and self-delusion. This is particularly evident in Washington, where
"experts," politicians, analysts and journalists, who know almost
nothing about what's going on in the world, express opinions totally
lacking in intelligence.
There is a single root concept that most forms of denial have in
concept: The unwillingness to believe that things happens despite
what the politicians do and say. What Generational Dynamics shows is
that great events occur because of things that happened decades or
even centuries earlier, and that politicians can neither cause nor
prevent them.
This denial occurs on both the left and the right. In recent years
the major form of denial on the right is the refusal to believe that
democracies have wars any less often than dictatorships. Rush
Limbaugh is the main example of denial on the right.
One of the most bizarre examples of this was when Republican foreign
affairs expert Jim Baker decided that we can "flip Syria" to solve
all of our Mideast problems.
** Can we 'flip Syria' and solve all the Mideast problems?
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 07#e061207
On the left, there have been massive amounts of insanity generated by
the leftist Gen-X loons on web sites like moveon.org and
dailykos.com. The fact that the amount of insanity on the left is so
much greater than the amount of insanity on the right is a historical
accident. The insanity of the left was generated by Boomers in the
1960s Awakening era. It never made much sense in the 60s, and since
then it's morphed into this body of intellectual garbage that's been
fully adopted by the leftist Gen-X loons, who refuse to believe
anything else.
Thus, the concept of "denial" is closely tied into the concept of
"ideology." When people with two different ideologies argue with
each other, each assumes that the other is ideological and in denial.
Each person is unwilling to recognize his own ideology. His own
ideology becomes proven established truth, not an ideology. It's
always the other side that's being ideological. This is hugely
apparent on the left these days, as I frequently hear pundits say,
"The Bush administration was totally ideological; the Obama
administration will be based on facts, not ideology."
Today, the loony left ideology has become so dominant, that it's
treated by many journalists and politicians as "fact," not ideology.
This is the phenomenon that Friedrich Nietzsche was describing when
he said:
In the financial world, we've seen the massive self-delusion andFriedrich Nietzsche wrote:
> "Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups,
> parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule."
denial with respect to the credit bubble. I've quoted the following
in <#hreftext ww2010.i.garrett071009 ""The bubble that broke the
world,""#> written in 1932:
This form of denial is being repeated today, with disastrous effects.Garet Garrett wrote: > "Mass delusions are not rare. They salt the human story. The
> hallucinatory types are well known; so also is the sudden
> variation called mania, generally localized, like the tulip mania
> in Holland many years ago or the common- stock mania of a recent
> time in Wall Street. But a delusion affecting the mentality of the
> entire world at one time was hitherto unknown. All our experience
> with it is original.
> This is a delusion about credit. And whereas from the nature of
> credit it is to be expected that a certain line will divide the
> view between creditor and debtor, the irrational fact in this
> case is that for more than ten years debtors and creditors
> together have pursued the same deceptions. In many ways, as will
> appear, the folly of the lender has exceeded the extravagance of
> the borrower."
The GI Generation and Silent Generation that survived World War II
had most of their self-delusions wiped away by the Great Depression
and the war itself. The Boomers re-introduced self-delusion in the
1960s, and today self-delusion is the rule, among Millennials,
Gen-Xers, and Boomers. There is no room for reality in today's
world.
The cycle of denial and self-delusion is tied into the generational
cycle. As the survivors of the previous crisis war die off, the
younger generations move farther and father away from reality and
more and more into self-delusion. This is the most dangerous time
for a society, and the self-delusion prevalent among the loony left
today is the greatest danger to America's society.
Incidentally, I get accused now and then of being "ideological,"
although no one has ever been able to identify what my "ideology" is
supposed to be, since neither Republicans nor Democrats would ever
associate themselves with anything on this web site. Nor would any
other political group that I'm aware of. I do try to support
Generational Dynamics predictions with detailed explanations of
generational theory.
Sincerely,
John
John J. Xenakis
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com/forum