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Book Excerpts
Below are selections from the book The Liberal Mind: The
Psychological Causes of Political Madness, by Lyle H. Rossiter, Jr.,
M.D.
From the Preface:
This book is about human nature and human freedom,
and the relationship between them. Its contents are an outgrowth
of my life-long interest in how the mind works.... (click here to continue)
On the Madness of Modern Liberalism:
The egalitarianism and welfarism of modern liberal government are
incompatible with the facts of human nature and the human condition.
But the rise to power of the liberal agenda has resulted from the fact
that the people of western societies have irrationally demanded that
governments take care of them and manage their lives instead of
protecting their property rights. This misconception results in
massive violations of those rights while permitting government
officials to act out their own and their constituents'
psychopathology... (click here to continue)
On the Ideals and Dangers of Liberalism:
Any government with the power to mother its citizens also has the power
to dominate them and steal from them: to overtax them, confiscate
their property and override their binding agreements. For this reason,
the legally enforceable institutions of society must be very limited,
lest the government charged with protecting the people against tyranny
and theft becomes itself the most dangerous tyrant and thief.
Under the creed of modern liberalism, the individual citizen is not called to maturity but
is instead invited to begin a second childhood. Like the child at play,
he is given, or at least promised, ultimate economic, social and
political security without having to assume responsibility for
himself... (click here to continue)
On the Appeal of Modern Liberalism:
The rise to power of the liberal agenda has resulted from a particular
meaning that government has come to have for people in western
societies, namely, that the state is a proper source from which to
gratify the longings of the people for various forms of parental care.
The modern state has taken on the role of an apparently benign,
generous, omnipotent and god-like parent, who serves as custodian,
manager, provider and caretaker, all to the detriment of the people.
We have, in effect, parentified our governments in the belief that we
will be better off if they take care of us than if we take care of
ourselves... (click here to continue)
On the Seduction of the Liberal Agenda:
The liberal agenda's favors seduce the people a little at a time,
always playing on their regressive longings to be indulged. Favor by
favor, accompanied by the constant drumbeat of entitlement propaganda,
the otherwise intelligent citizen is led to an increasingly erroneous
conception of the proper role of government in a free society. Like a
child molester, the liberal politician grooms his constituents until
their natural cautions against yielding power in exchange for favors
dissolves in reassurance... (click here to continue)
On the Psychopathology of the Liberal Mind:
Rather, the adult drive toward omnipotent control of others, in any
arena whatever, is rooted in fears of separation, abandonment loss or
abuse--the residual effects of early attachment gone wrong. The need
to dominate others arises from the tyrant's need for absolute assurance
that the catastrophic loss of dependency or the pain of abuse so
devastating to him in his earliest years will not be repeated. In his
determination to control the world, he constantly defends himself
against what Karen Horney aptly described as the most basic of human
fears: being alone and helpless in a dangerous, indifferent world, the
nightmare of the abandoned, terrified child. Persons plagued with such
fears easily conclude that it is in their greatest interest to dominate
others, or to imagine that they can, and to set about achieving that
goal through the manipulation of government power.
On Character:
These abilities contribute to what is commonly called character, which
term also implies dispositions to behave with honesty, integrity,
responsibility, self-direction and dependability in interactions with
others. Among other things, persons with good character typically
keep promises and honor contracts, respect the sovereignty of other
persons and their ownership of property, and in so far as possible,
take responsibility for themselves by providing for their own needs and
the needs of those to whom they have assumed some voluntary
obligation. Persons with character do not make legally
enforceable claims on the time, effort or material assets of other
persons. They do not feel entitled to be subsidized by persons
with whom they have no prior personal relationship or contractual
duty... (click here to continue)
On Altruism:
A competent individual always remains a unique and lifelong cause of
his own experience, with innate capacities for awareness, choice and
initiative that serve him in his quest for self-fulfillment. This
pole of his human nature justifies a life lived in freedom, one that
reflects his exercise of personal sovereignty. Depending on his
level of maturity, however, he will also commit himself voluntarily to
the well-being of others and find that commitment rewarding in its own
right. When not lost in the torment and dysfunction of mental disorder
or discouraged by the oppressive hand of government, charitable service
to others feels inherently gratifying and even fulfilling, not
burden-some, to the mature adult. This altruistic pole of human
nature, a rational expression of a biologically determined nurturing
instinct, is one of the pillars of social order.
On Integrity:
Integrity usually means wholeness, completeness, soundness or lack of
impairment, and Erickson clearly applies these meanings to his ideas
about life's last phase. Integrity can also have more specialized
meanings... (click here to continue)
On the Ideals of a Ordered Liberty:
Thus, a society's values and expectations about what is right or just
influence the citizen's moral choices in economic, social and political
arenas at any moment. If society honors the principles of
rational individualism, the citizen's choices will be influenced by
ideals of individual liberty, self-reliance, personal responsibility,
voluntary cooperation, moral realism, and respect for the rights and
sovereignty of others. If, on the other hand, society honors the
liberal agenda's principles of coercive collectivism, then the
citizen's choices will be influenced by ideals of entitlement, welfare
dependency, state regulation, moral relativism, and the socialization
of major categories of human action... (click here to continue)
On Writing One's Life Story:
When his efforts are not stifled by government policy but are instead
allowed to flower as fully as possible through personal choices among
real world opportunities, the individual's life becomes a unique story,
written as it is lived, and rewritten creatively as fate and fortune
demand... (click here to continue)
On the Role of the Family:
A mother who is thus able to require of her child that he treat her to
an ever increasing extent as a sovereign individual instead of a mere
instrument for his ends has profound significance, not just for the
child's growth but also for the broader social order. In the
family that facilitates his growth to competence rather than to
character disorder, a framework of family "law and order" obligates the
child to reciprocate the loving embrace from which he consistently
benefits. Among other things, this framework demands of the child
that he play by the rules: that he respect the persons, property
and sensibilities of others and do what he agrees to do. The
family communicates and enforces this obligation as both an expression
of their love and a condition of it.
Consistent with the broadly destructive effects of its social
philosophy, modern liberalism has had significant success in
undermining the foundations of the traditional family despite the fact
that its concept of society is modeled on the family. These
effects have resulted from the agenda's legislative initiatives and
from its persistent invitations to relax the constraints of
conscience... (click here to continue)
On Child Development and Freedom:
In terminating the infant's parasitism in his mother's womb, birth
permanently removes all guarantees of material security for the
remainder of his life. It is a politically momentous fact that the
infant is now a separate and highly vulnerable entity that has been
transported from the limited but guaranteed environment of the womb to
the unlimited and contingent environment of the outside world. This
most basic existential condition, one that lasts life-long for
everyone, generates much of modern political conflict... (click here to continue)
On Adolescence:
If any phase of the life cycle embodies the innate human urge to be free, it is surely that of adolescence... (click here to continue)
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