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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | | | II. The Respectable Politician & the Successful Organization | |
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< | Before analogizing, we first must ask: what do successful organizations do? For Arnold, they are internally contradictory – they indicate one position in theory, but a different in practice. It is in realizing the ubiquity of this contradiction (perhaps with the exception of “minor parties” he says, who are not seeking power) or rather, it is in realizing that no matter how much “creeds” change the de facto strategies of the respectable politician are the same (adjusted to a political climate of peace or crisis) that Arnold finds all ideologies claptrap. Yet, they remain necessary for appeasing the neurotic man, which is why they exist. Thus, the respectable politician is effective because he understands that “fundamental loyalties must be given not to principles, but to organizations” (p. 384). However, for the organization to deliver (de facto), it needs to allow these mythologies to run rampant (in theory), accommodating every individual member and conferring organizational coherence. | >
> | Before analogizing, we first must ask: what do successful organizations do? For Arnold, they are internally contradictory – they indicate one position in theory, but a different one in practice. It is in realizing the ubiquity of this contradiction (perhaps with the exception of “minor parties” he says, who are not seeking power) or rather, it is in realizing that no matter how much “creeds” change the de facto strategies of the respectable politician are the same (adjusted to a political climate of peace or crisis) that Arnold finds all ideologies claptrap. Yet, they remain necessary for appeasing the individual member, which is why they exist. Thus, the respectable politician is effective because he understands that “fundamental loyalties must be given not to principles, but to organizations” (p. 384). However, for the organization to deliver (de facto), it needs to allow this (sufficiently broad) mythology to run rampant (in theory), accommodating every individual member and conferring organizational coherence. | | | III. The makings of a theory
A. Analogizing the respectable politician to the professional psychiatrist | |
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< | Having clarified that the politician’s focus is on the organization itself, how are we to understand his role vis-à-vis the institution’s individual members? Perhaps by analogizing to the psychiatrist. Psychiatrists diagnose and treat the mental disorders of individuals. Central to the treatment is their loyalty to psychotherapy. The two main subcategories of psychotherapy techniques are “relationship-building” and “confrontational” ones. The former relies on the therapist’s minimal verbal interruptions, encouraging the patient to continue speaking. The latter, mandates that sometimes, the psychiatrist confronts the patient (e.g. gross blind spot instances) to maintain the therapy’s effectiveness. Thus, the professional’s management of the patient is geared towards the therapy’s success, balancing between much tolerance and little intervention. | >
> | Having clarified that the politician’s focus is on the organization itself, how are we to understand his role vis-à-vis the institution’s individual members? Perhaps by analogizing to the psychiatrist. Psychiatrists diagnose and treat the mental disorders of individuals. Central to the treatment is their loyalty to psychotherapy. The two main subcategories of psychotherapy techniques are “relationship-building” ones and “confrontational” ones. The former relies on the therapist’s minimal verbal interruptions, encouraging the patient to continue speaking. The latter, mandates that sometimes, the psychiatrist confronts the patient (e.g. gross blind spot instances) to maintain the therapy’s effectiveness. Thus, the professional’s management of the patient is geared towards the therapy’s success, balancing between much tolerance and little intervention. | | | Similarly, the respectable politician can be thought of as managing his own host of patients – the individual “neurotic” members of society comprising his organization. Essential to treating them effectively is the politicians’ fidelity to the organization itself, in the service of which ideology becomes a technique of political management (akin to the technique of psychotherapy). Just as the psychotherapist relies largely on minimal intervention, so too does the respectable politician: he does not undermine neurotic members’ ideologies, but instead he finds value in their expressiveness (since they help the organization “persevere” in the long run, similarly to how expressed thoughts of patients help the “treatment” over time). The politician only intervenes to confront individual members who pose a threat to the continued coherence of the organization, just as the psychotherapist intervenes when the patients’ thoughts or behaviors endanger the success of therapy. | | | B. Exploring the "neurosis" of man: an attempt at definition | |
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< | This necessarily involves asking why “tears and parades” dominate the world. That is, why is man in perpetual need of elevated, grandiose ideals that inspire his enthusiasm and are theatrical in nature? Arnolds describes these as “mythologies” – fundamental lies and mirages. I call them “neuroses” and since Arnold’s theory of social organization relies on the dominance of Freud’s “unconscious”, let’s begin there. Freud suggests that we are all driven by the pleasure principle, that is by easy physical and emotional rewards. As we mature, pleasure is replaced with reality and society demands that we substitute immediate pleasure for long term gratification, so we move from the pleasure to the reality principle; gratification is still desired but is delayed by reality’s exigencies. We cannot make ourselves fully rational but we also cannot change society’s heavy dictates (the suppression of our immediate desires, the need to work to earn money etc). There is no easy solution and this is the source of human unhappiness. The faulty adaptation to this reality principle (the repression of the pleasure principle) is what creates “neuroses”, to which treatment Freud applies psychoanalysis. | >
> | This necessarily involves asking why “tears and parades” dominate the world. That is, why is man in perpetual need of elevated, grandiose ideals that inspire his enthusiasm and are theatrical in nature? Arnolds describes these as “mythologies” – fundamental lies and mirages. I call them “neuroses” and since Arnold’s theory of social organization relies on the dominance of Freud’s “unconscious”, let’s begin there. Freud suggests that we are all driven by the pleasure principle, that is by easy physical and emotional rewards. As we mature, pleasure is replaced with reality and society demands that we substitute immediate pleasure for long term gratification, so we move from the pleasure to the reality principle; gratification is still desired but is delayed by reality’s exigencies. We cannot make ourselves fully rational but we also cannot change society’s heavy dictates (the suppression of our immediate desires, the need to work to earn money etc). There is no easy solution and this is the source of human unhappiness. The faulty adaptation to this reality principle (the repression of the pleasure principle) is what creates “neuroses”, to the treatment of which Freud applies psychoanalysis. | | | Approached from this point of view, perhaps the tendency for “tears and parades” inherent in all men (to varying degrees, and with various manifestations) is our method of unconsciously coping with society’s exigencies in the face of our recognition that we cannot change society. It is a means of justifying why we put up with society, which in conjunction with our existential dread, heightens the need to glorify our existence on earth. The “tears and parades” then are most conducive to the dramaturgical glorification of life in civilized society aimed to appease our neurosis. This, of course, is a losing battle but the consistency with which it is waged by us is what gives respectable politicians the ability to effectively manage the organization to which we belong. |
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