Is Tory Leader justifiably hot at Liberals, or just too angry?
Harper's recent outbursts threaten to alienate him from Canadian voters
For the past few weeks, ever since Prime Minister Paul Martin appeared on television begging for a delayed election, and Mr. Harper immediately denounced it as a "sad spectacle," the Conservative Leader seems to have been simmering. Experts say it is important for politicians to be able to show indignation at the appropriate times, but Mr. Harper risks alienating the public with his anger. "If somebody only operates in one gear, which is the angry mode, it can be wearying," said Paul Nesbitt-Larking, who chairs the political science department at the University of Western Ontario in London. Canadians, he said, have shown their distaste for anger in their repeated rejection of political attack ads. Mr. Harper's ill humour got worse this week when he learned about a Liberal move to delay a confidence vote until Thursday. That would push the decision to a day when a Conservative MP with cancer was recuperating from a trip to the operating table, thus reducing the opposition's numbers. Mr. Harper is angry that the government has the audacity to carry on even as the stain of the sponsorship scandal widens. He is angry that the Liberals refuse to give up power after losing what he believes was a confidence motion. Mr. Harper -- a man who began his political life as an unassuming policy wonk -- has seemed miffed many times since becoming Conservative Leader last year. He stopped talking to reporters when a plan to paint Mr. Martin as being soft on child pornography soured during last year's election campaign. There was a backstage chair-kicking incident at a Conservative convention in Montreal. And there was a reported outburst at a Liberal photographer who tried to take his picture on the plane back from V-E Day celebrations in Europe.
If humour, ridicule, and satire are the weapons of joyful disobedience to authority in our culture, as George Orwell says, than anger is the reaction of the authoritarian to a sense of powerlessness. Anger occurs when things don't "go as planned". Anger and hate are the emotions of authoritarianism when dominance is challenged.
The Canadian born Sci-Fi Author A.E.van Vogt writes about the angry man type of fascist Authoritarian personality in his 1962 prescient book; The Violent Man. He predicts the white American male authoritatian personality will develop into the white middle class rage that became so well publicized in the 1980's and 1990's. In his book vanVogt refrered to this kind of dominant male as "The Violent or Right Man", as in he is always right.
"He returned to full-scale writing in 1962, with the publication of The Violent Man, a book that is not science fiction but was of crucial importance in the development of his career. It was meant to expose the psychogenesis of violence, a subject he felt to be of such importance that the book would necessarily become a best-seller. But, though the book was carefully constructed and undoubtedly his most serious piece of writing, his hopes for it were not realized."The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. van Vogt
Long out of print the book has been re-released with a new introduction by Colin Wilson; A Report on the Violent Male by AE van Vogt. Wilson used van Vogt's ideas extensively in his book A Criminal History of Mankind.
One such angry Right Man in the House of Commons this week was Stephen Harper. And for that reason he has failed his party and failed Canadians, he has failed to be a Prime Minister in waiting. Harpers anger reflects the "Violent Man or Right Man" personality that van Vogt wrote of.
"Looking around for examples, it struck Van Vogt that male authoritarian behaviour is far too commonplace to be regarded as insanity. .. 'the violent man' or the 'Right Man' [...] is a man driven by a manic need for self-esteem -- to feel he is a 'somebody'. He is obsessed by the question of 'losing face', so will never, under any circumstances, admit that he might be in the wrong. The Right Man hates losing face; if he suspects that his threats are not being taken seriously, he is capable of carrying them out, purely for the sake of appearances. He feels he [is] justified in exploding, like an angry god. [...] he feels he is inflicting just punishment. What causes 'right mannishness'? Van Vogt suggest that it is because the world has always been dominated by males." The Right Man And The Fear Of Losing Face.
Harpers outbursts and secretive personality which was shown during last election when he all but hid from the media for the last week of the election because they peeved him off, well it fits the Right Man personality.
And this past month Harper has been angry and only angry when it has come to the Liberals and their continuing to rule inspite of all his efforts. Harper is a Right Man, and believes he is the Right Man for the PM's job.
Certainly for leader of Canada's most right wing party ever, the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives, being the Right Man is perfect for the job of being Leader of the Right. However it is clear that this type of psychopathic personality is NOT fit to be Prime Minister.
In his Alberta doppleganger; Ralph Klein, Canada already has a Right Man ruling in at least one province. And Ralph is another one quick to anger when challenged. To have this personality type ruling the whole country, woe is us.
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And Canadians sense this about Harper. It is not the Conservatives who have failed to increase in the polls at the Liberals expense it is Harper. His personality dominates HIS party, and thus Canadians are rightly suspicious of this authoritarian Right Man. Even in what will be the election battleground; Ontario, they show no confidence in a government led by Harper. But Harper will play out his game to bring down the government and be our Leader cause he is the Right Man for the job, he thinks.
In his tirade against the Liberals on Friday the 13 (sic), he refered to them as "Monsters". Misquoting Nietzsche, "Conservative Leader Stephen Harper decried what he called seedy Liberal tactics, saying his father once told him: "Be careful when you fight a monster, lest you yourself become a monster." Canadian Press
The real quote from Nietzche, the original Right Man, is:
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And when you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you."
- - -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche "Beyond Good and Evil
Harper would do well to ponder the whole quote, for if he takes us into the abyss of another election he may not come out the winner. Then he will have to face the Monster which is Stephen Harper the Right Man. The Leader who would be PM but failed.