THE [PSYCHO] PATH OF DENIAL

From Instapundit:

DON SURBER: Lefty beats up cabbie; left blames the right. Yeah, for all the talk about the threat of Tea Party violence, the actual violence seems to come from the usual suspects on the left. It’s been that way for a while.

The self-righteous members of the political left often pretend their behavior is motivated from" love" or "peace" or even "patriotism"; but these are only words they use in order to rationalize their less than lovely --and remarkably unpeaceful (i.e. outrageously violent)--actions to themselves.

Isn't it interesting that their words and their actions are so frequently the opposite of each other?

This sort of self-deception, which is a combination of psychological projection and outright psychological denial is simply stunning in its sweeping grandiosity. And, the goal of such grandiosity is to distort or obscure reality itself.

But, reality and truth always matter; and they always will win out over self-delusion in the end.

Many paths can be taken to reach self-delusion. Each individual who embraces psychological denial--whether through projection, paranoia, displacement or any one of a number of varying strategies-- does so in order to avoid some unpleasant truth about themselves; or to preserve a world view in the face of an uncompromising and unforgiving reality.

That these motivations are extremely powerful can be seen, particularly when the delusion or distortion of reality creates a life-threatening situation for the individual. But the desire to see themselves or their ideas as so special; or so superior is so strong, even in life-threatening situations, the denier will cling to his denial like a man clings to a piece of driftwood to keep from drowning in the storm.

There is only one path that leads to insight and self-awareness and it travels directly through the comforting distortions and lies; straight to the heart of the individual's most cherished beliefs about himself and the world. If a person can look at those beliefs and face those motivations squarely and honestly; and then reconcile them to the painful reality and truth observed in the outside world; then the path will lead to personal growth and self-discovery.

But today's "reality-based" progressive left are exceedingly unwilling to look in the mirror or question their cherished beliefs. It just feels tooooo good and sooooo right that they should be considered intellectually and morally superior to the unwashed masses. In the face of such obvious superiority, why would it ever be necessary to question their own motivations or memes, or policies or behaviors?

It goes without saying that psychological denial is a universal phenomenon that knows no politics. We are all capable of denying and distorting reality when faced with unpleasant truths that confront us.

Some of us will grow and learn from the experience of having reality smack us around a bit. And some will pick themselves up, battered and bruised from the experience and go right back to denying the truth and promoting the same failed ideas and policies over and over again--each time a little bit more hysterically and pugnaciously; willing to use force if necessary to make others accept their delusions.

The [psycho]path of denial is a well-trodden and surprisingly comfortable road to walk--at least until it takes you over the cliff and into the abyss.

“The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them….To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, when it becomes necessary again, to draw it back from oblivion for just so long as it is needed, to deny the existence of objective reality and all the while to take account of the reality which one denies — all this is indispensably necessary.” 1984 (The definition of " Doublethink")

UPDATE: The last refuge of a liberal:

Now we know why the country has become "ungovernable," last year's excuse for the Democrats' failure of governance: Who can possibly govern a nation of racist, nativist, homophobic Islamophobes?

Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities -- often lopsided majorities -- oppose President Obama's social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a mosque near Ground Zero.

What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument.