2025-03-09: Sunday Notes, Reading Review, and Reading Quotes

Critical Thinking + Reading Quotes, on antitrans rage and middle-class support of fascism.

Humanism

In discussions on Humanism, our focus continues to be around Critical Thinking. One interesting observation we made during our recent discussions is that Critical Thinking is much more “Zen” than any of us had considered.

For an idea to be incorporated into our general understanding of the world - or rejected as false, and then its falsity incorporated - we need to suspend judgement and also apply judgement, at the same time. We must do this to appreciate the idea on its own merit, with an open mind; we must also have enough presence of mind to determine whether the idea passes muster. We must ask questions, evaluate sources, compare the idea against things we know, re-evaluate things we know in terms of this new information - this last bit is important as well, and consider long- and short-term implications.

We also discussed how we ought to approach information that is so outside of our previous knowledge or experience that we have no existing evaluation tools. We need to examine domains that the information touches, reach out to community to check understanding (“crowdsource”), ask clarifying questions, seek additional sources, and also, get a “gut check” - how does it feel to consider the truth or falsity of the idea for us, personally?

As homework for the next meeting, I asked our members to find an idea that has been floated by the government or a political group now or in recent past and see how it looks if we pass it through the filter of critical thinking.

We also talked about adapting the 10 Commitments to our own liking, so another homework assignment is to review the Humanist 10 Commitments and rephrase them, or add to them, to make them our own.

Oh, and we need some Humanist music to play. Any suggestions?

📅 Next time, on March 16th, we’ll wrap up Critical Thinking discussion, and continue our readings.

If you’re interested in joining the Humanist Sanctuary in person or online, please reach out in comments and we’ll be in touch!

Reading Review

We continued our reading of Wilhelm Reich’s “The Mass Psychology of Fascism”. I’ve started recording excerpts from the book in my phone’s Notes, pulling out sentences and paragraphs that strike me as particularly interesting. We reviewed a few of those and observed some similarities and differences between political and psychological conditions in Germany in the 1920s and 30s and the world today, especially in the United States.

The major theme of the book so far is that suppression/repression of natural sexuality and children and adolescents creates adults who are ready to be compliant with authoritarian regimes, and who are both submissive to authority and assume authoritarian characteristics themselves. Additionally, fascism is primarily a middle class - specifically, a lower middle-class movement. The patriarchal structure of the middle class, especially in the small- to medium-sized farming community, is particularly receptive to the kind of authority that fascist and other authoritarian regimes promote. Focus on individualistic tendencies, combined with business competition creates a disincentive to unite in “class struggle” and instead identify more with the authoritarian.

Industrial working class does (did not, at the time, anyway) have the same anti-sexual patriarchal structure, and therefore leaned more to socialist and less individualistic economic movements.

Furthermore, fascism, needing the support of both capitalist elite and of the middle classes, promotes contradictory ideas in order to secure such support.

The society creates structures it needs for support - that is, the family unit created and promoted by Germany in the 1920s and 1930s created the necessary conditions for the emergence and dominance of fascism.

Reading Quotes

Here are a few quotes from the session that were shared during the session, with commentary after each/most:

"The character structures which correspond to certain historical situation are formed in early childhood and are much more conservative than the forces of technical production. Follows that, as time goes on, the psychological structures lag behind the development of the social conditions from which they stemmed and which progress rapidly. Therefore, they come into conflict with later forms of living." p37

This is a great observation about the tension between what we call “tradition” and any current development. The generational anchoring in childhood culture, without adaptation, creates this nostalgia for the good old days. This is probably the best explanation of this tension that I’d ever seen - or maybe I’m just ready to understand it.

" In this way the authoritarian State develops its enormous interest in the authoritarian family: the family is the factory of that structure and ideology." p47

All the focus on “traditional family values” for the last 40 years was just leading up to its culmination in being expressed as fascism in the modern day United States.

Suppression of the natural sexuality in the child, particularly it's genital sexuality, makes the child apprehensive, shy, obedient, afraid of authority, "good" and "adjusted" in the authoritarian sense; it paralyzes the rebellious forces because in your rebellion is laden with anxiety; it produces, by inhibiting sexual curiosity and sexual thinking in the child, a general inhibition of thinking and of critical faculties. In brief, the goal of sexual suppression is that of producing an individual who is adjusted to the authoritarian order and who will submit to it in spite of all misery and degradation." p47

The suppression of natural sexual gratification leads to various kinds of substitute gratifications. Natural aggression, for example, becomes brutal sadism which is then an essential Mass - psychological factor in imperialistic wars. Page 48

The above paragraphs, I feel, are particularly helpful in understanding the current rage against trans people in the United States. Being “trans” is the highest transgression, the most potent expression of rebellion against sexual repression. Not only is the trans person focusing attention on their sexuality, but they are (in the eyes of the fascist) completely breaking what it means to have sexuality. The violence with which the fascists react highlights not only their own societal abuse as children or adolescents, but also the extent to which a trans individual breaks the fascists entire world view.

Political reaction, however, makes conscious use of the sexual interests. Not only does it create peacock-like uniforms for men, it uses attractive women and it's recruiting campaigns. One only has to remember the recruiting posters with text like this, if you want to see the world join the royal navy. The far away world is represented by exotic but why are such posters effective? Because our youth, as a result of sexual suppression, is sex starved. Page 48

This instantly makes me think of all the donut warriors and all the “2A” fanatics. For them, this is the only way they can think of expressing their repressed sexuality. Poor sods.

Sexual inhibition alters the structure of the economically suppressed individual in such a manner that he thinks, feels and acts against his own material interests. Page 49

This is a brilliant explanation for how lower-middle class, blue collar workers are cheering for billionaires putting other lower-middle class, blue collar workers out of work, facilitating mass layoffs, endangering social safety nets, and punishing the poor.

If the psychic energies of the average mass of people watching a football game or a musical comedy could be diverted into the rational channels of a freedom movement, they will be invincible. Page 49

Yeah… How about them Eagles. #gobirds

* 2 * authoritarian family ideology in the mass psychology of fascism (chapter 2)

Speeches in National Socialist meetings were indeed characterized by very clever manipulations of the emotions of the mass individuals and by strict avoidance of objective argumentation. Hitler, in MEIN KAMPF, emphasize repeatedly that the only correct Mass psychological technique was that of avoiding arguments and if keeping the big final goal before the masses. The true nature of the final goal after the seizure of power is demonstrated by Italian FASCISM. page 51

Does this remind you of anything? Any speeches, perhaps, at any Tr*mp or Republican rally?

What gave the international world view success was its representation by a political party organized into storm troops; what caused the defeat of the opposite worldview was its lack up to now of a unified body to represent it. Page 54-55

This is definitely an accurate representation of the current situation. The GOP has been militarized for many years, while Democrats are disorganized and still living in some dream version of the political landscape that hasn’t existed for decades - and maybe never existed at all, except in their heads.

There's a good discussion about the lack of a cohesive opposition to the Nazi party, which created a vacuum of ideas. Reich says that in the absence of fascism there would have been no ideology that could have taken its place. Page 55

What was it in the masses that caused them to follow a party the aims of which were, objectively and subjectively, strictly at variance with their own interests? Page 56

Can’t wait to find out.

To begin with, the fact has to be remembered that the National Socialist movement, in its initial success, leaned on the so-called middle classes, that is, the millions of private and public officials, small business people and farmers. With regard to its social basis, national socialism was originally a middle class movement. P56

But the Mainstay of the swastika was always the middle class. During these years of 1929-32, the period of the severest economic disruption of the capitalist system, the middle class entered the political arena in the form of national socialism and put the brakes on a revolutionary organization of society. P57

There’s definitely some discussion that needs to take place to review how we compare to class stratification in Germany. I feel like there’s many commonalities, but a few significant differences as well. It is possible that while the class stratification changed, the economic conditions affecting the new environment are similar. It would be interesting to get a better understanding of this.

Socialists and communists nurture delusions with regard to the progress of their revolutionary movement compared with the progress of reaction. This meant political suicide, the best motives is not withstanding. This question deserves careful attention. P59

Heck yeah. Replace “Socialists and communists” with “Democrats and Independents” and that’s pretty much current day, March 2025.

Always looking about himself, the middle class individual develops a divergence between his economic position and his ideology. He lives in straightened circumstances but keeps up appearances, often to a ridiculous degree. He feeds himself poorly but invests in "decent clothing" p60

Aren’t we all temporarily embarrassed millionaires? (this seems to be a misquote of John Steinbeck, but it’s apt).