Let me start with some backround from M. Scott Peck, demonstrating the common ways that a large organization may exhibit less than desirable traits and then ask the question whether the US, as a large organization, exhibits some of the traits consistent with malignant narcissism.
Peck says that "human groups tend to behave in much the same ways as human individuals-except at a level that is more primitive and immature." "why the behavior of groups is...from a psychological standpoint, less than the sum of their parts." p. 216
Peck describes several factors associated with group behavior that influence this primitiveness.
1) Specialization.
While Peck says that specialization has in many been an advantage in groups it also leads to the fragmentation of conscience. For instance, in war, when asked about the morality of the participants' part in the process, the responsibility was always assigned to another "department". "'Oh we appreciate your concerns, but I'm afraid you've come to the wrong people....This is the ordinance branch. We just supply the weapons-we don't determine how and why they're used. That's policy. What you want to do is talk to the policy people down the hall'. And if I followed this suggestion and expressed the same concerns in the policy branch, this was the reponse: 'Oh we understand that there are broad issues involved, but I'm afraid they're beyond our purview. We simply determine how the war will be conducted not whether it will be conducted'." p. 217 And on and on it went...we didn't make the bomb, we didn't drop the bomb, we didn't give the order. "Whenever the roles of individuals within a group become specialized, it becomes both possible and easy for the individual to pass the moral buck to some other part of the group....the conscience of the group can become so fragmented and diluted as to be nonexistent." p.218
In a group setting, it is much easier for an individual not to feel guilt for wrongdoing because the conscience is so fragmented.
2) Regression (Refers to acting like a child despite adulthood)
"Individuals not only routinely regress in times of stress, they also regress in group settings." p. 223 Peck says that this has to do mainly with giving power quickly to a group leader and the corresponding laziness with being a follower or group member.
3) Narcissim.
In a group setting, this is "manifested as group pride" or "enemy creation". "Deficiencies within the group can be easily and painlessly overlooked by focusing attention on the deficiencies or 'sins' of the out-group." p. 225
"Just as the highly narcissistic (evil) individual will strike out to destroy whoever challenges his or her self-image of perfection", so will a group.
"We are our attitudes. If someone criticizes an attitude of mine, I feel he or she is criticizing
me. If one of my opinions is proved wrong, then
I have been wrong. My self-image of perfection has been shattered. Individuals and nations cling to obsolete and outworn ideas not simply because it requires work to change them but also because, in their narcissism, they cannot imagine that their ideas and views could be wrong." p. 240
4) Victimization
We start with the premise that we are not a "villainous people". Since the enemy outside has already been created, we are the ones who have been wronged. This justifies conflict.
We are righteous, good-hearted, generous people. If we become villians it is because we are unwitting. We are villians out of ignorance. p.249 Peck says that laziness is an essential counterpart to evil. Evil is not resisted precisely because people are lazy.
5) Submission
Everything must submit to the organization; it does not submit to anything else. Therefore, it renders itself mentally unhealthy (refer to early Peck post).
"As they [organizations] become larger and larger, our institutions become absolutely faceless. Soulless. What happens when there is no soul? Is there just a vacuum? Or is there Satan where once, long ago, a soul resided? The Berrigan brothers, are correct when they say that the task before us in nothing less than to metaphorically exorcise or institutions." p. 251
So does the US exhibit signs of narcissism? My diagnosis of course cannot be clinical, but to me, the US does seem to exhibit at least a few signs.
a) like any nation-state, it is preoccupied with its own security, its own functioning, its own image.
b) it does not submit to anything else but requires that everything submit to it. (you're either with us or you're against us). This is also evidenced by an unwillingness to participate in the world court or other supranational bodies that the US doesn't control.
c) we resist any kind of critique. have you ever heard the following defensive statements when the US is confronted by a scandal?
when confronted by Abu Ghraib- congressmen and women said ..."we are the greatest country in the world"....not as a precursor to "we shouldn't be doing this" or "we have the power to stop this". just a statement. like when someone is arrested for a crime and says "this isn't me".
or when confronted by another country like France: "we saved their butts in WWII. they've never thanked us. about time for a little gratitude."
By the way, they saved our butts in the American Revolution. We would never have beaten the British without their help.
or "we are at a cross-roads in history confronting islamo-fascists; we have no other choice but to take this fight to them and confront their evil" "we are the initial victims, but we will end being the victors."
Can we not confront our capacity for evil in the US? Do we always have to perceive ourselves as the best, most generous country with the highest ideals in history? Can we not see that our nation's history is mixed with some generosity and lots of oppression?
