Ours is a sick society. Sickness is health, health sickness. The good is often coercive and abusive. The feared evil, a response from repression.

Authoritarianism is a psychopathology. Yeah, that means sick in the head as well as in the heart. Authoritarian thinking is the enemy of freedom and humanity. All authoritarians are sexually and politically repressed. They are afraid of their bodies and of ideas of responsibility and self-actualization. They have no sense of freedom and self-discipline, and freedom scares them, so they must fight it in others. They are always on the defensive.

Authoritarians must live in a rigid social hierarchy of behavior and belief to function and feel comfortable. They need discipline from above and must discipline those below. In other words, the abuse from above will be passed on to those lower in the hierarchy.

Authoritarianism isn't necessarily bad because of its imposed inequalities, but because it stultifies human possibilities.

Real authority is something entirely different. It is earned, self-disciplined and free and has a natural, relaxed power. It does not need to assert control over others because they will recognize it and respond accordingly to their needs. Leaders have authority, dictators are authoritarians.

Our society is a guilt based one; Arabic societies are shame based. Guilt is largely a private matter, shame a public one. We westerners hide guilt; it must be uncovered. Arabs must defend against shame because they can't hide. Both are dysfunctional. Each society needs some of the other.

Why are Americans so uneasy with satire? We have periods when satire is in vogue, but sometimes it's noticeably absent when we need it. So many other nations have a healthy, ongoing satiric tradition. It seems that we're oversensitive and take it too personally. You might notice that most American satire is directed at real persons, rather than situations or ideas. Why is this?

Psychohistory is the study of mass psychology and how it affects history.

Conclusion: We're nuts.

At any time probably at least half of the human race is to some degree insane. We suffer from unsupported beliefs, illusions, delusions and act on them as if they are factual. Certainly, this isn't rational behavior, the consequences which are running head first into the brick wall of reality, creating enemies, fearing paper tigers. Our political and religious beliefs are supported by our emotional programming, learned in early childhood. Many of our beliefs aren't chosen rationally. We are emotionally attached to our beliefs such that they seem an integral part of ourselves, and any questioning of them is perceived as a personal attack. Because many of our emotional attachments were created by some form of abuse that hasn't been reconciled, they are dysfunctional, leading to inappropriate behaviors for the immediate situation. We're emotional robots, programmed to respond to situations without thinking. Our responses are usually the wrong ones. And this condition is so widespread that it is peceived as normal and healthy. Wars are fought to sacrifice ourselves, leaders or enemies, not for political and material gain because so much is destroyed that there can't be any benefit. We never admit this, even to ourselves.

There is a cure.

Psychohistory is the study of dysfunctional beliefs and their consequences throughout history.

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