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05/01/2005: "Right Wing Ideology is a Mental Disorder"

Author Michael Savage (AKA Mike Weiner) has been exercising his First Amendment Rights (and apparently trying to exorcise his personal demons) in a new book, “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.” Since the central principle of this site is that turnabout is fair play, let’s consider the merit of his proposition. Readers may recall a similar exercise for Ann Coulter’s latest, the series we called “How to Talk to a Dittohead (If You Must).” If you missed them, they’re in the archive, readily available via the archive’s search engine. Actually Mr. Weiner raises an interesting point. From the perspective of a right wing extremist, the political perspectives of those who aren’t right wing extremists could indeed seem illogical. If you believe as the extreme right wing does that greed and selfishness are the natural human state, and indeed the most moral state, then an act that reflects an alternative worldview would seem foolish at best and dangerous at worst, since behavior not motivated by “what’s in it for me” would be impossible to predict. The fundamental principles of right wing belief are 1) I have a lock on the truth 2) this truth empowers me as an individual to accumulate and consume without limit in the name of freedom and property rights and 3) my duty is to share this truth with the heathen masses that have not yet seen the light (“share” being a euphemism for “Whatever It Takes” to dominate hearts and minds, starting with media dominance and continuing unabated to lining up the coercive power of law, courts, and police to compel compliance with their self-centered world view). Citizens occupying the remainder of the political spectrum see things somewhat differently. They are willing to admit that laws must respect both the individual and society as a whole, the “common welfare” of the Constitution’s Preamble. Since we live in a world becoming more obviously finite and interconnected with each passing day, the great majority of people recognize a legitimate role for government in maintaining and where possible improving the overall quality of life for citizens. Maybe it’s just me, but that kind of attitude seems less of a mental disorder than obsessive belief that individuals, motivated by unfettered greed and lust for dominance, will magically create a utopian paradise. I know a bit about psychology, considering that it was a required course at West Point when I was there, and it strikes me that “obsessive belief by an individual that his personal greed and lust for dominance should be unfettered” is more likely a sign of mental disorder than the altruism that motivates willingness to consider the welfare of others. So let’s have some fun with this idea for the next couple of days!