Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Which brings us to sex and fascists

Here's an interesting article about The Authoritarian Personality, a great social science study from 1950. The book was by Frankfurt School leading light Theodor Adorno, Freudian Else Frenkel-Brunswick, Daniel J. Levinson who coined the idea of a "midlife crisis" and R. Nevitt Sanford. The study was trying to distinguish what makes an authoritarian, even fascist, personality.

The statements they used are fascinating:
Agree/ Disagree?

"Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn."

"No insult to our honor should ever go unpunished."

"No matter how they act on the surface, men are interested in women for only one reason."

My personal favorite: "There are some activities so flagrantly un-American that, when responsible officials won't take the proper steps, the wide-awake citizen should take the law into his own hands."

"When you come right down to it, it's human nature never to do anything without an eye to one's own profit"

"Too many people today are living in an unnatural, soft way; we should return to the fundamentals, to a more red-blooded, active way of life."

And the particuarly shrewd:

"Homosexuality is a particularly rotten form of delinquency and ought to be severely punished."

I say shrewd because who would have noticed in 1950 that authoritarian personalities tend to be obsessed with homosexuality? But, think about it- have you ever met a close-minded totalitarian who wasn't too hung up on what goes on with other people's privates? And, for some reason, it's always male homosexuality that they think is going to rot society from the inside out. What is the connection between fascism and homophobia? And conversely, why have so many prominent fascists been gay?

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