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Maybe the best way to understand this moment in American political history is to put the nation on the couch for some analysis. It turns out Freud gave a lot of thought to what attracts voters to tyrants and strongmen. "Freud had no compunction in calling the relationship that crowds forge with an absolute leader an erotic one. (In this he was seconded by Hitler, who suggested that in his speeches he made love to the German masses.) What happens when members of the crowd are 'hypnotized' (that is the word Freud uses) by a tyrant?" This piece by Mark Edmundson in the NYT (Gift Article) is from 2006, but it's definitely worth resurfacing. Freud and the Fundamentalist Urge. "We want a strong man with a simple doctrine that accounts for our sufferings, identifies our enemies, focuses our energies and gives us, more enduringly than wine or even love, a sense of being whole. This man, as Freud says in his great book on politics, 'Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego,' must appear completely masterful. He must seem to have perfect confidence, to need no one and to be entirely sufficient unto himself. Sometimes this man will evoke a god as his source of authority, sometimes not. But in whatever form he comes -- whether he is called Hitler, Stalin, Mao -- he will promise to deliver people from their confusion and to dispense unity and purpose where before there were only fracture and incessant anxiety. But, of course, the price is likely to be high, because the simplifications the great man offers will almost inevitably involve hatred and violence."
+ And an article from today in The Atlantic (Gift Article): Freud Is Having a Moment. Trump "urges us all to shake loose the surly bonds of civilized conduct: to make science irrelevant and rationality optional, to render truth obsolete, to set power free to roam the world, to lift all the core conditions written into the social contract—fealty to reason, skepticism about instincts, aspirations to justice.” Trump is, in other words, an atavist, inviting citizens to satisfy all of their hungry drives, all of their libidinous instincts: His America is a place for malign energies to express themselves in action. There’s a certain pleasure in that, perhaps, a kind of psychic relief—to lose oneself in a radical movement and to express feelings normally prohibited by society." (Now add social media, which features some of the same characteristics.)
+ Of course, those on the other side of the political spectrum are also welcome on Freud's couch. For them, I'd suggest (as I have a few times in the past) considering what psychoanalysts call the narcissism of small differences, or "the idea that the more a relationship or community shares commonalities, the more likely the people in it are to engage in interpersonal feuds and mutual ridicule because of hypersensitivity to minor differences perceived in each other." (The way I see it, if you're pro democracy, you can join me on my couch any time.)
+ This all reminds me of an old Barry Blitt cartoon from The New Yorker.
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Search and Destroy
Google enables you to search the internet. But searching its own internal communications is an entirely different matter. In the NYT (Gift Article), David Streitfeld explains how, in an effort to avoid antitrust suits, Google Spent 15 Years Creating a Culture of Concealment. "Even as the internet giant stored the world’s information, it created an office culture that tried to minimize its own. Among its tools: using legal privilege as an all-purpose shield and imposing restraints on its own technology, all while continually warning that loose lips could sink even the most successful corporation." (I'm not sure how unusual this behavior is among large companies, but it's interesting to see how it works, and worth noting the contrast with how much big tech often encourages users to share.)
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Truth Decay
"Longtime denizens of this town of 20,000 recalled widespread tooth decay among children before the city council voted to add fluoride to the drinking water two decades ago. But a group of residents remained unconvinced. They urged neighbors to do their own research, insisting it would reveal that the mineral embraced for generations to improve oral health was actually a dangerous substance that could harm their organs...The skepticism prevailed on Election Day as voters narrowly voted to remove fluoride from the water supply, mirroring how more Americans are starting to question a practice experts have lauded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century." WaPo (Gift Article) with a look at the politics of science: RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming.
+ Related: "The number of measles cases around the world rose by 20% in 2023 compared with 2022, leading to an estimated 10.3 million cases, according to estimates released Thursday by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The surge in the preventable disease was driven by "inadequate immunization coverage."
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Triple Whammy
Apologies if today's edition arrived a bit soggy in your inbox. We're experiencing our first major storm on the West Coast, and these days, as this headline suggests, no storms are normal storms. California storm hits ‘triple bombogenesis’; torrential rain, hurricane-force winds expected. (This is just shy of quadruple bombogenesis, when you could expect to see people walking down the street wearing a wet suit, mask, and snorkel.)
+ We're basically getting a bomb cyclone and atmospheric river.
+ BBC follows some scientists who chase these storms in the sky to predict where they will strike: Atmospheric Rivers: Inside the giant 'sky rivers' swelling with climate change.
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Extra, Extra
Bringing Out the Big Guns: "The United States said Wednesday that its embassy in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had closed after receiving 'specific information of a potential significant air attack.' The decision came after Ukraine’s first strike on Russian territory with U.S.-supplied long-range weapons and President Joe Biden authorized the provision of antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine to help fight off Moscow's forces." Ukraine has also fired UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Russia for first time. These new rules of engagement seem to be a response to Trump's election win. But they're also related to recent gains Russia has made. BBC: Ukraine front could 'collapse' as Russia gains accelerate, experts warn.
+ Ozeating Picks: As the fights begin over some of Trump's most egregious cabinet picks, there are new people on the list, including Matt Whitaker as NATO ambassador (notable for having "little evident foreign policy or national security experience"), former WWE executive Linda McMahon for education secretary ("In October, McMahon was named in a new lawsuit involving WWE. The suit alleges that she and other leaders of the company allowed the sexual abuse of young boys at the hands of a ringside announcer"), and celebrity physician Dr. Oz to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
+ Bathroom Brake: Meanwhile, the GOP transgender obsession is not reserved for elections. Mike Johnson institutes transgender bathroom ban for U.S. House. (The only Capitol bathroom behavior anyone should be concerned about is when insurrectionists took dumps in the hallways.)
+ Ceci N'est Pas Une Bargain: "René Magritte’s L’empire des lumières (1954) sold for $121.16 million at Christie’s yesterday, setting a new record at auction for the late French Surrealist."
+ Kicking the Stuffing Out of High Prices: "Traditional economics suggest that you should charge more during periods of peak popularity. But every year retailers actually reduce turkey prices when demand is at its highest — and they still come out on top." Why turkey gets cheaper around Thanksgiving.
+ Getting the Picture: Here are 19 charming winners from the Dog Photography Awards and the shortlisted images for the 2024 Close-Up Photographer of the Year.
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Bottom of the News
As we approach the holidays, we can expect a whole lot of travelers to take flight. And that means more work for the Beagle Brigade. A beagle’s dream job: Sniffing food that shouldn’t be packed in luggage. (Interesting. My Beagles' dream job would be on the jerky tasting team.)