http://www.serendipity.li/bush/madness.htm

I've never seen so much truth on one webpage. Because of the controversial nature I have chosen to post this in the shalom place lounge.

"We have met the enemy, and he is us." -Pogo

This is how things are, in so many ways. It took me a lifetime to see
it. Better late than never. Would anyone challenge
Doctor Levy's theory? All theories have their weak spots. I like this one since no one escapes responsibility. It takes a village to raise a villain.

I have a running joke with a freind who has the longest phone list I have ever seen, mostly recovering people. "What are you, the Queen of the Damned?" "Yes, but you are all the Damned."

So true.

shalom, and pray for the damned, mm <*))))><

quote:

At the root of Bush's pathology is a deep dissociation. Like the terrorists, he has split-off from his own darker half, projecting the shadow "out there," and then tries to destroy this dis-owned shadow. By projecting the shadow onto each other, Bush and the terrorists are each seeing their own shadow reflected in the other. They see each other as criminals, as the incarnation of evil. By projecting the shadow like this, they locate the evil "out there," which insures that they don't have to recognize the evil within themselves. It's interesting to note that the inner meaning of the word mirror is "shadow holder."

Oh please, Michael. This is psycho-babble that ends up establishing moral and psychological equivalency between Bush's policies and Al Qaeda. How one acts out these projections of the Shadow is very much related to ideology, which the author of the article ignores.

quote:

By projecting the shadow, Bush is unwittingly being a conduit for the deepest, archetypal evil to possess him from behind, beneath his conscious awareness, and to act itself out through him. At the same time, ironically enough, he identifies with the light and imagines that he is divinely inspired. He then believes that any action he desires is justified in the name of God, as he can rationalize it as being God's will.

quote:

This is the height of irony since, in reality, Bush is acting as an unwitting conduit for evil by instigating wars and taking away people's freedoms. This incongruity brings into bold relief the severe schizoid split that characterizes Bush's condition.

If this gent can explain to us what freedoms Bush has taken away from Iraqis, I'll take him more seriously.

Notice that the Left hardly ever debates points of policy, but, instead, goes ad hominem to denigrate the character of those with whom they disagree. Notice, too, the absurdity of the untestable assumption that we are less safe now because of Bush's policies than we were before he became along. Meanwhile, still no attacks on the U.S. since 9-11-01.

Phil,

It may take years for the 28% who still support our policy in Iraq to see that we have taken away their
freedoms, if they ever do. What human freedoms have we not taken away from them? This utter lack of an informed perspective is astonishing, and reveals much of how we hide the truth from ourselves. What does the average citizen really know about conditions in Iraq?

I am reading a book called The Great War for Civilization by Robert Fisk, which goes a long way toward shattering denial. He has been out of denial for at least 25 years. He has covered every war in the Middle East. He disdains war, and the way the media, governments and the arms trade conspire to conceal the truth from us. I recommend the book to those still have the capacity to romanticize war.
1100 pages of gut wrenching reality.

Another good documantary is The Power of Nightmares, a BBC documentary which compares Leo Strauss and the founders of contemporary political thought in the Islamic world. The ideologies have many similarities.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

"Psychobable" is a word which I have heard used both by people whose experience goes beyond the
"psychobabble" which they reference, as well as
by those on the polar opposite of the Shadow that doctor Levy describes.

There is a weak spot in green meme thinking that evaluates different cultural views which I would see as apples and oranges as apples and apples and I see through that. I had a freind tell me that Hugo Chavez calling Bush the devil and the "Axis of Evil" are comparable descriptions. David Hawkins calls this a naive tendency in regard to warlike states. I agree with Hawkins, but the margin is diminishing every day for me. I attended
a demonstration yesterday in which a Vietnam and Gulf War veteran who had only seen and admitted the "truth" during the last year, as well as the Speaker of the Colorado House and a Unitarian minister largely confirmed Paul Levy's evaluation.

Why do you view Paul Levy as Left? Are nearly 90%
of the population who oppose escalation on the Left? Why 100,000 people on the Mall in D.C. yesterday? Something to think about...

shalom, mm

Michael, you introduced a topic wherein the author is psycho-analyzing Bush's motives for doing all sorts of things, painting him as a dimwit who's out of touch with his shadow side -- just like the terrorists. Well, we're all dealing with the shadow, including the author of that article, who might do his own soul-searching to see why he's so fixated on Bush.

What's missing in his "analysis" is the role that ideology plays in how the shadow is acted out. There's really no moral equivalency between Bush and Al Qaeda, here. Psychology explains only so much and can even be used to justify one's harsh judgment of another. That seems to be the general spirit of the article you recommend, imo.

Phil,

Confidence in the President is eroding:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I..._opinion_polling.png

A Nuremberg investigator believes that he should be charged with war crimes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Ferencz

A Washington psychiatrist believes that he is a deeply troubled individual:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_on_the_Couch

Taken together, there seems to be a sea-change in
how Mr. Bush is being percieved at home and abroad.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil:
[qb]...you introduced a topic wherein the author is psycho-analyzing Bush's motives for doing all sorts of things, painting him as a dimwit...[/qb]

I shall refrain from getting involved in the core issue of this discussion, but George W. Bush should not be underestimated. I believe even Bill Clinton made this point.

Granted, Dubya says many unusual things. And the best Bushisms compete with the utterances of Dan Quayle. But a dimwit he is not!

Ditto HP's post, Michael.

It's not easy discussing these kinds of issues with you. I replied to the points made by the author, and so far you've rebutted by bringing up anti-war protestors, public opinion polls and a Nuremberg investigator.

Does Bush have a shadow side? Of course he does. Does Paul Levy know what it is? Has he analyzed Bush's dreams, or worked with him in psychoanalysis? No, he hasn't. To explain Bush's w-o-t policies in terms of shadow-projection is rather gratuitous and certainly judgmental, at best. I mean, it's not like there aren't good rational and moral people who agree with the President. The article says much more to me about Levy's shadow side (and yours) than it does about Bush's unconscious. Why not just disagree with his policies and say why, instead?

Think about it.

- - -

From the article by Levy.

quote:

People who don't recognize Bush's illness and support him are colluding with and enabling in the co-creation of the pathological field that is birthing itself through him into the human family. People who support Bush become unwitting agents through which this non-local disease feeds and replicates itself. By supporting Bush they are collaborating with and becoming parts of the greater, interconnected and self-organizing field of the disease.

Too bad John Kerry didn't have this guy to help run his campaign.

Phil,

Are the 80 Senators opposed to a troop increase part of a vast left-wing conspiracy, or are they pulling out of this collective egophrenia, and admitting to
a mistake?

After observing many dry drunks, including a few dry benders of my own, and I could tell you stories, but I'll spare you, Mr. Bush seems to me to have the symptoms, grandiosity being the chief feature. The first seven steps lead one to humility, and hopefully a concern for others, which a number of head-shrinkers have noticed seems to be largely absent in this man. There also seems to be
a deep anger and inability to grieve, which are very counterproductive to recovery. He claims to be a borderline case, as I am, but a person can be deeply affected without the chronic and acute phase.

Laura said that he might have done better in a speech, and he drove the car through the garage!
This man can rarely admit to being wrong, and claims to have a direct line to the divine.

There was a movie called the Dead Zone where Martin Sheen, as president, launched the missiles. We could be in that movie, and soon. Sycophants and co-conspirators are bad medicine for this situation. Who says "no"
to this man? Thank God for the 25th amendment, but
would half of Bush's cabinet declare him incompetent? What if he were? Where are the checks
and balances?

I'll stand by Paul Levy's hypothesis until I learn that Rush Limbaugh's ratings are way, way down.

Of course, my opinion and $1.25 will get you a cup of coffee.

shalom (let's hope) -mm

Michael, I'm not too keen on having this board host a thread whose premise is that Bush is psychologically disturbed, that his foreign policy is based largely on shadow-projection, that he believes he has a hotline to God, etc. That's all highly judgmental stuff -- totally impossible to prove or even discuss rationally.

quote:

Are the 80 Senators opposed to a troop increase part of a vast left-wing conspiracy, or are they pulling out of this collective egophrenia, and admitting to
a mistake?

They're mostly playing politics -- the Democrats by appeasing their leftist base; Republicans with future elections in mind looking at poll numbers. Besides, what is that supposed to prove? That Levy must be correct?

I'm closing this thread. Please don't start another one like it.