Middle Class and Assimilative Psychology

Truth can be found at the top, at the bottom, outside, and in the intellectual realm, but very rarely in the middle.

The people at the top often have truth  because of what it took them to get to the top and what it took for them to stay there. The people at the bottom often have truth because it's staring them in their face and they can't get away from it. The people on the outside also often have truth - because of the insights that took them out of the fold and the experiential knowledge that they gained by surviving there for any length of time.

In the middle, truth is found mainly in two cases: Either when someone has risen there from nothing or from some external entity; or when someone possesses significant academic knowledge.

Where truth is least likely to be found is the people who have been on the middle all their lives and did not go out much - above, below, outside, or into the intellectual realm.

Instead these people are constantly fed dogmatic rubbish to make them compliant. Some of that rubbish comes from the church; but there is also rubbish that comes from what I call assimilative psychology.

One example of assimilative psychology is found in the works of my UVA classmate and fellow Russian immigrant Sam Vaknin, champion of the no-longer-existent "Narcissistic Personality Disorder." Like his Soviet predecessors, Vaknin has used psychology to pathologize dissent - in this case to pathologize dissent from one of the many dogmas found in the American middle class. Having accepted as mental health that dogma, the assimilative psychologists portray any distinctness from it as sickness -and then go to war with the top, the bottom, the outside, and those in the middle who have either had experiences that refute or challenge the dogma or who possess sharp enough intellects to see through the same.

According to Mr. Vaknin, if "narcissism" ever becomes a part of anyone's character, then it is there forever. That is a very similar claim to "once a Jew always a Jew," and it falls apart under rational scrutiny. If people are in charge of their character and their personalities, then they can get rid of any part of their character or personality they do not want to be there; and if they cannot do that, then they are not in charge of their character and personality and cannot be judged for the same. What we see here therefore is paramount irrationality - irrationality that is entirely unsuited for anyone claiming to be part of scientific inquiry.

According to many practicioners of assimilative psychology, "sociopaths" are supposedly "by definition" unable to be good people; and that leaves people accused of being sociopaths constantly persecuted - however hard they work, however much good they do, and whatever work they do on themselves. Once again, if people are responsible for their character and personalities then they can be good whatever their psychological makeup; and if they cannot do that then they are not responsible for their character and personalities and cannot be judged for the same. The illogic of claiming some people evil whatever they do runs against reason and reality. Either people choose who they are and can choose superior behavior and personal adaptations, or they do not choose who they are and therefore can't be judged for the outcome. Pick one or the other; both cannot be.

With the concept of these disorders has been brought in the idea of crimethink - that one can be made criminal by virtue of how one thinks. And the result has been a totalitarianism so complete that people aren't free from it even within the privacy of their minds. It takes quite a bit of ingenuity to create such a vast racket. Unfortunately it's not what makes for a free country or for a free world.

The task of keeping a lie going demands extinction from people's view - of anything that is of the truth and of other competing fallacies. For this reason keeping a lie going necessarily requires de facto totalitarianism, and the result is as follows: Holocaust against ever greater sections of the population; tightening the noose further and further around everyone else's necks. Some people are destroyed, others are conned and blinded. Whether the people being exterminated are Jews or "sociopaths" is function only of the particular Big Lie.

Besides stomping on minds that have the capacity to see through the deceptions and rackets of middle classes, assimilative psychology likes to manipulate the middle classes to attack people who are not them. Much of their attack comes against those at the top or those on the outside; there is also attack against those at the bottom. The first are seen as elitist or predatory; the second as traitors; and the last, as criminals or parasites. Meanwhile the middle classes owe vastly to all of these entities; and one is far more likely to find, in either entities, people of greater clue if not necessarily of greater politeness.

The lies of the middle class have lead to creation of de facto totalitarianism; and the solution is not to enhance the totalitarianism but rather to see through the lies. It is only when rackets are seen through and people see truth clearly that it becomes possible to have real intelligence.

And, since maintaining what's true - as opposed to maintaining a lie - does not require blinding or demonization, it is only though this that there can be real liberty.