-
Elijah Harper, R.I.P.
May 18, 2013 | 1 comment
-
That’s a Lot of Caca in Caracas
May 16, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Canadian PM: Keystone XL Pipeline “Absolutely Needs To Go Ahead.”
May 16, 2013 | 2 comments
-
Has Obama Done Sufficient Damage Control With The IRS?
May 15, 2013 | 8 comments
-
Liberals Surprisingly Re-Elected in British Columbia
May 15, 2013 | 1 comment
The Spectacle Blog
David N. Bass is perplexed by the recently released study titled “The Cultures of the Tea Party” led by Andrew Perrin of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Steven Tepper of Vanderbilt University. In the study, Perrin and company concluded that authoritarianism was one of the “primary cultural dispositions among those who feel positively toward the TPM.”
Specifically, Bass is puzzled as to why Perrin et al would ask about parenting when it comes to measuring the alleged authoritarian tendencies of Tea Partiers. He writes:
In the political context of 2011 - where politicos are fighting a battle over the most significant piece of authoritarian legislation in years, ObamaCare - it’s odd that researchers would select questions about parenting to ask. I mean, tea partiers aren’t exactly rallying in the streets because children are obeying their parents, are they?
But the moment I heard the saw “authoritarianism” projected onto the Tea Party, Theodor Adorno came to mind. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Adorno, he was a German Marxist sociologist who managed to find greener pastures in the United States in the late 1930’s before the Nazis started WWII. Adorno was a leading proponent of Critical Theory and his best known work was The Authoritarian Personality. Released in 1950, Adorno made the case that certain personality traits tended people towards supporting fascism. The most notable part of The Authoritarian Personality was the F-scale which was a series of thirty statements which depending on the extent to which how one strongly agreed or disagreed determined one’s fascist inclinations. The very first of those statements reads:
Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
So when Perrin and his partners ask, “Would you say it is more important that a child obeys his parents, or that he is responsible for his own actions?”, they are simply picking up where Adorno and his followers (i.e. Bob Altemeyer and his Right-Wing Authoritarian scale) left off. Indeed, Adorno wrote in The Authoritarian Personality:
Confronted with the rigidity of the adult…one turns naturally to the question of whether the prospects for heatlhy personality structure would not be greater if the proper influences were brought to bear earlier in the individual’s life, and since the earlier the influence the more profound it will be, attention becomes focused upon child training.
Adorno also put forward this observation, “Whether the tolerant person is militant or pacifistic, he is very likely to be liberal in his political views.”
Well, when liberals hear conservative views they demonstrate their “tolerance” by labeling those with whom they disagree as racist, mentally ill or, in this case, as authoritarian.
View all comments (14) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/08/24/projecting-authoritarian-perso
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Bo| 8.24.11 @ 1:56PM
Most progressives don't think that forcing everybody to do things their new, cool way is authoritiarian. They think it's progressive. And they are irritating.
Timothy L. Pennell| 8.25.11 @ 9:13AM
We should "Respect Authority"?
But, I thought that they worked for US?
Occam's Tool| 8.24.11 @ 1:59PM
Yup. Very much so.
Occam's Tool| 8.24.11 @ 2:14PM
Please---it's the Dems who enforce our toilet regs and our light bulb regs. Even FDR never went that far!
Clint| 8.24.11 @ 2:36PM
Apparently, Voters Ain't Buyin' That.
Our Tea Party Co-Favorite & Presidential Candidate Dr. Ron Paul Is In A Dead Heat With Obama.
Obama 39%, Paul 38%
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The president and the maverick are running almost dead even in a hypothetical 2012 election matchup.
Texas Republican Congressman Ron Paul earns 38% of the vote to President Obama’s 39% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters. Fourteen percent (14%) like some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) remain undecided.
The Tea Party Rebellion Is Here.
Rise Up In Rebellion.
Butch | 8.24.11 @ 2:58PM
The rigid speech codes in so many colleges come straight out of the most liberal departments such as the liberal arts and social sciences. They never outlaw "redneck," though--some profs even use it in class.
Simon Templar| 8.24.11 @ 2:58PM
Of couse a Marxist socioligist would come up with a question like, "Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn?" and use it as a pretense to define authoritarianism and then try to link that to fascism. How else can you determine whether an individual is ripe for rebellion, anarchy, and the overthrow of traditions, institutions, and the family structure itself.
It hilariously obvious.
The same idiot is advocating an authoritarian state by which all means will be used to empower that state with supreme authority and revolutionary unquestionable obedience to that state. Incredible. The concept of fascism itself was created by a committed socialist who gave up on the internationalism of communism to replace it with national socialism!
These false dichotomies have been used by Leftist for over a 150 years. Dictatorship of the Proletariat! It really is laughable.
The more realistic personality study would be distinguishing between the useful idiot and a thinking person.
Simon Templar| 8.24.11 @ 3:15PM
BTW, the question itself is idiotic.
"Would you say it is more important that a child obeys his parents, or that he is responsible for his own actions?"
Ok, let us put our thinking caps on, boys and girls!
By all logic, reality, and experience, a child is not responsible for their actions by the nature of being a child. A parent is responsible for the actions of a child as they are responsible by the very nature of being an adult that has the cognitive ability to determine the correct course of actions and behaivors and instruct that child accordingly. This is why it is crucial that children obey their parents and adult authority figures who in most human cases are seeking the best interest of the child. That is the general reality...and that is why in most cases it is more inportant as opposed to being less important. Answering this any other way would be giving undue and illogical credibility to the position that it is more important to disobey and do whatever he/she deems appropriate under the false premise that a child has the cognitive abilities to choose the correct path and can assume the responsibility of that choice.
Why do we even tolerate such idiocy from these liberal morons? That should be the subject of this article.
Simon Templar| 8.24.11 @ 3:22PM
Yeah, PROJECTING is a perfect word for it. Liberals are walking projectors.
Red Phillips | 8.24.11 @ 3:26PM
Excellent post Aaron. I too immediately thought of Adorno when I read the title. I did a report on Adorno and his book in undergraduate psychology class. It struck me even then as agenda driven and that was before I was clued into the whole Frankfurt School/Cultural Marxist thing.
Oddly, personally Adorno was very conventional. He was a music critic first and foremost and supported classical music and bemoaned the state of popular music. He was a vicious critic of popular culture. In some ways he was downright reactionary. He is a hard guy to get a handle on. My suspicion is that if he answered honestly he would score pretty high on his own f-scale.
Ron Lewenberg| 8.24.11 @ 10:39PM
99% of the time when anyone uses the term "authoritarian personality" they are a follower of the Frankfurt School and an authoritarian.
"Authoritarian followers usually support the established authorities in their
society, such as government officials and traditional religious leaders. Such people
have historically been the “proper” authorities in life, the time-honored, entitled,
customary leaders, and that means a lot to most authoritarians. Psychologically these
followers have personalities featuring:
1) a high degree of submission to the established, legitimate authorities in
their society;
2) high levels of aggression in the name of their authorities; and
3) a high level of conventionalism.
Because the submission occurs to traditional"
Sounds like the left to me. I don't know any conservative who matches any of these, other than number 3. And given that we live in a liberal culture, number 3 is suspect.
Red Phillips | 8.25.11 @ 8:48AM
Ron, in our times the only way to be unconventional is to be rigorously conventional.
Wayne | 8.25.11 @ 11:45AM
We have a president who does not respect the authority of the citizens. In fact I would say the entire Democratic Party does not repect it. But they do fear it. They know in their hearts that without the intimidation, lies and hyperbole, they would get fewer than 30 percent of the votes.
When the authority we respect is the will of the people, then fascists have no shot.
John Hartung| 8.25.11 @ 7:30PM
You should search the web for Bill Whitle's video on "The Narrative" at PJTV for an excellent presentation and criticism of the Frankfurt School.