This week, I continue my series on insights into humanity and government that can be gained from studying famed psychologist Dr. Carl Jung’s last book, The Undiscovered Self. In the previous article we explored the ways that the doctrines of the State, i.e. Statism, leads to a universal dehumanization as both the apparent rulers and those ruled find their individual worth destroyed by the systematic collectivism that is the outcome of their beliefs. Continuing this theme, Dr. Jung says:
The seemingly omnipotent State doctrine is for its part manipulated in the name of State policy by those occupying the highest positions in the government, where all the power is concentrated. Whoever, by election or caprice, gets into one of these positions is no longer subservient to authority, for he is the State policy itself and within the limits of the situation can proceed at his own discretion. With Louis XIV he can say, “L’état c’est moi.” [“The State is Me,” or perhaps “I am the State.”] He is thus the only individual or, at any rate, one of the few individuals who could make use of their individuality if only they knew how to differentiate themselves from the State doctrine. They are more likely, however, to be the slaves of their own fictions. Such one-sidedness is always compensated psychologically by unconscious subversive tendencies. Slavery and rebellion are inseparable correlates. Hence, rivalry for power and exaggerated distrust pervade the entire organism from top to bottom. [pg. 9]
There is a saying among those of us who challenge the power of the State which goes something like, “The President should be so weak it doesn’t matter who he is, not so powerful it doesn’t matter who he is.” The idea is a simple one – that the President should have little to no power to control the lives of the people in the country. This was how the system was originally designed. Just go read the Presidential powers as laid out in Article II of the U.S. Constitution. It spends more space talking about how the Electoral College would work than it does laying out the powers of the Presidency. And of the powers delegated to the President, almost all of them he has to have the permission of the Senate or Congress generally to use. There is almost nothing he can do on his own.
Yet today the opposite is true. The President is at the head of a vast bureaucracy whose reach extends to the most minute parts of the lives of every person, every day. His mere orders must be acted upon as full-fledged law and his decisions can determine the lives of millions of people domestically and internationally. In the full awful glory of his office the President becomes the personification of the entire apparatus from which he draws his political power. He is the State itself.
With such power he should be able to do almost anything he wants. So, what prevents him from doing so? Only that he believes what he preaches. You do not spend decades of your life submerged in the system, suffering indoctrination from childhood into its dogmas, doing everything you can to become Pontifex Maximus of the faith without actually believing in the religion itself, without actually having faith in the Cult of the State. Politicians actually believe the fictions they spread that prop up the power of the government and thereby they become slaves to those very fictions.
Yet you cannot become a slave without developing a subconscious desire for rebellion. Liberty, after all, is the desire of every human soul. This is why there is so much lying, backstabbing, and betrayal in politics. Being a slave to the State is the only way to gain power within it, but being a slave is exactly what you hate the most. You externalize this hate by blaming others. “It is the Republicans fault;” “The Democrats are to blame;” “Trump is a Russian troll;” “Biden is a Soros stooge;” “He is a traitor and must be brought down;” “She is just another dumb libtard;” ad infinitum. Externalizing your hatred in this way not only removes blame from your Self, but it allows you to justify doing whatever you can to remove those you hate from power. The ultimate goal then becomes gaining their position and power for yourself.
The outcome of this is, as Dr. Jung notes, that instead of being united in their common causes, those in power find the halls of government riven with rivalry and factions all competing for control. Dr. Jung’s insight here also explains the vitriol and hate you see among the masses regarding politics.
Subconsciously individuals know they’re slaves to the State. When they’re chosen Master is in power it becomes easier for people to accept the fiction of elections and ignore their slavery because they can choose to see only the policies they like and pretend the one in power is merely a representative doing what they want. When those they oppose come to power, their slavery becomes more obvious, causing the chaffing of their chains to becomes a bit more sharp and they buck against it. But because they cannot change that which actually enslaves them - the doctrines of the State which they have been indoctrinated into believing so deeply and foundationally - they instead externalize the hatred their slavery generates to another.
The target for such externalized hatred is inevitably the opposing political party, as they blame it and its leaders for failures of the State and the feelings of rage and powerlessness they feel to resist it. Thus, the distrust and rivalry for power present in the halls of government are also prevalent throughout all of society, causing social disorder and chaos on a massive scale. The State, far from being the unifying principle necessary for social harmony is, in reality, the source of its greatest discord and contention. The chaos, fear, and uncertainty such contention causes, primes the people perfectly to be taken advantage of by the leaders of their own political party, making them willing slaves to their own political fictions.