Typically when discussing politics and the origins of political movements, countries, and ideas one defaults to history as a way to explain and understand what has happened in society. This obviously makes a great deal of sense as it helps us to see where some movement or idea has come from, how it has functioned in the past, how it is effecting the world today, and to theorize about what most likely will happen in the future due to its influence. But, as a means of actually understanding the whys and wherefores of these issues the historical method can only produce half answers. History cannot tell us what it is about the human condition that leads us to making the choices we do, it cannot explain what about the human mind leads us to doing the things that we do. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t do so. In fact, I recently completed a series of articles looking at the origins of the State that does just that – it examines the psychological origins of the State, what about the human mind leads people towards Statism.
Being a layman, I had to default to those whose expertise and insights on the issue of human psychology are more developed than my own. Thus, I used the insights of one of the most renowned psychologists in history – Dr. Carl Gustav Jung. (See banner for a picture of the man.) Dr. Jung is one of the most important men in the history and development of psychology. The founder and father of analytic psychology, Jung believed that if we are to understand the mental health problems people have we must begin by analyzing their immediate life and seeing how it related to their problems and not just trying to tie current problems to past childhood trauma and/or sexual problems, as Sigmund Freud did.
In 1958, towards the end of his life, Dr. Jung published The Undiscovered Self, a fascinating book about the conditions of modern society and the situation that people find themselves in relative to the State. He essentially psychologically analyzes humanity and the way the State functions. In doing so he explains why any form of the State will ultimate develop along authoritarian and autocratic lines, diminishing the liberty and humanity of the individual in exchange for collectivized identification and action. All the various rivers of the State eventually flow into the ocean of autocracy. He also discusses the origins of technocracy, the abuse of science by governments, importance of religion as a counter to the powers of the State, how the State operates as a secular religion, and the way the State seduces people into servitude to it by promising them that it will care for them and that they can slip back into the “kingdom of childhood” while the adults in power make all the hard decisions for them. Dr. Jung’s insights are masterful and revelatory for all those not only seeking to understand why so many otherwise intelligent and wise people are deluded by the siren of the State and what we can do to counter its lies. The below articles are meant to be read in the order they are posted in.