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David Levine's avatar

the phenomenon of preferring authoritarian rule, because freedom is scary, is hardly a new thing. Wilhelm Reich wrote eloquently about this in a BUNCH of books. and if the Reichian Orgonomy stuff struck readers as being a bridge or two too far, there's always Erich Fromm. these guys were Jewish thinkers writing in the immediate wake of WWII, so they had plenty of skin in the game, as did the members of the Frankfurt School, who get trashed today by people who have no idea what they were actually about.

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Susan Linehan's avatar

Reich is indeed a bit much, but I am cool with the Frankfurt School., at least those I've read. I actually knew Leo Lowenthal. I worked for the library at the Stanford Behavior Science Center when he was a Fellow there. Fetched many a book from the Stanford Library for him; he was big on Interlibrary Loan.

It has been a long time since we've seen so many people actually YEARNING to be under Big Father's protective thumb, as opposed to accommodating a fait accompli. They have truly no idea what will happen when the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party starts getting hungry.

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David Levine's avatar

isn't the point of all those guys that they NEVER do.

and the historical memory is so short; we see m to have given it up so EASILY.

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