ISAIF Commentary - Feelings of inferiority (part 2)

"16. (fr) Words like “self-confidence”, “self-reliance”, “initiative”, “enterprise”, “optimism”, etc., play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is antiindividualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve every one’s problems for them, satisfy everyone’s needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagohistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser."

While this traits might apply to the leftists I do not feel they necessarily belong to the liberals as well. Liberal ideology itself was historically born as a movement that enphasized on the individuals' and their capacity to economically produce and take care of themselves, strongly rejecting any influence from governments over the individuals' private sphere. I believe the reason the author considers them involved too is possibly because of liberals and leftists being somewhat close in the American political spectrum, but apart from this specific case my opinion remains the same: liberalism and leftism are radically different ideologies with a radical different history behind them.

"17. (fr) Art forms that appeal to modern leftish intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat and despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone, throwing off rational control as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and all that was left was to immerse oneself in the sensations of the moment."

I'm not an art expert but this kinda sounds like an exaggeration to me. Art is ambiguous and can be interpreted in very different ways too. The author could have proven his point without bringing art into this, which simply overcomplicates things.

"18. (fr) Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, objective reality and to insist that everything is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftish philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality. They attack these concepts because of their own psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify certain beliefs as true (i.e., successful, superior) and other beliefs as false (i.e., failed, inferior). The leftist’s feelings of inferiority run so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and of the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual’s ability or lack of it. Thus if a person is “inferior” it is not his fault, but society’s, because he has not been brought up properly."

Putting the blame on society becomes expecially important for the leftist if he himself hasn't been able to overcome the specific weakness he's now trying to blame on society. Apart from this, one should be very careful when attacking relativism and relativity of thought. Fortunately the author expressed himself clearly enough in saying he's attacking not the idea itself but rather the reasons for the leftists to support it. On a side note, I also believe leftists and people who hold a grudge on western culture in general have a tendence to overpraise exotic cultures and beliefs as a way of promoting an alternative to our model. This process has become more frequent since the fall of Soviet Union which used to be the main alternative model the leftists were looking up to.

"19. (fr) The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart, an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. [1] But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself.

20. (fr) Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or racists to abuse them, etc. These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they PREFER masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.


21. (fr) Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and moral
principle does play a role for the leftist of the oversocialized type. But compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at
least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm black people, because the activists’ hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify race hatred."

Not much needs to be said here. I've familiarized myself well enough with a leftist movement to say the hostility trait tends to be very true. The one about masochistic tactics not quite as much, but I can still see what the unabomber was pointing out.

"22. (fr) If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to INVENT problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss."

Or rather to provide themselves with ways to blame society for failures/problems that belong to the individuals.


"23. (fr) We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism."