Maladaptive Passivity And Rise Of Tyranny

Other words for this condition are laziness, cowardice, incompetence, lack of leadership

WORLD NEWS
By Dallas Darling
12/12/2013

If bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny, as Edmund Burke stated, so too is passivity. Except for the small sporadic gatherings, whether virtual or physical, civic engagement and participatory assemblies, which should occupy and then transform public spaces, are dead. While the Occupy Wall Street Movement failed to reform a wage-slave system and dislodge plutocrats from entrenched governmental and financial institutions, the Tea Party was unable to galvanize enough grassroots support to win their party's presidential nominees. Recall also that despite anti-war protests and a majority of Americans (over 70 percent) wanting an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Warfare State continued its merciless slaughter and relentless bloodbaths around the world. Even the Civil Rights and Progressive Movements have yet to still achieve some of their desired goals.

 

 

Occupy failed as Americans once again turned a protest into a big street party -any excuse to get wasted

Maladaptive Passivity, also known as Learned Helplessness, is a bio-psycho-social disorder that disrupts motivation, cognition, and emotions that follow experiences with seemingly uncontrollable events. If individuals are unable to achieve desired outcomes or profit from experiences, after a while they start to acquire helplessness, and that nothing they can do will change the outcome of causes or events. Studies have shown that when individuals are unable to control desired outcomes or events, they are incapable of adapting, even preconditioned to discourage others in their attempts. Regarding civic engagement, Maladaptive Passivity impairs political and economic cognitive abilities. It internally pacifies necessary motivations-leading to actions-needed to promote duties and rights. It can lead to the Bystander Syndrome, causing depression and physical ailments.

 

 

At first worried and apprehensive, corporate criminals were soon laughing publicly at the antics of some protesters

Societies promoting the illusion of democracy, but through institutional bureaucracies deny people innumerable choices, personal control, and individuality, are at the heart tyrannical. Uncontrollable events particularly shock and have a negative impact. When people cannot become civically engaged or solve subsequent problems, they retreat into states of manic anxiety and depression. They seek engagement through vicarious experiences, which explains the fetishes for celebrity politicians, entertainment stars, and sports heroes. It also explains why America is quickly becoming a fascist state, controlled by a minority, the very wealthy and elite, which constantly imposes their views until they become the majority, including their fallacies. Sadly and ironically, Group-Maladaptive Passivity seeks even more control and protection from their assaulters and tyrants.

 

 

Unwashed, loser Occupy hangers-on soon became daily fodder for "mainstream media" propagandists and government shills

On a personal note, colleagues and I work in a "sick building." Due to asbestos and mold in the ventilation systems, there have been enormous health risks, long-term illnesses, perhaps even deaths. Still, a governor, corporative bureaucracies, and local supervisors have spent large sums of monies on valueless software programs and inexperienced consultants, adding to an already stressful occupation and environment. And yet, most workers are afraid to challenge such hostile labor conditions. Some have simply quit, walked out, or have experienced nervous breakdowns. And when attempting to form some type of engaged group or organization for the purpose of protest, most are fearful of losing their jobs. This Maladaptive Passivity, of feeling hopeless and unable to challenge supervisors and institutions, is played-out over and over again across America.

Since the United States is an empire, both Maladaptive Passivity and Bystander Syndrome are performed on a national and global stage. Legislation that is supposed to protect workers and the oppressed, and further human rights, is held hostage. Meanwhile, many are distracted by, and continue to retreat into, vicarious forms of entertainment, like violent video games or the entertaining worlds of sports, movie industries, and media politics. As Chris Hedges pointed out: "The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults. We have been blinded to depravity of our ruling elite by the relentless propaganda of public relations firms that work on behalf of corporations and the rich. Compliant politicians, clueless entertainers and our vapid, corporate-funded popular culture...keep us from seeing the truth."(1)

The truth is that the United States is not a democracy. Neither is it a republic. And yet America is still known for its once purposeful mass movements, its civically organized assemblies, and its revolutionary catalysts, all of which influenced national and global outcomes. Maladaptive Passivity can be overcome by challenging cognitive exhaustion, regaining supportive relationships, realizing the values of locally participatory communities, and by forming active organizations for the purpose of decentralizing powerful interests. Taking control of causes and events will mean "shocking" tyrannical institutions and rulers. It will take the forms of civil disobedience, radical boycotts and sabotage, and tax resistance. It will challenge media disparity and upscale emulation.

Right now in Honduras, thousands of people are protesting and shedding their blood over a fraudulent election brought on by an earlier coup in 2009. (Doesn't this sound like the 2000 election where five Supreme Court Justices appointed then GovernorGeorge W. Bush president?) In Japan, massive protests have brought attention to the controversial state secrets bill that has defined free speech and free expression as a form of terrorism. (Can anyone say NSAScandal, AssassinationBoards, and Patriot Act?) Thousands of Ukrainians just marched through Kiev in defiance of a government ban, requesting closer economic ties with the European Union. (Isn't the U.S. on the verge of economic instability?) In Mexico, thousands of protesters are demanding an end to violent drug cartels. (What is the U.S. doing to stop the demand for drugs, let alone drug addiction?)

TullyScott argued in Neeley v. Farr that: "The links in the chains of tyranny are usually forged, singly and silently, and sometimes unconsciously, by those who are destined to wear them." In the United States there might still be time to transform Maladaptive Passivity into Mass Proactivity. (A good start would be to stand in solidarity with fast-food workers and their national strike to improve meager wages.) Otherwise, a cure for this affliction will not arrive until America is visited by either an uncontrollable divine revelation, or an uncontrollable dystopian revolution.

Dallas Darling (darling@wn.com)

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-ZReading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some NationsAbove God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John's Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//Dallas darling.

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