• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Are we all “dittoheads” to some ideology?

coberst

New member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
336
Are we all “dittoheads” to some ideology?

Wikipedia informs me that “dittoheads” are “faithful listeners to The Rush Limbaugh Show. Limbaugh explains that these adoring fans are not necessarily those who agree with his views; “they are people who love the show and what he's doing, and hope he never stops doing it.” Dittohead is a term that came into use because one caller said “ditto” to a string of former callers who praised Limbaugh’s rants; he recognized that time was important on the show and just wanted everyone to know that he wanted to “OK” all the glories previously announced by others.”

The “art of reasoning consists in…getting hold of the big ideas and hanging on to them like grim death”--William James

I think that the ‘big idea’ is the ‘big question’ that we must answer if we desire to comprehend “why do we do the things we do?”

Wo/man worships and fears power; we enthusiastically give our loyalty to our leader. Sapiens are at heart slavish. Therein lay the rub, as Shakespeare might say.

Freud was the first to focus upon the phenomenon of a patient’s inclination to transfer the feelings s/he had toward her parents as a child to the physician. The patient distorts the perception of the physician; s/he enlarges the figure up far out of reason and becomes dependent upon him. In this transference of feeling, which the patient had for his parents, to the physician the grown person displays all the characteristics of the child at heart, a child who distorts reality in order to relieve his helplessness and fears.

Freud saw these transference phenomena as the form of human suggestibility that makes the control over another, as displayed by hypnosis, as being possible. Hypnosis seems mysterious and mystifying to us only because we hide our slavish need for authority from our self. We live the big lie, which lay within this need to submit our self slavishly to another, because we want to think of our self as self-determined and independent in judgment and choice.

The predisposition to hypnosis is identical to that which gives rise to transference and it is characteristic of all sapiens. We could not function as adults if we retained this submissive attitude to our parents, however, this attitude of submissiveness, as noted by Ferenczi, is “The need to be subject to someone remains; only the part of the father is transferred to teachers, superiors, impressive personalities; the submissive loyalty to rulers that is so widespread is also a transference of this sort.”

Freud saw immediately that when caught up in groups wo/man became dependent children once again. They abandoned their individual egos for that of the leader; they identified with their leader and proceeded to function with him as their ideal. Freud identified man, not as a herd animal but as a horde (teeming crowd) animal that is led by a chief. Wo/man has an insatiable need for authority.

People have an insatiable need to be hypnotized by authority; they seek a magical protection as when they were infants protected by their mother. This is the force that acts to hold groups together, intertwined within a mutually constructed but often mindless interdependence. This mindless group think also builds a feeling of potency. The members feel a sense of unity within the grasp of their leadership.

‘Why are groups so blind and stupid?’ Freud asked; and he replied that mankind lived by self delusion. They “constantly give what is unreal precedence over what is real.” The real world is too frightening to behold; delusion changes this by making sapiens seem important. This explains the terrible sadism we see in group activity.

Sapiens display a need to be hypnotized by leaders.

Psychology is a domain of knowledge that is complex and filled with concepts that are completely unfamiliar to the vast majority of our population. But Psychology provides us with an insight into why humans do what they do that no other domain of knowledge can provide.

Sapiens are at heart slavish. Therein lay the rub, as Shakespeare might say.

Humans seek to be more than animals. We seek to be gods or at least propagate that level above animal and just below God.

That which promotes life is good that which promotes death is evil. “Evil lies not in the hearts of men but in the social arrangements that men take for granted.”

Wo/man lives a debased life under tyranny and self delusion because s/he does not comprehend the conditions of natural freedom. Sapiens need hope and belief in themselves; thus illusion is necessary if it is creative for life, but is evil if it promotes death.

A psychodynamic analysis of history displays saga of death, destruction, and coercion from the outside while inside we see self-delusion and self enslavement. We seek mystification. We seek transference; we seek hypnotists as our chosen leaders.

We seek the power to ward off big evil by reflexively embracing small terrors and small fascinations in the place of overwhelming ones.

I concluded that we are all dittoheads to one degree or another. Intellectual sophistication is a means to extract our self from our self imposed dittoheadhood.

Do you have any interest in comprehending why humans do what they do?

Can you think of any subject matter that might provided this insight better than does psychology?

Have you ever tried to study psychology?
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
Can you think of any subject matter that might provided this insight better than does psychology?

Have you ever tried to study psychology?

Psychology is interesting as it addresses both the the horde and the individual.

Sigmund Freud had a practical reason to understand the horde as they were about to descend on Austria and send him into exile and kill his family.

And so it was his student, Wilhelm Reich, who wrote, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism".

And unfortunately it was his other student, Carl Jung, who freely joined the horde and wrote, "Personality Types", from which MBTI is derived.

So psychology can be used to free us from the horde, as in, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism".

Or psychology can be used to seduce us and bind us closer to the horde, as in, "Personality Types".

And as the word, 'religion', comes from the latin word, 'religio', meaning to bind, religion tends to bind us to the horde.

And as the word, 'psychology', comes from the ancient greek word, 'psyche', meaning soul, psychology tends to set the soul free.

And it is an interesting irony that Sigmund Freud once opined that his Psychoanalysis would replace Catholicism.
 

Sentura

Phoenix Incarnate
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
750
MBTI Type
ENXP
Enneagram
1w9
i usually read people's post if they have something to say, at least if it's interesting. however, i couldn't force myself to follow your train of thought. i get the feeling you're trying to write this in a poetic manner, but it just comes off as pretentious and dull. it's very much pissing me off to read.

victor's post is biased against personality types, even though it is because of the archetypes that jung created that we have gotten access to depth psychology and the unconscious mind. if i were to believe in your theory about dittoheads, this would be a perfect example of such.

...but i don't. humans were not beings born following ideologies or the whim of others. they were born following the idea of themselves and their mind. cogito ergo sum.

i'm not going to further with this, because this thread does not hold enough merit to be worth posting in.
 

Lateralus

New member
Joined
May 18, 2007
Messages
6,262
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
3w4
I didn't read your entire post. It was too long and I got bored with it after a couple paragraphs. But to answer your main question, I think most people are, but not all.
 

coberst

New member
Joined
Oct 16, 2007
Messages
336
A steady diet of Twinkies and chips make for a fat gut; a steady diet of sound bites and bumper stickers makes for a fat head.
 

Mole

Permabanned
Joined
Mar 20, 2008
Messages
20,284
"Character Analysis" or Character Assassination?

victor's post is biased against personality types, even though it is because of the archetypes that jung created that we have gotten access to depth psychology and the unconscious mind. if i were to believe in your theory about dittoheads, this would be a perfect example of such.

Wilhelm Reich not only wrote, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", but he also wrote, "Character Analysis".

"Character Analysis", is a book of depth and decency.

And, "Character Analysis", is a counter-weight to Carl Jung's book, "Personality Types".

Do read both, "Character Analysis", and "Personality Types", and compare them.

I found, "Character Analysis", to have depth and decency while, "Personality Types", to be shallow and indecent and was written for the horde.

And if you read both books, you will be able to compare them, you will be able to see whether they are consonant or dissonant.

And I think if you read them you will discover cognitive dissonance.

However cognitive dissonance will cause you emotional pain, so perhaps you will choose not to read them.

Perhaps you will continue to express your opinion about books you haven't even read.

And rather than reading, "Character Analysis", you will continue to assassinate my character.
 

Sentura

Phoenix Incarnate
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
750
MBTI Type
ENXP
Enneagram
1w9
Wilhelm Reich not only wrote, "The Mass Psychology of Fascism", but he also wrote, "Character Analysis".

"Character Analysis", is a book of depth and decency.

And, "Character Analysis", is a counter-weight to Carl Jung's book, "Personality Types".

Do read both, "Character Analysis", and "Personality Types", and compare them.

I found, "Character Analysis", to have depth and decency while, "Personality Types", to be shallow and indecent and was written for the horde.

And if you read both books, you will be able to compare them, you will be able to see whether they are consonant or dissonant.

And I think if you read them you will discover cognitive dissonance.

However cognitive dissonance will cause you emotional pain, so perhaps you will choose not to read them.

Perhaps you will continue to express your opinion about books you haven't even read.

And rather than reading, "Character Analysis", you will continue to assassinate my character.

Depth psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Analytical psychology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

i do not need to read what has already been imprinted. neither of these people were the first to experience what their own minds were, and they are most certainly not the last ones. i will read them if i find them to be relevant to my own purpose; not because you think they are decent or deep. you forget that your opinion is subjective, and that people will experience media such as books differently than you will, yet you still hold your opinion in the highest regard. you're biased, victor; and as a scholar, that is something i can never allow myself to be.

the references i give you in this post contain enough information to merit my previous post, in which you mistakenly think i assault your character. i have no intention to harm your persona, as it would violate my above principle and disrupt my search. in addition, i have not at any point referenced the books you suggest - tell me, how do you expect me to talk about books without even their mention?

you underestimate me, victor. it was perhaps a fault of mine to give less merit in my post than i actual hold. but it too was a fault of yours to judge a mind on its exterior. i have felt the pain, and i have moved beyond it. i have ventured into domains of my mind that have stripped me of parts of my own humanity. in my search, i have justified these losses for two reasons: because i know that the mind of a human cannot see the mind of a human without being subjective, and because the further added objectivity will help me in my judgments on the road ahead. if i go back, i lose everything. so i look forward, to the bright light that stands between me and my next of many revelations to come.

so tell me, victor. how far along are you on this road?
 

Sentura

Phoenix Incarnate
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
750
MBTI Type
ENXP
Enneagram
1w9
I am staggered that you so confidently express your opinion about books you don't need to read.

as am i by your ability to quote things out of context. your point being?
 
Top