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Political Paranoia: The Psychopolitics of Hatred
Paranoia is not an obscure mental state afflicting some individuals but a widespread condition of modern societies, say the authors of this engrossing book. Robins and Post describe the paranoid personality, explain why paranoia is part of human evolutionary history, and examine the conditions that must exist before the message of the paranoid takes root in a vulnerable population, leading to mass movements and genocidal violence.
408 pages, Hardcover
First published September 23, 1997
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June 3, 2024
Let's get this out of the way first: this book gets my five stars for the immense importance of what it explains, a terrifying explaination of how different societies have collapsed under the nerves, anxiety, blame, and hatred that crumbles the interconnectedness that once made many nations great. It discusses the paranoid leaders that, whether from true belief or cynical opportunism, have engaged groups of angry or desperate people, pointed a finger at who to blame, and declared their paranoid hatred patriotism. This book explains the militarization of that hatred.
Now the authors are smart, sure, and they know their subjects well. One is a social psychologist, and the other a social historian, both digging deeply into the focus of the chapters on various horrors of the recent past: Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Khomani, and other various tyrants, dictators, and religious fanarics either granted, or who seized power over people with no hope outside of the cruel voices of these wannabe messiahs. It is a terrifically frightening study.
The authors, however, are also sometimes judgmental, frequently pretentious, and occasionally have the need to denouce conspiracy ideologies, whether the obvious lies about the Jews or ordinary citizens denouced by paranoid leaders, or real world likely plots, the JFK assassination, or various CIA or other international agencies manipulations, conspiracies called out by some of the same monsters worthy of destruction. The authors can see nothing other than insanity in the world of conspiracy belief.
This book was published in 1997, and reads like a haunting story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The terrifying repetition of these events, of charismatic leaders, conmen or paranoid fanatics, and how they plundered not just their people and nations, but who brought us to the brink of apocalyptic destruction, has not changed. We remain there today. Just look around. Listen to the voices of decay running so much of the world. Look at these reflections of the past. See how we have yet to learn from the history studies such as this warn us about.
Now the authors are smart, sure, and they know their subjects well. One is a social psychologist, and the other a social historian, both digging deeply into the focus of the chapters on various horrors of the recent past: Hitler, Stalin, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Khomani, and other various tyrants, dictators, and religious fanarics either granted, or who seized power over people with no hope outside of the cruel voices of these wannabe messiahs. It is a terrifically frightening study.
The authors, however, are also sometimes judgmental, frequently pretentious, and occasionally have the need to denouce conspiracy ideologies, whether the obvious lies about the Jews or ordinary citizens denouced by paranoid leaders, or real world likely plots, the JFK assassination, or various CIA or other international agencies manipulations, conspiracies called out by some of the same monsters worthy of destruction. The authors can see nothing other than insanity in the world of conspiracy belief.
This book was published in 1997, and reads like a haunting story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The terrifying repetition of these events, of charismatic leaders, conmen or paranoid fanatics, and how they plundered not just their people and nations, but who brought us to the brink of apocalyptic destruction, has not changed. We remain there today. Just look around. Listen to the voices of decay running so much of the world. Look at these reflections of the past. See how we have yet to learn from the history studies such as this warn us about.
Displaying 1 of 1 review