Yale social psychologist Stanley Milgram defined obedience as the " the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purposes", and called it "the dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority." A decade before Milgram produced his findings, which dealt with the conflict arising between obedience to authority and moral conscience, a study on the "Authoritarian Personality" was undertaken at UC Berkeley as part of a an effort by leading social scientists to understand how, in a culture of law, order and reason..."a vast majority of people could and actually did tolerate the mass extermination of fellow citizens." That question had some urgency after the horrors of World War II.
During the past half century, this understanding of authoritarianism has been greatly increased through the efforts of social psychologist Bob Altemeyer of the University of Manitoba. Altemeyer found authoritarianism to be consistently associated with right wing rather then left wing ideology. It refers to people that overtly submit to the established authorities in their lives, who could be of any political stripe. They are the people that march in "lock-step" as opposed to those that march to "the beat of a different drummer".
The right wing authoritarian personality has less to do with a political view than it does with a psychological personality structure.
It has 3 main parts to it:
1. Authoritarian submission — a high degree of submissiveness to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.
2. Authoritarian aggression — a general aggressiveness directed against deviants, outgroups, and other people that are perceived to be targets according to established authorities.
3. Conventionalism — a high degree of adherence to the traditions and social norms that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities.
http://cognitive-psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/right_wing_authoritarianism#ixzz0ry0KNBCxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-wing_authoritarianismhttp://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5210231&mesg_id=5210568RWA is more than just left/right politics, it is a core components of many problems that we face:
Racism, corporatism and the corporate media, genocide, terrorism, etc.
It's hard not to see a link to RWA in those problems.
However, things aren't the same as they were back in Hitler and Stalin's day, right wing authoritarianism now requires more skill and savvy. Some qualities about it have also changed. This is probably because of public education and ease of communications (Such as the Internet).
What are some of these new tricks that the right wing authoritarian leader uses?
"It's all a big huge conspiracy!"Back in the day, a right wing authoritarian could say that the Jews, the Freemasons, the liberals, the socialists, the gays, the foreigners, minorities, atheists, free-thinking women, etc. were ALL the greatest threat to the lifestyle, culture, country, civilization, etc. Now, a sucker might buy that. But a person who might say something that will end in a question mark every once in a while... "Hey, how can there be multiple #1 threats to our society?" Go to the next step, say all the groups that are #1 threats are all connected in some giant vortex of evil and general impoliteness.
Examples:
David Horowitz's "Discover the Networks" group, in which Horowitz and his followers try to tie people opposed to the Iraq War, liberals, and terrorists together
This actual quote from the Traditional Values Coalition: "A dangerous Marxist/Leftist/Homosexual/Islamic coalition has formed – and we'd better be willing to fight it with everything in our power."
How many times have you heard a Michele Bachmann/Steve King Republican say that liberals are aiding Al Qaeda through their words and deeds?
"I was a former teenage robot zombie ninja clone!"One of the newer tricks to promote RWA is the idea that the outgroups and deviants that are the targets of RWA hate can be "fixed". This is done to play out the core ideas of RWA, but look humanitarian and sweet at the same time. Just look at the now largely discredited ex-gay and the soon-to-be discredited ex-Islamic-terrorist-now-fundamentalist-Christian movements if you want examples.
"Violent crime has skyrocketed!"We always hear this. It's apparently always going up, why every city in the US isn't a war zone is a complete mystery. Maybe it's because violent crime has been steadily dropping since the 90's. This is a major component to conventionalism.
"It's not just a crime, it's some sort of super-crime!"Communist/Drug User/Drug Dealer/Terrorist. Have you noticed something about those titles? Those are the titles that have been used over the years by politicians and the 'liberal' media to say that we need to get rid of petty things like, you know, due process and such. Oh, and if you don't think we should eliminate due process for the groups, then you must be secretly part of them... oh, and you hate America too!
And countless others as well.
While RWA does not actually belong to one political ideology exclusively, and it doesn't even have to be political. It can be. Just look at the Christian Right for example, authoritarian submission, aggression, and conventionalism, it NEEDS right wing authoritarianism in order to survive.
There's not much you can say to a person who is totally mesmerized by right wing authoritarianism, they are "true believers". If you find one, you'll have a better chance of dialing the tooth fairy on your phone by mistake than convincing the person that their leaders are wrong. Hopefully, this will be able to help you spot RWA in your everyday lives, though.
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