Yesterday Larry Derfner penned an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post in which he attacked the credibility and motivation of those involved in illuminating the Al-Durah Affair. Apparently, even as I was reading the piece, Richard Landes was working on a proper fisking of it.
MOS meets Al Durah Forgery: Larry Derfner Weighs In
Larry Derfner has an op-ed at the Jerusalem Post on the Al Durah Affair which lays out in a quite striking fashion the aggressive aspect of the mentality of the Masochistic Omnipotence crowd (MOS) crowd. In the Dreyfus Affair the term “intellectual” was coined to describe someone who was capable of looking at the empirical evidence and changing his or her mind. Derfner’s rant suggests that the term could not, by the remotest stretch of the imagination, be applied to him. On the contrary, one has to wonder what could drive him to such heights of irrationality as to assault people who call into question so base a story as that of al Durah.
I strongly urge you to read Richard's piece in its entirety and would like to highlight one passage in particular.
You seem to be an outspoken member of what I call the Jewish hyper-self-critics who show their greatness of soul by beating their breasts in atonement for whatever we have done, might have done, been accused of doing, in the hopes that it will elicit from our Palestinian/Arab/Muslims brothers a corresponding generosity of soul so we can all get on with our lives. In itself, such willingness to take the first step is admirable. But when met consistently with a demonizing assault — “We knew you did everything we accused you of!” — and further assaults — confession is s sign of weakness and an invitation to further aggression — then it’s time to show some sanity.
Nor is this problem just one of Jewish hyper-self-criticism. It’s a larger problem shared by many alleged “progressives” who believe that “we have met the enemy and he is us.” I call this kind of thinking Masochistic Omnipotence Syndrome (MOS): Everything wrong is our fault, and if only we could be better we could fix everything. It’s not only profoundly deluded, but it is a kind of megalomania in which the solution to everything is in our hands. If only we repent enough, concede enough, self-criticize enough… then the rest of the world will love us. It’s a disease that strike many progressives, Jewish and non-Jewish, and represents a pathological turn in an otherwise exceptional and rare quality, the ability to self-criticize. And right now it’s become a danger to the health and resilience of civil society at a time when we need precisely those traits. [Emphasis mine-SW]
I would like to extend Richard's argument in two important directions, one rather specific, based on a patient I treated a number of years ago, and the other more general, with applicability to the upcoming election and our current political divides.
A number of years ago I saw a 40 year old woman,
a moderately successful attorney, with a history of severe childhood trauma (sexual abuse by a step-father), unstable relationships, and a tendency to extremely self-defeating behavior. For example, she had a loving relationship with an appropriate man with whom she discussed marriage and family, yet when he proposed, something she had desired for so long, she entered into an affair with a cocaine addicted man who treated her poorly. She was on track for partner at a successful law firm but sabotaged a case involving a close friend of the firm's chairman.
As might be expected, her treatment was an exercise in frustration for both of us. She consciously idealized me for my "brilliant" interpretations, yet my comments never seemed to have much of an impact on her. It was during and after the death of her father that her unconscious dynamics became more understandable.
Although she had been relatively estranged from her neglectful, alcoholic father for many years, when he became ill she mobilized herself to care for him. When his final illness (metastatic cancer) led him to the hospital for the final time, she exerted herself in her most officious and lawyerly manner to impress upon the staff at the hospital that her father was to be kept alive no mater what. She emphatically declared there would be no "DNR" (Do Not Resuscitate) order for her father. While she consciously agreed and understood that his illness was incurable, nevertheless she insisted upon optimal care.
My patient consciously thought she wanted what was best for her father, yet as we peeled away her layers of rationalization, she came to understand that she also unconsciously wanted him to stay alive, in pain, in order to suffer; she blamed him for leaving her at the mercy of her abusive step-father. yet even with this knowledge she did not alter her behavior. It was only after he died that we understood. After his death, her mourning was difficult and extremely painful. She berated herself for not doing everything she could to help him. She could have insisted upon more experimental trials; she should have been there the day he died and noticed he wasn't doing well; then she could have forced the doctors to save him. In part, this represented her guilt over her unconscious wishes to inflict pain upon him but her depressive reaction revealed something more. She quite clearly had a fantasy that if only she did the right things, she could have kept her father form dieing. This reflected a deep seated omnipotence and her (and my) recognition of her unconscious grandiosity opened up her therapy in extraordinary ways. We began to understand that while she was being abused and was, in reality, helpless, she compensated with fantasies of grandiosity and omnipotence. She could provoke her step-father and seduce her step-father. He might then hit her or have sex with her, but she was secretly in control. It was her omnipotent fantasies, deeply hidden in her unconscious, that were the most powerful determinants of her dysfunctional behavior; they were compensatory and adaptive in childhood but served her poorly as an adult.
I mention this woman because what Richard Landes describes as Masochistic Omnipotence is ubiquitous on the left. Much of the commentary about the Iraq War, and some of the most egregious commentary post-9/11, suggests that our actions produced the Islamic terror that we are currently fighting. This not only devalues the motives, intelligence, and actual words of our enemies but places us in the position of omnipotence and control over their actions. This is certainly compensatory. It is far less anxiety producing to believe that if you behave nicely to your enemies they will reciprocate in kind, than to believe that there is nothing you can do except fight them with all of the faculties you have, but it also represents unconscious omnipotent fantasies that should be very troubling.
And that brings me to the current electoral cycle. Much as I dislike Mrs. Clinton and believe her to be an opportunist and much as I cringe whenever John McCain has a grand idea for fixing intractable problems (McCain-Feingold, Carbon Cap & Trade) and much as I believe both of them have an inner certainty that can cause them to believe in policies that do not work and to insist on their own infallibility, I believe Barack Obama, with far less experience than either of his opponents, is potentially worse.
This is my greatest concern about Barack Obama: He views the world as filled with losers who need the direction and help of a more enlightened elite (presumably including him), he approaches the Middle East without apparent strategic vision beyond the quaint belief that if only the Iranians would talk to him the 30 year old conflict between them and us would be resolved, and he commits gaffes on a regular basis that would lead most politicians to depart the electoral field (often with the assistance of a concerned electorate) with alacrity and embarrassment. This suggests a man with less than the requisite self-doubt necessary to make decisions that will effect the lives and fortunes of all of us. His belief that we are the font of all the problems of the disadvantaged and unfortunate would be bad enough. It cements their status as victims and cripples them. But even worse is the worry that he truly believes that he has the strength of character and the knowledge to solve all our problems if only we would let him. That truly alarms me.
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