Are extreme right-wingers actually "evil"? M. Scott Peck says "yes".

[mwb970]

From the Wikipedia article on Peck:

Morgan Scott Peck (23 May 1936 – 25 September 2005) was an American psychiatrist and best-selling author, best known for his first book, The Road Less Traveled, published in 1978.

(snip)

According to Peck an evil person:

* Is consistently self deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self image of perfection
* Deceives others as a consequence of their own self deception
* Projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets (scapegoats) while being apparently normal with everyone else ("their insensitivity toward him was selective" (Peck, 1983/1988, p 105))
* Commonly hates with the pretense of love, for the purposes of self deception as much as deception of others
* Abuses political (emotional) power ("the imposition of one's will upon others by overt or covert coercion" (Peck, 1978/1992, p298))
* Maintains a high level of respectability and lies incessantly in order to do so
* Is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency (of destructiveness)
* Is unable to think from the viewpoint of their victim (scapegoat)
* Has a covert intolerance to criticism and other forms of narcissistic injury

Most evil people realize the evil deep within themselves but are unable to tolerate the pain of introspection or admit to themselves that they are evil. Thus, they constantly run away from their evil by putting themselves in a position of moral superiority and putting the focus of evil on others. Evil is an extreme form of what Scott Peck, in The Road Less Traveled, calls a character disorder.

This sounds to me like a thumbnail description of Sarah Palin and so many others on the Far Right. Or do they merely have "character disorders"?

[HereSince1628]

1. This is a broad brush labeling of the opponents with mental illness

character disorders, aka, personality disorders. Personality disorders are mental disorders/illnesses.

People can try to wiggle around that, and there is something of an interdisciplinary sociological vs psychological component to the parsing. But the operational outcome is the same--recklessly broad brushing groups of people with a negative stereotype.

This post is an example of an application of a derogatory label to a group of people simply because they belong to a group our common opponent 'the right wing.' I understand perfectly the group-think that produces the US versus THEM orientation. And I understand how this sort of thing is seen by some as a sort of inverse cheer leading for US. But it isn't.

It's broad brush stereotyping. Broad brushing stereotypes onto groups of people breaks the rules on DU.

[Myrina]

8. +10

n/t

[OneGrassRoot]

2. I didn't realize he had passed. :(

I'm torn about the use of the word "evil," but I basically agree with the premise of the OP.

Many people loathe themselves, fear everything and everyone, and this manifests as anger and hatred toward others, being morally judgmental, etc. Just as the OP says.

Pretty much everything Palin and Beck represent these days.

Yes, I think this describes many extreme right-wingers (today's Tea Party crowd), as well as religious fundamentalists in general.

Hell, ANY type of extreme fundamentalist.

I've been saying it's the lack of empathy that leads to all the nastiness, corruption and societal ills we're witnessing, but if people hate themselves, it all starts there. The Golden Rule wouldn't work well with these types, because they basically hate themselves and thus want -- and expect -- to be treated like shit and want everyone else to be treated like shit as well.

That's my psychobabble 101 realization this morning, at least. ;)

[siligut]

3. I admired him for defining evil

I was also torn, it seemed evil was whatever someone didn't like. Scott Peck defined it in very certain terms, not an easy task. He left us a valuable legacy.

[OneGrassRoot]

5. True...

:hi:

So sad he's no longer with us. :(

[siligut]

12. I felt the same way when I heard that Abraham Maslow had died

http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/maslow.html of course, that was many years ago and he also left us a great legacy, if only more people were influenced by it. :hi:

[RedCloud]

4. The wrong has moved so far to the right, that now the "center" is extreme right.

Rachel said it best with the "progressive" SOTU last night. Too bad it was Eisenhower.

[cali]

6. wow. cute pretzel logic.

unfucking rec.

[riverwalker]

7. In his book "People of the Lie"

Evil is described by Peck as "militant ignorance".

[Joanne98]

9. They are the most evil people who ever lived in all of human history! IMO

[deutsey]

10. I think any extreme ideologue, left or right, falls into this category.

The Khmer Rouge, Nazis, Stalin's Communists, KKK, New Left extremists...

Anytime ideology overcomes one's shared humanity, evil emerges, imo.

[Demoiselle]

11. +1000!

...Anytime ideology overcomes one's shared humanity, evil emerges. Absolutely.

[Swede]

13. Perfect description.

[Jester Messiah]

14. Good and Evil demand a simplistic world view

Nobody thinks of themselves as evil, except for a few sad deluded teenagers. I think the freepers and their ilk are destructive to themselves and others, and if left unchecked would lead this country down a ruinous path. I don't for one second doubt that they think they're doing the right thing; by their own moral compasses, they are. It's a question of conflicting values and priorities, that's all. Reducing it down to some simplistic "good vs. evil" scenario is bullshit.

[cali]

15. exactly. I use the word evil extremely sparingly for that very reason

your post is great.

[Jester Messiah]

16. Thank you for the compliment. :-) [nt]

[PufPuf23]

17. Most RWers are victims of the truly evil "People of the Lie"

Frankly, I think most Democrats also are victims of People of the Lie within our own Party.

The truly evil tend to be successful and leaders and not individuals diagnosed with mental illness or a personality disorder.

Evil is compounded when there are so many victims and methods to deluded and cabals of the People of the Lie self-recognize.

I did not realize that Peck had passed. People of the Lie is excellent in describing human evil.

IMHO most of our political, business, military, and religious leaders are People of the Lie and they are the reason why there is so much dysfunction and unnecessary pain and distruction in the world.