- that's sick.... But see, it's like that reader comment -- a 'belief in a ruler that will get after people (or groups) that I don't like'...
...and 'give you the due you've wrongly been denied'
Huh?
It's like maybe a Grievance Mind-Set, or something.
(Remember the Friends episode where the guy in the apartment building kept a journal titled, "My Big Book of Grievances" and it included notes about Joey and Chandler walking in the hallway...?)
Oh my stars, I just Googled My Big Book of Grievances to make sure I got the phrase right -- they're selling them online, you can buy one!
(Face-palm.)
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That reminds me, Oprah did a segment once in the 90s or early 2000s where she talked about journals on a dedicated subject: like a Gratitude Journal, and an Epiphany Journal.
When you do this, it does make you think of things you might not have noticed otherwise. It's useful, if you're inclined to do a little writing. It helps a person to reflect, and understand, and get ideas, and feel encouraged.
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