The Mass Psychology of Fascism

[Paul Mackin]

On May 16, 2006, at 3:33 PM, Henry Musikar wrote:

> If Reich was just another crackpot, then:
>
> 1. Why did the US Feds bust up his equipment, burn his notebooks,  
> and put
> him in jail?  (It can't happen here [see "extreme rendition," and  
> since when
> did rendition mean...?)
>
> 2. Its pretty, um, intuitive, that when Reich's son showed him the  
> Radium
> ring that he'd been given, Reich had him bury it.  This was at a  
> time when
> there were clocks, watches, and rings featuring the deathly cold  
> light from
> Radium.
>
> 3. Anyone who has been single for any length of time would have a  
> hard time
> arguing with the idea of sexual economics, or with the inefficacy  
> of trying
> to get the chi moving by the usual single-handed techniques.  (What  
> was the
> name of the woman who was forced out of Clinton's cabinet partially  
> for
> suggesting that perhaps education should include effective methods to
> unblock the flow of chi, orgone, pranya, call it what you will?)
>
> Henry M
>

Maybe the government figured we already had enough crackpots.

No, Reich had some interesting ideas. The connection between  
character structure and fascism was interesting if he'd developed it  
better.

Pynchon seems in  sync with some of Reich. There are those two really  
Reichian sentiments about "children longing for discipline" and "the  
man having a branch office in our brains." (Vineland and GR  
respectively)

Jocelyn Elders was the Surgeon General who was accused of wanting to  
teach masturbation. She was back in the news just the other day for  
something or other.

As far as sex is concern wasn't Reich a  bit like Marcuse. All for  
unbridling it in theory but a little afraid of what this might lead  
to in practice.