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Why Palin appeals to shell-shocked Americans
She is the perfect leader for Americans eager to apportion blame for the Wall St crisis, says psychoanalyst Coline Covington
In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, nearly every US house and apartment building flew the American flag and US foreign policy became in some respects as nationalistic and isolationist as it had during the McCarthy era. This was the first attack that the US had suffered on home soil since Pearl Harbor and Americans felt more vulnerable than ever before.
This vulnerability was only exacerbated by the fact that capturing Osama bin Laden and conquering the forces of al-Qaeda were simply not happening the way they were meant to.
In the past weeks, we have witnessed an even greater attack on the US in the form of the collapse of its financial markets. What were once considered 'safe-as-houses' investments are now suddenly in the high-risk category. Humpty-Dumpty has indeed had a great fall.
As a result, the US is suffering from narcissistic shell-shock. When the over-confident individual suffers a life blow that is beyond his control, his first response is usually to attempt to regain an illusion of control by blaming the 'other', whoever that 'other' might be. Then, as a consequence of projecting blame onto others, the individual becomes paranoid about anything 'other' or foreign and this in turn can be used to justify further attacks. Finally, he retrenches into the stronghold of narcissistic behaviour and its promise of safety in power.
Because the financial crisis has been spawned from within the US, and not by outside enemies, it is trickier to deal with than 9/11. The 'blame' is much harder to push onto 'others'. One way of dealing with this kind of internal disaster/attack is by treating it as a kind of tsunami, or a phenomenon that is beyond our control and in the hands of God, nature, or fate.
Who could be better at spearheading this approach than Sarah Palin, McCain's choice as vice-presidential candidate? She has deliberately perpetrated the image of the frontierswoman at a time when it is bound to be most appealing to members of a country that feels itself to be fighting against all the odds and that is anxious not only about losing ground (and face) but about what might be coming over the next hill.
The frontier spirit is just what is needed. The American Indians have been replaced by the Iraqis, ecological concerns have been wiped off the slate altogether under the 'hand of God' approach, while the collapse of the financial markets can be understood as a temporary blip that simply needs tweaking to ensure continuing belief in a free market economy.
Behind her policies, there is an assumption, as in the days of the American frontier, that there are endless possibilities for conquest, a wilderness with a surfeit of wildlife in no need of protection, and endless national resources to be tapped so that Americans can continue to drive huge cars on endless motorways, use air conditioning in the summer and winter, and get fat on a limitless supply of hamburgers and fake foods.
This belief in the bounty of the US is reassuring to say the least. When bounty fails and it is attributed to fate, this is also reassuring. The narcissist does not need to question his or her own role in destructiveness or as the cause of any problems; he can confer these neatly on to others or other reasons that do not incur his responsibility.
Most important, the narcissist does not need to accept limitations; he can remain omnipotent and maintain the illusion that he is at the centre of the world. This is very reassuring when things aren't going so well, but it also has the unfortunate side effect of fostering paranoia.
Freud first came up with the idea of the "narcissism of minor differences" in 1918 when he was writing about sexual difference and extended this idea to encompass the paranoia and hatred that can emerge most fiercely among neighbours in times of crisis.
Freud makes the link between narcissism and intolerance explicit in his 1930 essay, Civilisation and its Discontents, in which he explains our aversion towards strangers as a defensive function, or as a form of narcissism, in the service of self-preservation.
We try to ensure our self-preservation by projecting our aggression into the 'other', whether it is an individual or a group, so we can remain protected from it. When the crisis is within, the 'stranger' is found within the group, creating a split between the good and bad, the powerful and the weak.
A consequence of the current financial crisis is that voters are now targeting Wall Street bankers as the new enemy within. Blame is not shared, nor is responsibility, it is pushed onto the 'other'.
We can see Palin rising like Athena from Zeus's brow ready to enter into battle to preserve the narcissism of the nation. She aims to maintain the purity of the frontier and the people by attacking the scientists, the educators, the politicians and the economists - and let's not forget the ecologists - who threaten the frontier movement by pointing out its limitations and its hazards. ·
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As an American, I am almost in disbelief sometimes that people are so gullible for the incomprehensible rantings of these buffoons! We have our own brand of Taliban flourishing in the heartland of ignorance, and they will bring darkness over this land.
Palin is the well-nigh perfect example of Rovian identity politics. The voters of the far-Right who have little interest in or knowledge of culture, history, literature, books, reading, and the life of the mind are indeed narcissistic, and they relate to and adore candidates who talk and act just like themselves. Recall that George W. Bush was touted as a guy you'd like to have a beer with. Early on, he made a point of letting Americans know he didn't read a lot of books and preferred to operate on the basis of his "gut" feelings. He presented himself as a "decider" rather than as a thinker. His base, those for whom the only books that matter are the Bible and trash written by the hate-mongering talking heads of the Neoconservative noise machine and echo chamber, ate it up. So, we've had eight years of ill-educated ideological stupidity, ignorance, greed, cronyism, and narcissism in the White House running the federal government, U.S. foreign policy, and setting the tone of the American conversation. And we see how well that has worked out. One wonders if America might not have done as well or better had the Republicans hauled an arrogant drunk out of any corner bar in any city in America. And now they offer us Sarah Palin.
It may be that Sarah Palin is expressing what many people feel about the current undemocratic political system and the recent collapse of of the capitalist system, is that the people have had enough of the politicians, the economists and the scientists with their endless "scare" stories and yes the "new world" educators who have seemingly taught the children very little despite all the funds invested into the education system.