[Mb-civic] U.S. personality: Narcissism

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Today's commentary:
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2006-04/22jensen.cfm

==================================

ZNet Commentary
Diagnosing the U.S. 'national character': Narcissistic Personality
Disorder April 24, 2006 By Robert Jensen 

Politicians and pundits in the United States love to talk about our
"national character," typically in rapturous tones of triumphalism.

Often that character is asserted as a noble force but not defined: Earlier
this year, for example, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said
our national character -- presumed to be benevolent -- requires us to be
welcoming to legal immigrants.

Other times it must be defended against foreigners who just don't
understand us: Washington Post columnist Jim Hoagland last month 
explained
that too many Middle Easterners fall prey to "depictions of Americans
routinely raping, killing, firebombing mosques and torturing innocents as
a function of national character." 

And sometimes character is political destiny: In New Delhi last month,
President Bush proclaimed that "democracy is more than a form of
government, it is the central promise of our national character." Luckily
for India, its national character shares the same feature, according to
Bush.

Can a nation have a coherent character? If we take the question seriously
-- investigating reality rather than merely asserting nobility -- we see
in the U.S. national character signs of pathology and decay as well as
health and vigor. What if, for purposes of analysis, we treated the nation
as a person? Scan the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American
Psychiatric Association (the bible of mental-health professionals, now in
its fourth edition) and one category jumps out: Narcissistic Personality
Disorder.

DSM-IV describes the disorder as "a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in
fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy" that can
be diagnosed when any five of these nine criteria are met:

1. a grandiose sense of self-importance.

2. preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance,
beauty, or ideal love.

3. believes he or she is special and unique.

4. requires excessive admiration.

5. sense of entitlement.

6. interpersonally exploitative, taking advantage of others to achieve his
or her own ends.

7. lacks empathy.

8. often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or
her.

9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes.

Narcissistic tendencies to self-aggrandize are not unique to the United
States, of course. But given the predominance of U.S. power in the world,
we should worry most about the consequences of such narcissism here. 

This disorder is bipartisan, and is virtually required of all mainstream
politicians. When the House of Representatives held hearings about the
creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002, California
Democrat Nancy Pelosi declared that America is "the greatest country that
ever existed on the face of the earth." Texas Republican Dick Armey
described the United States as "the greatest, most free nation the world
has ever known." With a "grandiose sense of self-importance," politicians
routinely ratchet up the rhetorical flourishes when asserting that the
country is "special and unique."

As for arrogance and haughtiness: When asked at his pre-war news
conference in March 2003 whether the United States would be defying the
United Nations if it were to invade Iraq without legal authorization, Bush
said, "if we need to act, we will act, and we really don't need United
Nations approval to do so." Bush prefaced that promise to defy
international and U.S. law with the phrase "when it comes to our
security," but since the invasion of Iraq had little or nothing to do with
the security of the United States we can ignore that qualifier. Here the
younger Bush was merely mimicking his father, who remarked in February
1991 as the United States was destroying Iraq a first time: "The U.S. has
a new credibility. What we say goes." 

On the Gulf War and "lacks empathy": On Feb. 13, 1991, U.S. planes hit a
bunker in Baghdad. Whether military planners knew it was an air-raid
shelter or thought it was a "command-and-control site," an estimated
300-400 civilians died. Colin Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, referred to this as "one downside of airpower," and said the
incident led him to discuss with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf the need "to look
at the target list a little more closely." Was the goal of that review to
discuss civilian casualties? No, it was to question the efficiency of
bombing an already bombed-out Baghdad. In Powell's words: "I asked
questions like, 'Why are we bombing the Baath Party headquarters for the
eighth time? Â
 Why are we bouncing rubble with million-dollar missiles?'"

Powell, who went on to serve as secretary of state in George W. Bush's
first term, was often referred to as the "dove" of that administration.
Perhaps we could call this level of empathy the mark of a "tough dove."

The unpleasant subject of the current Iraq war brings up "fantasies of
unlimited success, power, brilliance." Though Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice recently acknowledged mistakes in the current Iraq war --
"We've made tactical errors, thousands of them, I'm sure" -- she made it
clear that history will vindicate U.S. officials for making "the right
strategic decision" to invade. But that small concession to reality was
too much for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who responded, "I don't
know what she was talking about, to be perfectly honest."

While it's easy to point at the narcissism of soulless and self-indulgent
leaders, this diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder applies to
the country as a whole. The belief that the United States is unique -- a
shining "city upon a hill" -- is deeply rooted, and for many has divine
origins; 48 percent of Americans believe the United States has "special
protection from God," according to a 2002 survey.

The narcissism of the whole society also is evident in the widespread
"sense of entitlement," defined as "unreasonable expectations of
especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her
expectations." This is difficult to confront, precisely because it takes
root to some degree in all of us and can't be so easily displaced onto
only the most overtly pathological. The vast majority of the U.S. public
-- by comparison to the rest of the world -- lives an extravagant
lifestyle that we show few signs of being willing to give up. 

We are 5 percent of the world's population and consume about a quarter of
the world's energy. This state of affairs is clearly unjust, made possible
by coercion and violence, not some natural superiority of Americans. Yet
the vast majority of the U.S. public, and even much of the
left/progressive political community, acts as if they expect this state of
affairs to continue. That's real narcissism, and it's at the heart of the
political problem of the United States. Even if we swept the halls of
Congress and the White House clean of every corrupt and cruel politician,
the deeper self-indulgence of an affluent culture would be untouched. 

Political activism to derail the pathological policies of those
politicians must go forward. Critique of the concentrated power of the
corporate elites who support those policies is essential. But the critical
self-reflection necessary at the collective level also must come home to
each of us.

Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at
Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center
http://thirdcoastactivist.org/. He is the author of The Heart of
Whiteness: Race, Racism, and White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire:
The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity (both from City Lights Books). He can
be reached at rjensen at uts.cc.utexas.edu .

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