The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer

[FlorenceHamilton]

There is a researcher named Bob Altemeyer from the University of Manitoba wrote a book called "The Authoritarians". It is available free online. He spent his career studying the behavior of leaders and followers. It really explains a lot about the various movements in play on the world stage. It really is a must read for the FJ enthusiast.

Charismatic leaders such as Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard would fall into the category of Right Wing Authoritarians. In very simple terms, they make a very rigid set of rules for Right Wing Followers to abide. Followers, by their nature...well....they follow. They feel most comfortable with very clear rules and very clear repercussions for not following the rules. They also feel most comfortable with a strong and clear leader. The leaders, however do not feel bound by these rules. They feel above the rules.

I am thinking about the description we were given of Doug Phillips by our new friend, Knight. We all know that the rules of VF require very strict adherence to a very rigid set of gender roles. Yet, Knight tells us that in real life, he has a much more egalitarian relationship with his wife. We are also told that his family is not at all like the "packaging" that he is selling to his Right Wing Followers. He and his family are not bound by the rules if they are not in a public setting. Is this supposed to be endearing? Does this mean that underneath he is a really great guy? Or does it simple reveal him to be a hypocrite? Or worse, does this reveal him to have the same character as every other cult leader we have ever read about?

As for Doug's getting caught canoodling with his wife...I think it is intentional. As for his feigned cluelessness, really get a clue. This is a guy that comes from a family that has been power oriented for a long time. His father served in a White House staff. Doug Phillips is not clueless. He has learned how to play his part perfectly. I actually do not think he is gay or a pedophile. I just think he needs to have a throng of people who follow his rules and think he is the most awesome human on the planet.

But google Bob Altemeyer. He explains it better than I can.

[Austin]

There is a researcher named Bob Altemeyer from the University of Manitoba wrote a book called "The Authoritarians". It is available free online. He spent his career studying the behavior of leaders and followers. It really explains a lot about the various movements in play on the world stage. It really is a must read for the FJ enthusiast.

Charismatic leaders such as Doug Phillips and Bill Gothard would fall into the category of Right Wing Authoritarians. In very simple terms, they make a very rigid set of rules for Right Wing Followers to abide. Followers, by their nature...well....they follow. They feel most comfortable with very clear rules and very clear repercussions for not following the rules. They also feel most comfortable with a strong and clear leader. The leaders, however do not feel bound by these rules. They feel above the rules.

I am thinking about the description we were given of Doug Phillips by our new friend, Knight. We all know that the rules of VF require very strict adherence to a very rigid set of gender roles. Yet, Knight tells us that in real life, he has a much more egalitarian relationship with his wife. We are also told that his family is not at all like the "packaging" that he is selling to his Right Wing Followers. He and his family are not bound by the rules if they are not in a public setting. Is this supposed to be endearing? Does this mean that underneath he is a really great guy? Or does it simple reveal him to be a hypocrite? Or worse, does this reveal him to have the same character as every other cult leader we have ever read about?

As for Doug's getting caught canoodling with his wife...I think it is intentional. As for his feigned cluelessness, really get a clue. This is a guy that comes from a family that has been power oriented for a long time. His father served in a White House staff. Doug Phillips is not clueless. He has learned how to play his part perfectly. I actually do not think he is gay or a pedophile. I just think he needs to have a throng of people who follow his rules and think he is the most awesome human on the planet.

But google Bob Altemeyer. He explains it better than I can.

This looks very interesting, FH. I wonder if brainsample is familiar with his research as she has done a lot with cults and mind control, etc. I will definitely look him up.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for this thread. Knight absolutely pinged my authoritarian radar.

I was never a fundie but spent my teenage years in a Brethren chapel. As a feisty feminist (by their standards, I think I was fairly average, back then, by the rest of the world's standards :) ), I always seemed to be a target for the pseudo-intellectual 'nice guys' who wanted to assure me that they were moderate in their views and gave their 'permission' for me to be free-thinking.... I shudder even to think of them now, and I did a lot of shuddering reading KISAss's thread.

[FlorenceHamilton]

Dr. Altemeyers research was used by John Dean in has book "Conservatives Without Conscience". John Dean was White House counsel to Richard Nixon at the time of the Watergate scandal. He ended up as a key witness for the prosecution. He was then and is now a Conservative. His book explains how the Conservative movement shifted so far to this Authoritarian model that he could no longer support the Republican Party. He left politics altogether.

I read both books, but the original research done by Dr. Altemeyer was extrodinarily illuminating.

[Brainsample]

Florence, this is good stuff.

You'd like Right Wing Populism, too, if you're not already familiar with it. Essential reading if you want to understand these folks, but it looks at the whole group as opposed to a study in the nature of the leaders. I tend to get more engaged looking at group dynamics than I do when looking at the personalities who like to run things, but the study of controlling people is pretty fascinating. (Too many books, so little time.)

What I find continually amazing and it never gets old: People end up doing the same things. There are people who tend to manipulate and control, and they end up with a very common set of features. If they are charismatic, they tend to develop a following and set up systems for manipulation and control on a larger scale, and those systems have common and predictable features.

Learning to spot the behaviors and the patterns gives you great insight into resisting manipulation, and this more personal focus on how controlling people operate is valuable wisdom, no matter what your venue.

[FlorenceHamilton]

Brainsample,

Have not read that, but it goes on my list. Altemeyer also discusses the followers.

This is sort of twisted, but darkly funny. When I read this material, I constantly thought of superhero comics. There are always the arch villians who have these henchmen who will kill for them. As a child, I found this all very puzzling. Here were these ridiculous, narcissistic villians who obviously want everything for themselves and find the minions completely disposable and yet these followers remained blindly loyal. reading about these personality types helps explain how this phenomenon happens. Of course there are the poeple who sit like morons and cry for the superhero to come rescue them. They also do not think for themselves.

Now I know that I am low on authority and low on following in my personality. That is why neither the leaders nor the followers really resonated with me. I kept wondering where the regular people were in the story. I suppose I found a lot of regular people in Free Jinger.

[Brainsample]

Brainsample,

Have not read that, but it goes on my list. Altemeyer also discusses the followers.

This is sort of twisted, but darkly funny. When I read this material, I constantly thought of superhero comics. There are always the arch villians who have these henchmen who will kill for them. As a child, I found this all very puzzling. Here were these ridiculous, narcissistic villians who obviously want everything for themselves and find the minions completely disposable and yet these followers remained blindly loyal. reading about these personality types helps explain how this phenomenon happens. Of course there are the poeple who sit like morons and cry for the superhero to come rescue them. They also do not think for themselves.

Now I know that I am low on authority and low on following in my personality. That is why neither the leaders nor the followers really resonated with me. I kept wondering where the regular people were in the story. I suppose I found a lot of regular people in Free Jinger.

Altemeyer's stuff puts me in mind of that political quiz that made the rounds here a month or two ago, and I fall out in the libertarian quadrant with Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand (gasp!). I would bet that the VF types would all fall in that right upper quadrant with world rulers, a job in which I have no interest. And then I think of my FIL who would always rant and rave at government warnings on plastic bags ("This is not a toy; keep from children"), the government's attempt to "save me from myself." I'm not so pessimistic about people and their ability to live a good life in the way that they see fit, and authoritarian types tend to think that people need a lot of help making those kinds of decisions. I hate that.

The superhero concept is quite fitting, I think. Everything is simplified for the purpose of communicating a complex theme, and it generally boils down to a message of good versus evil. It's larger than life, and people are generally put on a more extreme end of a continuum: strong/weak, smart/foolish, etc. Everything is a conspiracy, and there's some grand theme in play with some great benefit to be realized or tragedy to be avoided.

Chip Berlet has a bit about Right Wing Populism on his site: publiceye.org/tooclose/populism-01.html

Essentially, the religious right has been taught to see the world this way and to interpret what happens to them in these terms, what I would describe as reactionary, but it's not for them. It's how they've been taught to make sense of the world, through fear:

1. Producerism (hard work is valued, the non-producers in a society are frowned upon and are seen as problematic)

2. Demonization and Scapegoating (Women, feminism, and liberals have ruined God's plan for the earth and must be vanquished through human effort!)

3. Conspiracism (I get so weary of the drama! Why must everything be a cosmic drama?)

4. Millennial Visions and Apocalyptic Themes (It's either get everyone born again before the end and it's too late, or the drive to take dominion by force, first the home, then the church then the country then the world for Jesus!)

This goes hand in hand with Altemeyer's more specific study of individual behaviors and tendencies, and it makes sense that this group as a political blog becomes of special interest. I hate to admit it, having once been so strongly influenced in this way and recognizing this in my past outlook on life, but it's very accurate. I think of it as being reactionary, but it really just a learned way of putting the events of life into perspective to make sense of things. It's learned and can be unlearned, with a little personal moral inventory and determination, if life doesn't beat it out of you first.

[Bookworm]

I have read most of that book some time ago and found it very interesting. Just wanted to add one thing to the discussion, though, and that is that as far as I remember he spent quite a bit of time explaining that Right-Wing Authoritarian did not refer to the actual politics but to the way they thought, i.e., that there were plenty of them on the liberal side of things too.

I am not sure why he uses such a confusing term...

[FlorenceHamilton]

Bookworm,

That is correct. A redically politically leftist autoritarian leader would also fit into the category of Right wing authoritarian. It is confusing, but it is explained pretty well in the book. Thanks for making that clear.

[SamuraiKatz]

Thanks for the info Flora! Interesting, John Dean cited Altemeyer's work in his writings.

I learn a lot of new stuff just by reading these boards!