4. Systems Man

The American liberal is, more than anything else, a deeply religious person. His faith may be of a strictly secular nature, but it is a faith nonetheless. Like many fundamental faiths, liberalism is accepted without rational analysis, offers the promise of an eventual paradise, and is resistant to any facts contrary to its basic tenets.

American liberalism, at its basic core, is a religious reverence of the state. Once the people have surrendered enough of their power to the state, all social ills will be cured and a utopia will be achieved under the benevolent rule of those enlightened enough to share the liberal vision.

The religion of the state is, for the liberal, a substitute for the fundamentalism that he so desperately needs to cope with life that intimidates him. He is essentially a “system person,” a man who needs to go through life knowing the ultimate answers to the challenges of daily living. A system, whether it is called communism, fascism, socialism, or just liberalism, provides the true believer with a certainty that cannot be found by rational analysis of an uncertain world.

The deification of systems began with the birth of modern philosophy when Rene Descartes pronounced that “I think, therefore I am.” The thinking mind became the creator of new worlds, future paradises, and final answers. Descartes became known as the “father of modern philosophy” and man found a god that could replace the dying one – man came to believe that his thinking mind could settle the wilderness of the uncertain universe with systems of ideas.

Prior to Descartes, man killed other men for the sake of gods that were spiritual in nature. His politics was even an extension of the will of these gods who selected the political leaders by divine appointment. Man was intellectually passive as the gods and their earthly agents decided when war was justified and when murder would become a duty. After Descartes, wars and persecution would become increasingly a service to be paid to the newfound deities – the systems that were the product of man’s thinking mind.

As kingdoms became states, royalty was replaced by systems people – people who had a divine right to rule others. While kings were selected by old gods, the systems man selected himself by his new god – his ego. See p. 189, Being and the End of History.

We think that we will be able to live happily, creatively, if we learn a method, a technique, a style, but creative happiness comes only when there is inward richness, it can never be attained through any system.
J. Krishnamurti

3. The Sadomasochistic Personality

To Freud, the sadistic personality was someone who, regardless of his sexual proclivities, needed to feel in control of others, often demeaning them and making them feel dependent upon his strength and power. The masochist, in turn, was not just a person with a sexual perversion, but one who felt safe and secure under the control of a stronger person who told him what to do and how to live.

The sadist is the active man of history. As a man alienated from his own nature, the sadist is in an overt war with the enemy – himself. The power that he gains over others is a confirmation of the indestructibility of his eternal ego. His willing subjects look on him as their savior and as the person who protects them from the terrifying sword of constant change and therefore holds their fate, as well as his own, in his hands. Although their obedience is often gained by force, the sadistic man prefers those followers that enjoy his bullying and allow him unrestricted power over themselves to the point of becoming extensions of his will.

The sadistic person, like his masochistic subjects, is afraid to love his own life and is dependent upon his sycophants to produce for him an illusion of his own invulnerability. Sadism is a form of repression. By controlling his environment, the sadistic man perceives himself as able to stem the tide of constant change that threatens him with vulnerability and mortality. The sadistic man creates and maintains an all-powerful identity through the weak and submissive eyes of his followers.

Masochistic man is naturally obedient to authority figures, whether they are religious leaders, military commanders, or baseball heroes endorsing a product that he chooses to buy. Masochistic man is also alienated from himself, but because he is not strong enough to resist the threats of his mortal enemy, he seeks reunification through another object of alienation – the sadistic man. While sharing the masochist’s feelings of alienation, the sadistic man offers the weak man the strength to resist the very flow of nature.

The following of authority is the denial of intelligence. To accept authority is to submit to domination, to subjugate oneself to an individual, to a group, or an ideology, whether religious or political; and this subjugation of oneself to authority is the denial, not only of intelligence, but also of individual freedom.

J. Krishnamurti