Pride - audaciously hidden in plain sight behind another of our current humanity-annihilating agendas.
You've put your finger on that very important point that it doesn't matter what the agenda is. They are all outlets for the same emotionally wounded response to ourselves, protected out there onto the world in a giant drama triangle.
Your fine essay set my mind off wandering... and after a browse through IMDB about the "Death Wish" films I came to the conclusion that the motivating force behind the pride and narcissism was not the concern about the environment (as you rightly point out) but a Death Wish.
"From a Jungian perspective, the death wish may symbolize the need for transformation and rebirth, where the psyche seeks to shed old patterns and embrace new beginnings. This existential longing for a symbolic death and renewal is integral to individuation and personal growth."
Now while I don't think that Jung has all the answers it seems to me that the protestors' actions may be motivated by the desire for death (and destruction) as a means of renewal - professed as for 'the others' or for 'the environment' but mostly for themselves. Perhaps the desire for renewal is a reaction to how they have come to see their pre-protest selves, or the current state of the world?
Agreed. I've considered this psychology too, since it seems to be essentially self evident. Folks are yearning for self annihilation. I don't think it's in the Jungian form though, but more in line with Freud's conception, which lacks the spiritual dimension. I believe it's a manifestation of the total emptying of the inner life, and the focus on shallow materialism that defines this corporate industrial, fast food, disposable world in which nothing has depth or true value, not even one's own self. Hence, humanity is an infestation, a parasite that deserves eradication.
13 hrs ago·edited 12 hrs agoLiked by David McGrogan
Great piece David.
Seems to me, with the obvious decline in influence of the paternal archetype over the last half century, this infantile behaviour from adults of all ages is precisely what a Jungian might expect. The “Trickster” archetype (typically of teenage years) still dominant.
Also evidence perhaps of a now-dominant, shallow “other-directedness” described by David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd.
Yes - another way of putting it is that if you're very dissatisfied with the direction in which your life has gone, a shake of the Etch-A-Sketch starts to look appealing.
Wonderful insights here, David. My own take on Marxism, which characterises most activism these days, is that it's a philosophy of jealousy, and, as such, must make ideologues miserable. If you're always looking at what others have and what you yourself do not have, you can never find fulfilment or inner equanimity. Jealousy comes with that soul-destroying spiritual curse, which is what earns it a place among the cardinal sins.
It's a shame how misguided environmentalism is at the moment, and I've been lamenting how a good thing has been coopted by corporate-political shenanigans. Did you catch the crackpot move led by Bill Gates to destroy old growth forests and bury the trees in a hairbrained scheme to reduce carbon emissions? Put that together with plans to dim the sun by adding atmospheric gases and we get that megalomania to which you're referring. I saw that movie: it's called Highlander. What's to stop these world destroying comic book villains? The future is not looking good.
I remember seeing a TED talk years ago in which somebody was speculating about triggering volcanic eruptions in order to dim the sun. It was so obvious that he just loved the idea of making volcanoes explode. Everything else was secondary to that objective.
Another great essay, David, I especially enjoyed your engagement with The Magician's Nephew, which is oft ignored among Lewis' books.
This piece also captures what drove me away from Greenpeace: a sudden and shocking total disregard for environmentalism as I (and its founders!) understood it. My wife and I were equally driven away from Amnesty International as it gave up any understanding of rights in the Kantian sense (the rightful condition by which a nation maintains itself and respects the autonomy of its citizens) and took upon the childish bugbearisms of the infantile supposedly-left.
It remains remarkable to me just how rapidly you can unravel culture, an engine of dissolution I would suggest has been driven in part by the decline of reading and the rise of curated video. Regardless of where we disagree politically, we are both intimately caught up in the realm of the book. We live in a very different world to those who would deface art and call this barbarism righteousness.
"his ideas were nonetheless picked up in the end by people who very much had the courage of their convictions, and who were capable of taking over and running entire nations, to vastly consequential effect."
... "running entire nations" and ... ruining entire nations
Great piece - thank you. You’ve put your finger on something I’ve suspected for a while, namely that the Me! Me! Me! reductivism of so many eco-warriors is rooted in the illusion of total control by Man of Nature. This implies that if you only have right-minded people in charge, the planet will be saved, or whatever. The cosmology behind this view is primitive, the more nuanced approach to Creation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition is ignored and the anthropomorphic view of the natural world as a projection as the intellectual/emotional punchbag of a handful of baleful idiots is entrenched. In previous centuries these views would likely have been expressed in religious language - eg the Anabaptists of Münster - and therefore more easily recognised as heresies. In a secular world with the dubious benefits of social media, there are seemingly no limits to this dangerous malevolence. You’ve made me think afresh about Pride. Time to reread Paradise Lost?
In other words, Hubris. Which as classicists know is always pursued hot on its heels by Nemesis. Which is where are godless, super techno-materialist age has led us.
Steiner warned about this happening a century ago; even stating that this decade would see it emerge fully fledged.
I lean toward Nietzche and the Will to Power, combined with a dose of class hatred (the 'educated' class vs the rest) and a Gnostic tendency to believe that they alone are in possession of special truths. Throw in elite overproduction and the narcissistic supply provided by digital media and you get lots of Phoebes inserting themselves into the discourse.
Your point about eradicating all of humanity is well made. Just as the gay rights idéologues moved on to abolishing biological sex once they had gay marriage under the belt, these people would eventually move on to zero humans as their utopia. Or maybe a few 'indigenous' people practicing alternative ways of knowing etc.
So Mr McGrogan ‘endorses’ the belief that a changing climate (when has it never not changed?) is linked to fossil fuel emissions? Oh dear, oh dear. When will people wake up to the Great Climate Con? I understand Mr McGrogan is awake to the Great Covid Con so it should not be too difficult.
This was a long essay to read .....it felt circuitous/maze-like to me. [No offence]. Is it really the rage of individuals ( so much psychology!) against humanity in its broad sense, or is soup over paintings, or, people glueing themselves to roads, tying themselves to overhead gantries, something orchestrated to achieve specific aims. I'm thinking of the way the authorities respond to the actions of these groups subsumed by 'rage'.
I think taking care of the environment is more pressing than projects in the 'Green' sphere. Pollution of rivers, litter, fly tipping.....these activities affect health and morale. Projects to reduce Co2 in the UK are seriously misplaced. Funny that no one is enraged enough to get down to the river banks glueing themselves to trees, concerned about pollution. These 'soup throwers' are being manipulated to further several agendas.....being highly visible as they express their 'rage' is integral to that.
I know you’re using Just Stop Oil as your example, but I couldn’t help but keep thinking about Israel throughout the piece. Especially the part about brining about the destruction of the world.
Pride - audaciously hidden in plain sight behind another of our current humanity-annihilating agendas.
You've put your finger on that very important point that it doesn't matter what the agenda is. They are all outlets for the same emotionally wounded response to ourselves, protected out there onto the world in a giant drama triangle.
I'm feeling thoroughly sick of it...
Well, I'm afraid we're probably only at the beginning, so get used to that sickly feeling...
Your fine essay set my mind off wandering... and after a browse through IMDB about the "Death Wish" films I came to the conclusion that the motivating force behind the pride and narcissism was not the concern about the environment (as you rightly point out) but a Death Wish.
Although there are many 'explanations' for the Death Wish the one that struck me was from https://listen-hard.com/clinical-and-counseling-psychology/death-wish-psychology/ . Amongst other interpretations was:
"From a Jungian perspective, the death wish may symbolize the need for transformation and rebirth, where the psyche seeks to shed old patterns and embrace new beginnings. This existential longing for a symbolic death and renewal is integral to individuation and personal growth."
Now while I don't think that Jung has all the answers it seems to me that the protestors' actions may be motivated by the desire for death (and destruction) as a means of renewal - professed as for 'the others' or for 'the environment' but mostly for themselves. Perhaps the desire for renewal is a reaction to how they have come to see their pre-protest selves, or the current state of the world?
Agreed. I've considered this psychology too, since it seems to be essentially self evident. Folks are yearning for self annihilation. I don't think it's in the Jungian form though, but more in line with Freud's conception, which lacks the spiritual dimension. I believe it's a manifestation of the total emptying of the inner life, and the focus on shallow materialism that defines this corporate industrial, fast food, disposable world in which nothing has depth or true value, not even one's own self. Hence, humanity is an infestation, a parasite that deserves eradication.
Great piece David.
Seems to me, with the obvious decline in influence of the paternal archetype over the last half century, this infantile behaviour from adults of all ages is precisely what a Jungian might expect. The “Trickster” archetype (typically of teenage years) still dominant.
Also evidence perhaps of a now-dominant, shallow “other-directedness” described by David Riesman in The Lonely Crowd.
This is definitely a major part of the problem.
Yes - another way of putting it is that if you're very dissatisfied with the direction in which your life has gone, a shake of the Etch-A-Sketch starts to look appealing.
Wonderful insights here, David. My own take on Marxism, which characterises most activism these days, is that it's a philosophy of jealousy, and, as such, must make ideologues miserable. If you're always looking at what others have and what you yourself do not have, you can never find fulfilment or inner equanimity. Jealousy comes with that soul-destroying spiritual curse, which is what earns it a place among the cardinal sins.
It's a shame how misguided environmentalism is at the moment, and I've been lamenting how a good thing has been coopted by corporate-political shenanigans. Did you catch the crackpot move led by Bill Gates to destroy old growth forests and bury the trees in a hairbrained scheme to reduce carbon emissions? Put that together with plans to dim the sun by adding atmospheric gases and we get that megalomania to which you're referring. I saw that movie: it's called Highlander. What's to stop these world destroying comic book villains? The future is not looking good.
I remember seeing a TED talk years ago in which somebody was speculating about triggering volcanic eruptions in order to dim the sun. It was so obvious that he just loved the idea of making volcanoes explode. Everything else was secondary to that objective.
Another great essay, David, I especially enjoyed your engagement with The Magician's Nephew, which is oft ignored among Lewis' books.
This piece also captures what drove me away from Greenpeace: a sudden and shocking total disregard for environmentalism as I (and its founders!) understood it. My wife and I were equally driven away from Amnesty International as it gave up any understanding of rights in the Kantian sense (the rightful condition by which a nation maintains itself and respects the autonomy of its citizens) and took upon the childish bugbearisms of the infantile supposedly-left.
It remains remarkable to me just how rapidly you can unravel culture, an engine of dissolution I would suggest has been driven in part by the decline of reading and the rise of curated video. Regardless of where we disagree politically, we are both intimately caught up in the realm of the book. We live in a very different world to those who would deface art and call this barbarism righteousness.
With unlimited love,
Chris.
Thanks Chris. I know what you mean about the unravelling.
"his ideas were nonetheless picked up in the end by people who very much had the courage of their convictions, and who were capable of taking over and running entire nations, to vastly consequential effect."
... "running entire nations" and ... ruining entire nations
Great piece - thank you. You’ve put your finger on something I’ve suspected for a while, namely that the Me! Me! Me! reductivism of so many eco-warriors is rooted in the illusion of total control by Man of Nature. This implies that if you only have right-minded people in charge, the planet will be saved, or whatever. The cosmology behind this view is primitive, the more nuanced approach to Creation of the Judaeo-Christian tradition is ignored and the anthropomorphic view of the natural world as a projection as the intellectual/emotional punchbag of a handful of baleful idiots is entrenched. In previous centuries these views would likely have been expressed in religious language - eg the Anabaptists of Münster - and therefore more easily recognised as heresies. In a secular world with the dubious benefits of social media, there are seemingly no limits to this dangerous malevolence. You’ve made me think afresh about Pride. Time to reread Paradise Lost?
"total control by Man of Nature."
In other words, Hubris. Which as classicists know is always pursued hot on its heels by Nemesis. Which is where are godless, super techno-materialist age has led us.
Steiner warned about this happening a century ago; even stating that this decade would see it emerge fully fledged.
Oof, I enjoyed this as a rhetorical broadside.
I lean toward Nietzche and the Will to Power, combined with a dose of class hatred (the 'educated' class vs the rest) and a Gnostic tendency to believe that they alone are in possession of special truths. Throw in elite overproduction and the narcissistic supply provided by digital media and you get lots of Phoebes inserting themselves into the discourse.
Your point about eradicating all of humanity is well made. Just as the gay rights idéologues moved on to abolishing biological sex once they had gay marriage under the belt, these people would eventually move on to zero humans as their utopia. Or maybe a few 'indigenous' people practicing alternative ways of knowing etc.
CS Lewis was all over this, far in advance. It's all in That Hideous Strength - I've had a post brewing about that for a long time.
I know already that I'll enjoy that !
Screaming Narcissism another factor; the hugely privileged showing the rest of us sinners their moral superiority. Gen Z = Gen Narcissist. Revolting.
In defence of Gen Z, a large number of these activists also seem to be OAPs.
True. Not this 73 year old...
So Mr McGrogan ‘endorses’ the belief that a changing climate (when has it never not changed?) is linked to fossil fuel emissions? Oh dear, oh dear. When will people wake up to the Great Climate Con? I understand Mr McGrogan is awake to the Great Covid Con so it should not be too difficult.
This was a long essay to read .....it felt circuitous/maze-like to me. [No offence]. Is it really the rage of individuals ( so much psychology!) against humanity in its broad sense, or is soup over paintings, or, people glueing themselves to roads, tying themselves to overhead gantries, something orchestrated to achieve specific aims. I'm thinking of the way the authorities respond to the actions of these groups subsumed by 'rage'.
I think taking care of the environment is more pressing than projects in the 'Green' sphere. Pollution of rivers, litter, fly tipping.....these activities affect health and morale. Projects to reduce Co2 in the UK are seriously misplaced. Funny that no one is enraged enough to get down to the river banks glueing themselves to trees, concerned about pollution. These 'soup throwers' are being manipulated to further several agendas.....being highly visible as they express their 'rage' is integral to that.
Fascinating thesis.
I know you’re using Just Stop Oil as your example, but I couldn’t help but keep thinking about Israel throughout the piece. Especially the part about brining about the destruction of the world.