DADvocate

My thought line for the post started yesterday while listening to a local talk show host. Cynthia McKinney was scheduled for an interview on his show. This host, Mike McConnell on WLW, Cincinnati, has interviewed many celebrities and public figures including at least one President. When his staff called McKinney's office of the interview she wasn't available.

McConnell noted that this sort of behaviour, being late, missing appointments, etc. was common among liberals but conservatives were quite the opposite. He said conservatives would often call in early and wait on hold until the time of the interview.

This brought me to thoughts of my father. My father was so liberal I doubt he ever entertained thoughts of voting for someone other than a Democrat. While he kept himself "well informed" on the issues, he, somehow, never gathered any information that lead to considering changing political affiliation at all. He was also chronically late, as is and was my equally liberal mother.

Throughout my childhood, whenever I was to be picked up by my parents, I could depend on waiting past the allotted time. In the third grade this led to an adventure from which, without going into detail, I was fortunate to emerge with my life. In high school I would wait as long as two hours after basketball practice to be picked up. My school was over 8 miles from my home which made walking home out of the question.

My thoughts continued to wander in this area. One other belief I've held concerning my father is that he was more egocentric than most. Perhaps "egocentric" is the wrong word but what I mean is that he interpreted almost every situation in terms of its impact on him.

When I first began playing basketball in the fourth grade, my father was angry because it meant taking me to practice and games. When his father-in-law died he didn't go to the funeral because he didn't "like funerals." I found this especially horrendous because after over 30 years of marriage my father divorced my mother for a younger woman. When the younger woman left my father after a few years, my mother took him back.

My grandfather died a year or two later and my father couldn't find it in his heart to accompany my mother to the funeral and related activities. My oldest daughter and I drove 800 miles after I got off work in order to be there the next day for the funeral.

All this brought me to Maslow and Erikson. It seems many have heard of Maslow and his hierarchy of needs. The "highest" need is "self-actualization." By definition, at least superficially, Maslow's theory puts an emphasis on self. Much of popular and scholarly psychology follows this path. Indeed, this is the primary direction of psychology today.

Erikson developed a theory of personality which consisted of 8 stages of psychosocial development. I would hazard that Erikson is less well known than Maslow. Of course, Erikson's theory doesn't have a lofty "self-actualization" stage.

But it does have a stage that particularly interests me: "Stage Seven Middle Adulthood: 40-65 years, generativity vs.stagnation, parenting. "Through generativity, adults promote and guide those who follow by parenting, teaching, leading, doing things to benefit the community." Generativity is not necessarily mutually exclusive from self-actualization but it is easy to see the difference of emphasis.

And, in my mind at least, all this ties in with a post at Shrinkwrapped that DrHelen linked to.

A third leg of our cultural antipathy to appropriate aggression arose from the culture of Narcissism (which includes entitlements and fear of aggression except in the pursuit of one's own limited pleasures.) A thesis I have been developing on this blog (Demographics & Narcissism) is that a unique combination of sociological and historical trends intersected in the early 1950s (and have persisted, with some blips, through the 1990s) which have had the effect of accentuating the development of Narcissistic character traits.

Is it mere coincidence that Maslow first presented his theory in 1954, during the same time frame that Shrinkwrapped identifies as the beginning of the "culture of Narcissism?" Shrinkwrapped's post is a must read. It delves into dealing with terrorism, attacks on masculinity, and more.

In another post, Shrinkwrapped states "The Narcissist sees no one outside of himself as having enough worth and value to risk any of his own gratification." Is this why liberals oppose the war in Iraq and truly fighting terrorism, because it's not worth risking their own gratification?

Is this why the liberal states do so poorly on the Generosity Index?

Is this why we have Learjet liberals flying around the world screaming about global warming? And local liberals shouting about global warming while driving SUVs?

Is this why, when Dick Cheney donates $6,869,655 to charity, NPR focuses on his tax refund amount?

Perhaps Maslow, unintentionally I'm sure, has led many down the wrong path.

What I know best is from my personal experience which I do not pretend is the least bit objective. I rarely meet a liberal that lives up to their expectations of others and I've seen and received much more generosity and compassion from conservatives, including fundamentalist Christians, than left wingers. In deed the comparison isn't even close.

Shrinkwrapped also links to a post at Dr. Sanity regarding narcissism.

UPDATE: Almost forgot, is this why liberals have fewer children than conservatives?

BTW - My father was a humanistic clinical psychologist, a strong follower of Maslow, Carl Rogers, et al.