Discussion:
David Duke is a malignant narcissist.
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Colonel_Angus
2006-07-08 05:27:18 UTC
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David Duke is a malignant narcissist.

He invents and then projects a false, fictitious, self for the world to
fear, or to admire. He maintains a tenuous grasp on reality to start with
and the trappings of power further exacerbate this. Real life authority
and David Duke’s predilection to surround him with obsequious sycophants
support David Duke’s grandiose self-delusions and fantasies of omnipotence
and omniscience.

David Duke's personality is so precariously balanced that he cannot
tolerate even a hint of criticism and disagreement. Most narcissists are
paranoid and suffer from ideas of reference (the delusion that they are
being mocked or discussed when they are not). Thus, narcissists often
regard themselves as "victims of persecution".

Duke fosters and encourages a personality cult with all the hallmarks of
an institutional religion: priesthood, rites, rituals, temples, worship,
catechism, and mythology. The leader is this religion's ascetic saint. He
monastically denies himself earthly pleasures (or so he claims) in order
to be able to dedicate himself fully to his calling.
Duke is a monstrously inverted Jesus, sacrificing his life and denying
himself so that his people - or humanity at large - should benefit. By
surpassing and suppressing his humanity, Duke became a distorted version
of Nietzsche's "superman". But being a-human or super-human also means
being a-sexual and a-moral.

In this restricted sense, narcissistic leaders are post-modernist and
moral relativists. They project to the masses an androgynous figure and
enhance it by engendering the adoration of nudity and all things "natural"
- or by strongly repressing these feelings. But what they refer to, as
"nature" is not natural at all.

Duke invariably proffers an aesthetic of decadence and evil carefully
orchestrated and artificial - though it is not perceived this way by him
or by his followers. Narcissistic leadership is about reproduced copies,
not about originals. It is about the manipulation of symbols - not about
veritable atavism or true conservatism.

In short: narcissistic leadership is about theatre, not about life. To
enjoy the spectacle (and be subsumed by it), the leader demands the
suspension of judgment, depersonalization, and de-realization. Catharsis
is tantamount, in this narcissistic dramaturgy, to self-annulment.

Narcissism is nihilistic not only operationally, or ideologically. Its
very language and narratives are nihilistic. Narcissism is conspicuous
nihilism - and the cult's leader serves as a role model, annihilating the
Man, only to re-appear as a pre-ordained and irresistible force of nature.


Narcissistic leadership often poses as a rebellion against the "old ways"
- against the hegemonic culture, the upper classes, the established
religions, the superpowers, the corrupt order. Narcissistic movements are
puerile, a reaction to narcissistic injuries inflicted upon David Duke
like (and rather psychopathic) toddler nation-state, or group, or upon the
leader.

Minorities or "others" - often arbitrarily selected - constitute a
perfect, easily identifiable, embodiment of all that is "wrong". They are
accused of being old, they are eerily disembodied, they are cosmopolitan,
they are part of the establishment, they are "decadent", they are hated on
religious and socio-economic grounds, or because of their race, sexual
orientation, origin ... They are different, they are narcissistic (feel
and act as morally superior), they are everywhere, they are defenseless,
they are credulous, they are adaptable (and thus can be co-opted to
collaborate in their own destruction). They are the perfect hate figure.
Narcissists thrive on hatred and pathological envy.

This is precisely the source of the fascination with Hitler, diagnosed by
Erich Fromm - together with Stalin - as a malignant narcissist. He was an
inverted human. His unconscious was his conscious. He acted out our most
repressed drives, fantasies, and wishes. He provides us with a glimpse of
the horrors that lie beneath the veneer, the barbarians at our personal
gates, and what it was like before we invented civilization. Hitler forced
us all through a time warp and many did not emerge. He was not the devil.
He was one of us. He was what Arendt aptly called the banality of evil.
Just an ordinary, mentally disturbed, failure, a member of a mentally
disturbed and failing nation, who lived through disturbed and failing
times. He was the perfect mirror, a channel, a voice, and the very depth
of our souls.

Duke prefers the sparkle and glamour of well-orchestrated illusions to the
tedium and method of real accomplishments. His reign is all smoke and
mirrors, devoid of substances, consisting of mere appearances and mass
delusions. In the aftermath of his regime - Duke having died, been
deposed, or voted out of office - it all unravels. The tireless and
constant prestidigitation ceases and the entire edifice crumbles. What
looked like an economic miracle turns out to have been a fraud-laced
bubble. Loosely held empires disintegrate. Laboriously assembled business
conglomerates go to pieces. "Earth shattering" and "revolutionary"
scientific discoveries and theories are discredited. Social experiments
end in mayhem.

It is important to understand that the use of violence must be
ego-syntonic. It must accord with the self-image of David Duke. It must
abet and sustain his grandiose fantasies and feed his sense of
entitlement. It must conform David Duke like narrative. Thus, David Duke
who regards himself as the benefactor of the poor, a member of the common
folk, the representative of the disenfranchised, the champion of the
dispossessed against the corrupt elite - is highly unlikely to use
violence at first. The pacific mask crumbles when David Duke has become
convinced that the very people he purported to speak for, his
constituency, his grassroots fans, and the prime sources of his
narcissistic supply - have turned against him. At first, in a desperate
effort to maintain the fiction underlying his chaotic personality, David
Duke strives to explain away the sudden reversal of sentiment. "The people
are being duped by (the media, big industry, the military, the elite,
etc.)", "they don't really know what they are doing", "following a rude
awakening, they will revert to form", etc. When these flimsy attempts to
patch a tattered personal mythology fail, David Duke becomes injured.
Narcissistic injury inevitably leads to narcissistic rage and to a
terrifying display of unbridled aggression. The pent-up frustration and
hurt translate into devaluation. That which was previously idealized - is
now discarded with contempt and hatred. This primitive defense mechanism
is called "splitting". To David Duke, things and people are either
entirely bad (evil) or entirely good. He projects onto others his own
shortcomings and negative emotions, thus becoming a totally good object.
Duke is likely to justify the butchering of his own people by claiming
that they intended to kill him, undo the revolution, devastate the
economy, or the country, etc. The "small people", the "rank and file", and
the "loyal soldiers" of David Duke - his flock, his nation, and his
employees - they pay the price. The disillusionment and disenchantment are
agonizing. The process of reconstruction, of rising from the ashes, of
overcoming the trauma of having been deceived, exploited and manipulated -
is drawn-out. It is difficult to trust again, to have faith, to love, to be
led, to collaborate. Feelings of shame and guilt engulf the erstwhile
followers of David Duke. This is his sole legacy: a massive post-traumatic
stress disorder.


http://www.xanga.com/AntiDavidDuke
zazz
2006-07-09 02:31:02 UTC
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Never trust a poster with a 12 year old's grasp of humorous nics.
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