Throughout history, has been characterized as winners and losers; sadists and masochists; wolf and sheep, lovers and haters, dominators and submitters etc. This essay has to do with white male power, possession ,status , the collective unconscious and an authoritarian conscience.
Historical authoritarian conscience figures come to mind that include but are not limited to, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar;, Borgias Popes, King Arthur , Napoleon; Henry VIII; Stalin ; Hitler , Putin and so forth. These men were sadistic, dominant, exploitative, arbitrary possessed and had enormous unequaled power , possession and status. Their position of influence was over many and they had loyal followers that gave up their life for them irrespective of consequences. These historical figures operated according to their own morals , ethics and values. They created right versus wrong, good versus bad and legal versus illegal . In essence, their word was law as they were the law.
Take for example , King Arthur and his Holy War Crusades. Money, arms and followers marched across Europe into the Holy Land. There, they waged war exploitatively , savagely and sadistically killed, murdered women and children for ? Yes, the 10 Commandments was established in the Holy Land and thou shalt not kill is one of the 10 . That commandment did not apply neither to King Arthur nor his followers. Another example was the thirty-year religious war between Catholics and Protestants. These two shared “religious” ideas , agreed on the same God, Jesus Christ, and the same Bible yet they didn't adhere to the shall not kill commandment . They sadistically brutalized and murdered each other in the name of ? Henry VIII had many wives that he murdered regardless of the Pope . There are so many examples of hypocrisy, contradictions, rationalizations of man's inhumanity to man and two sets of morals , ethics, values and rules as in one for the rulers and the other for the masses. The 10 Commandments , laws, standards, values and ethics didn't apply to the rulers.
With the above being said, Carl Jung, in his analytic theory of personality, postulated the inheritance of biological instincts along with ancestral experiences that he referred to as archetypes within the collective unconscious. Briefly, according to Jung these concepts are the most powerful influential system of the psyche and in pathological cases overshadow the ego . It's a storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from man's ancestral past that includes not only the racial history of man, but his animal ancestry as well . It’s a residue of evolutionary development that accumulates as a consequence of repeated experiences over generations. For instance, in our republic ,we have a history of white male dominance , prejudice, slavery, and minority rule . They were either chosen by God or by accident of birth. And ,they acquired and implemented their own set of rules and values of conscience. In so doing, these individuals exhibited power, prestige and status in which followers identified. Psychoanalytically speaking, with identification, a followers conscience can become like an authoritarian conscience .
500 years ago our history , in 1619, started on this continent with slavery and the dominance of some over others. 150 years later, a group of white males had "permission" for a rebellion. They had no trouble getting followers and employed an array of slogans such as, give me liberty or give me death in order break submission and establish independence from the dominant yoke of King George .That followed with the writing of the Constitution, primarily credited to the slaveholder Jefferson. Jefferson's collective unconscious as well as his understanding of classical Greek and Roman history established a spectacular Declaration of Independence that pertained to white males. Three branches of government, in a republic, were established and a process of electing the executive and minority power was put in place with the non democratic electoral college, having 2 senators per state (California ,the 4th largest economy in the world and North Dakota with ?), and lifetime appointments for the Supreme Court etc. Before them, Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Adam Smith all realized that democracy was dangerous because there were more have knots and they would take from the haves. Government is control ,not submission. Submission is for the majority.
There was a Civil War, emancipation and executive declaration 100 years later. That did not stop the South from creating KKK's and all sorts of rules and regulations to enslave Blacks as well as making it very difficult for them to vote with poll taxes, etc. There was separation , discrimination , prejudice ,and exploitation between the whites and blacks ,between the haves and have-nots, and again there were two sets of rules, ethics and values regardless of the 10 Commandments , the same Bible, and teachings of Christ. Blessed are the poor ? Really !
Then within the next 100 years, women were allowed to vote. Martin Luther's nonviolent movement, Kennedy and Johnson's Great Society legislation continued the movement. For the have-nots/ Although the Republicans, the party of white males, were still in control, we had acceleration of income inequality and the power of minority rule for white male Republicans preaching conservative racist principles. The fact that the Democrats have won the presidential popular vote often and that has terrified white male power. Republican states have been able to manipulate their control and power with creative redistricting in order to ensure Republicans being elected along with putting voting obstacles in place. Once again ,it's not about democracy but about retaining white power and control regardless.
Moving to the present, we've witnessed a criminal authoritarian in the White House. He was able to procure that position because of the nondemocratic electoral college. Then, with his authoritarian conscience on exhibition, he disparaged people of color, told lies, criminal acts etc. His authoritarian conscience also exhibited itself with his Make America Great ( meant to make him great) ; lying about a” fraudulent” election; stating he could kill someone on Fifth Avenue and not get arrested; making perfect phone calls to the Ukraine government and to state officials in Georgia. etc. These calls were perfect. He was impeached twice and has 91 charges against him which are all part of the witch hunt “lies.” All the state and federal prosecutors are out to get him so the liar says..
Once again, with an authoritarian conscience, there exists two sets of values , ethics, rules and standards as one for Trump and one for others . It's as if the vector's behavioral force becomes non-impeded irrespective of the probability of negative consequences . He is right and entitled. He held the most powerful position in the world, He acted as if he were king and his rules and behavior were sanctioned from “above.” Just remember the amoral history of other authoritarian rulers. He's doing nothing irregular but continuing in their place as the means always justify the ends. If he was found guilty, it would be a travesty of justice in his mind . US presidents have never been convicted by jury and found guilty. They have a God-given right , in this white man’s rule , to be all powerful over his subjects . With his superior knowledge, he knows what's best .
Trump's mind is imbued with absurdity and apparent sterility within his own world. Anything he experiences , so do his others. His own aristocratic morality is entrenched far above the rest which include his loyal sycophants. His narcissistic morality which incorporates his power, prestige, and possessions , puts him above all the slaves that have to submit to his unimpeded actions according to his own implacable or unrelenting rules. Essentially, because of his authoritarian moral conscience, his behavior tendencies become subservient to rationality, saneness ,and humanism.
As Trump lives in the world of mistrust , he has to have complete control and domination. Moreover, in his mind, his society is founded on desire and crime according to his rules. This ruthless system , this rebellion , perpetuates non-democracy so that he can subjugate the majority. In essence, he constructed a citadel of force and hatred and in the process destroyed freedom for everyone else. Even though; he evokes the pleasant habit of crime, he cannot thoroughly please or become satisfied . He exhibits more like a man's fury while being in shackles. His enjoyment is temporary and short lived even with his possession and power over others Thus, his abhorrent actions must be repeated over and over again. Moreover, he is governed by the law of power which tends to be unique but solitary within his emotional stoicism that's derived from vice. He is unable to live in the world of love and compassion and is headed for an apocalyptic destruction of self .
In essence, In Trump's “inherited” mind . He logically criminalizes , becomes God and refuses to recognize any other law but his own. With that being said, the poet Boudelaire wrote "Everything in this world exudes crime and It is man's law of nature.” Furthermore, Trump's moral philosophy consists of domination and not submission with powers of defiance, opposition and refusal. This brings to mind the biblical story of Cain and Abel. It's obvious that Trump, in his mind, is jealous and envious and attempts to destroy Democracy and is blasphemous towards our Christian Republic of God. In doing so, our Legal Justice system symbolizes God , and does not permit Trump to be killed, but to continue his life in exile with the enduring pain of banishment ,loss of prestige without martyrdom. Or, according to Greek mythology, rebelled like Prometheus and was punished by Zeus with eternal torment.
Reference
Camus, Albert. The Rebel.
Jung, C.C. Psychology of the Unconscious.
PS
Marcus Aurelius "Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought."
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