{"id":460,"date":"2013-10-14T22:47:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T22:47:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/?p=460"},"modified":"2013-10-14T22:47:48","modified_gmt":"2013-10-14T22:47:48","slug":"why-is-american-politics-so-dysfunctional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/?p=460","title":{"rendered":"Why Is American Politics So Dysfunctional?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ever notice how dysfunctional the American political family is? Democrat and Republican, Mom and Pop, they fight without knowing their real goals.<br \/>\nEver wonder why history repeats itself, even though there are easily enough historians to recount it? Ever wonder why you can\u2019t defeat an enemy you can\u2019t see?<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s it, you know. They can\u2019t defeat the enemy they cannot see, a phrase of Sigmund Freud, so they just, well, fight over what they can see.<\/p>\n<p>Over a hundred years ago, creative medical genius Sigmund Freud elaborated on creative philosopher \u00a0Georg Hegel\u2019s assertion that there was an unconscious subfunciton of our minds, called the unconscious. Memories, drives, thoughts, and other mental stuff was \u201ccontained\u201d in it \u2013 and we were unaware of it. Each of us functions this way. There are aspects of ourselves we have no conscious awareness of.<\/p>\n<p>That would not be so relevant, except these unconscious \u201cthings\u201d we are unaware of have great influence over us. In fact, they have more than they would if we were aware of them &#8211; for then we could defeat them.<\/p>\n<p>So, how does this relate to the dysfunctional American political family? Well, for one, they don\u2019t fight over helping the victims, the little guys, vs not helping them. No, they fight over helping the little guys vs it\u2019s costing too much.<\/p>\n<p>But isn\u2019t that a well-worn theme in family life? The traditional wife, caught in the nest with \u201cin the nest\u201d values, wants all the children to get the best. The husband, caught with \u201coutside the nest\u201d responsibilities and values, says, \u201cHoney, that costs too much!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not liberal vs conservative, and it\u2019s certainly not Democrat vs Republican, though it seems like that on the surface. So, what is it? It is the dynamic we are unaware of that keeps us from resolving the issues. Not surprising, because how can we resolve issues we are unaware of? How are we able to defeat an enemy we cannot see? How are we to avoid repeating history, if we do not see what the unconscious story was?<\/p>\n<p>No, it is the issue of \u201cin the nest\u201d values vs \u201coutside the nest\u201d values that is going on.<\/p>\n<p>This occurs when societies provide enough food and other resources, so that outside the nest activity is not that important. Hubby then can stay home with the kids, wife depends less on the hubby, and her values rise. Let\u2019s give the kids more, because we have more. Let\u2019s help the little guy, the victim, the uninsured, because we have enough to go around. However, hubby is not all that secure with his ability to keep bringing in the food and resources. He gets nervous when too much is spent, and not enough saved, for it is he \u2013 traditionally \u2013 who has to provide.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what they are fighting over, folks. And until they get it, they\u2019ll keep fighting \u2013 just like dysfunctional couples who cannot resolve their differences, because they are unaware of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever notice how dysfunctional the American political family is? Democrat and Republican, Mom and Pop, they fight without knowing their real goals. Ever wonder why history repeats itself, even though there are easily enough historians to recount it? Ever wonder &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/?p=460\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,12,9,11,7,15,6,13,10,8],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":466,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460\/revisions\/466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychepolitics.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}