Gripa in CSAT

*** un argument interesant despre relatia dintre frica si preferintele politice, mai complet decat Huxley acum 50 de ani. Destul de lung si lucrurile interesante sunt la sfarsit, dar merita zic eu:)

McCoy et al. (2000) have also called attention to the link between the fear of individuation and the fear of death in explaining why most people find it impossible to sustain a genuinely creative, individualistic way of being and living: “Independence from social consensus, creation of a truly individualized worldview, and a broad concern for all humankind
are difficult to achieve” (p. 58).

Many children grow up in families where the parents exert excessive control through rules and prohibitions that demand blind obedience and conformity. In these families the satisfaction of children’s needs for survival, security, affection, and love is contingent upon their unquestioning
loyalty to their parents, whether it is deserved or not. Thus throughout their lives, they are easily infl uenced and manipulated by other people.

They have been successfully programmed to be selfless, that is, to accommodate to the wishes, demands, and opinions of others at their own expense (R. Firestone & Catlett, 1999). Becker (1973/1997) cited Fritz Perls in arguing that the resultant conformity is part of a neurotic process that destroys critical thinking, yet people are mostly unaware of their conformity and submission.

Individuality and nonconformity require unusual courage and dedication because there is always guilt and fear from breaking with tradition. It increases one’s sense of aloneness, loneliness, and sense of isolation; and, in addition, there are signifi cant prejudices, repercussions, and retaliation directed toward an outsider with different views. The uniqueness and free expression of the nonconformist threaten the conventional person because they raise existential anxiety.
Becker (1973/1997) and Fromm (1941) pointed out that most individuals seek an ultimate rescuer or idolized hero, whether within a personal relationship, in the entertainment, sports, or music world, or in the business or political sphere. People who are more submissive or conforming in their orientation transfer the desperate feelings and dependency needs that originally characterized their relationship with their parents onto new fi gures and ideologies and thus feel relief from existential fears. They are especially susceptible to the influence of charismatic, authoritarian leaders who promise them certainty and safety.

The authors contend that the fear of death drives individuals to support destructive, toxic leaders and embrace patriotic, nationalistic movements in a search for security and immortality. Dependence on a particular group, idolization of a leader, and mindless allegiance to a cause function as defenses against death anxiety (R. Firestone & Catlett, 2009). In her book The Allure of Toxic Leaders, Lipman-Blumen (2005) emphasized the fact that many destructive and ineffective leaders remain in power because they fulfi ll basic needs of their constituents or followers:

"The real tragedy of the human condition is not that we must die, but that we choose to live by illusions. . . . Illusions are the umbilical cord linking leaders and followers. Leaders understand their followers’ need for illusions. . . . In a terrifyingly uncertain world, the illusions that leaders spin offer us a lifeline. They free the other side of our natures—the creative, thoughtful, spiritual side—permitting even us small, short-lived creatures to become signifi cant fi gures in the grand universe. (pp. 50–51)"

By subordinating their views to those propagated by an idolized leader and by conforming to the group consensus, frightened individuals merge their identities with that of the group. This imagined fusion imbues them with a feeling of immortality and invulnerability. They imagine that although they may not survive as separate individual entities, they will live on as part of something larger that will continue to exist after they are gone (R. Firestone, 1996; R. Firestone & Catlett, 2009).

Ultimately people living within a functional democracy are accountable for their government’s policies, for the goals that their leaders pursue, for the actions taken on their behalf, and most importantly, for the means their leaders use to achieve these ends. Unfortunately, there will always be a large number of individuals who seek out irresponsible, toxic leaders in an attempt to compensate for their own failings and dependency needs and to protect them from facing their aloneness and personal mortality (Lipman-Blumen, 2005; J. Post, 2004).

Terror Management researchers, in their vigorous study of the effect of death salience on human attitudes and behavior, have empirically verified aspects of Ernest Becker’s theoretical formulation. Their experimental design involves the comparison of two control groups; one that is exposed to words that are designed to subtly arouse death salience, and one that is not. The researchers then observe how each group responds to various issues. (See meta-review in Solomon et al., 2004.)

Their findings indicate that after subjects were presented with the word death subliminally in an experimental setting, they more strongly endorsed the worldview of their own ethnic group or nation; at the same time they denigrated members of other groups whose worldviews differed from their own. Other studies showed that people tend to be more moralistic toward people whose behavior confl icts with society’s social or moral codes. For example, judges whose death awareness was raised set higher bails on prostitutes than judges in the control group. These reactions were also evident at the behavioral level: subjects whose death salience was elevated administered larger amounts of an aversive substance to people of a religious denomination and ethnic background different than their own.

These reactions to unconscious stimuli may also affect political choices. For example, two recent studies, post-9/11, found that subjects in the high death awareness group favored a candidate whom they perceived as charismatic and who insisted on an aggressive agenda toward their enemies over one who urged a more diplomatic path (F. Cohen, Ogilvie, Solomon, Greenberg, & Pyszczynski, 2005; F. Cohen, Solomon, Maxfield, Pyszczynski, & Greenberg, 2004).

If the single word death introduced subliminally in an experiment can produce signifi cant changes in subjects’ attitudes and actions, one can only imagine the powerful effect of countless events in the real world that remind people of their mortality (R. Firestone, 1988). Witnessing a horrible accident on the freeway, or watching the fatalities of war on the evening news, or hearing about the death of a friend or famous person are reminders that seriously impact the nature of the sensitive human being. Even though we have become habituated and desensitized to the visual images of tragedy that we are exposed to everyday, these images still have a profound infl uence on our unconscious minds and significantly alter our motivations and behaviors.