{"id":7679,"date":"2014-09-23T13:52:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/09\/23\/islam-and-the-perils-of-psychological-projection\/"},"modified":"2014-09-23T13:52:03","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T13:52:03","slug":"islam-and-the-perils-of-psychological-projection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2014\/09\/23\/islam-and-the-perils-of-psychological-projection\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam and the Perils of Psychological Projection"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I have found that it is dangerous to assume that others are essentially like oneself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Psychologists speak of projection. As I understand it, it involves projecting (etymologically, throwing outward) into others one's own attitudes, beliefs, motivations, fears, emotions, desires, values, and the like.  It is classified as a defense mechanism.  To avoid confronting an unsavory attitude or trait in oneself, one projects it into another.  Suppose one is stingy, considers stinginess an undesirable trait, but doesn't want to own up to one's stinginess.  As a defense against the admission of one's own stinginess, one projects it into others.  "I'm not stingy; you're<\/em> stingy!"<\/span><\/p>\n

I once had a superficial colleague who published a lot.  He was motivated more by a neurotic need to advance himself socially and economically, a need based in low self-esteem, rather than by a drive to get at the truth or make a contribution to his subject.   He was at some level aware that his motives were less than noble.  Once, when he found out that I had published an article, he told me that my motive was to see my name in print. It was a classic case of projection: he could not understand me except as being driven by the same paltry motives that drove him.  By projecting his motives into me, he warded off the awareness of their presence in him, or else excused their presence in him on the spurious ground that everyone has the same paltry motivations.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Most of the definitions of projection I have read imply that it is only undesirable attitudes, beliefs, and the like that  are the contents of acts of projection.  But it seems to me that the notion of projection could and perhaps should be widened to include desirable ones as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

The desire for peace and social harmony, for example, is obviously good.  But it too can be the content of an act of psychological projection.  A pacifist, for example, may assume that others deep down are really like he is: peace-loving to such an extent as to avoid war at all costs. A pacifist might reason as follows: since everyone deep down wants peace, and abhors war, if I throw down my weapon, my adversary will do likewise. My adversay is histile out of fear; if I remove the reason for his fear, he will be pacified.  By unilaterally disarming, I show my good will, and he will reciprocate. But if you throw down your weapon before Hitler, he will take that precisely as justification for killing you: since might makes right on his neo-Thrasymachian scheme, you have shown by your pacific deed that you are unfit for the struggle for existence and therefore deserve to die, and indeed must die to keep from polluting the gene pool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Projection in cases like these can be dangerous.  One oftens hears the sentiment expressed that we human beings are at bottom all the same and  all want the same things.  Not so!  You and I may want<\/span><\/p>\n

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Harmony and understanding<\/span>
Sympathy and trust abounding<\/span>
No more falsehoods or derisions<\/span>
Golden living dreams of visions<\/span>
Mystic crystal revelation<\/span>
And the mind's true liberation<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

as expressed in that characteristic '60s song, Aquarius<\/a>, but others have belligerence and bellicosity hard-wired into them.  They like fighting and dominating and they only come alive when they are bashing your skull in either literally or figuratively.  People are not the same and it is a big mistake to think otherwise and project your decency into them.<\/span><\/p>\n

I'll say it again: people are not the same<\/em>.  We are not 'equal.'  Or do you consider yourself the moral equal of Chechen Muslim ingrates who come to our shores, exploit our hospitality, go on welfare, rip us off, and then detonate explosives at the finish line of a great American event that celebrates life and self-reliance?  I am referring to the Boston Marathon.<\/span><\/p>\n

I said that the psychologists classify projection as a defense mechanism.  But how could the projection of good traits count as a defense mechanism?  Well, suppose that by engaging in such projections one defends oneself against the painful realization that the people in the world are much worse than one would have liked to believe.  Many of us have a strong psychological need to see good in other people, and this can give rise to illusions.  There is good and evil in each person, and one must train oneself to accurately discern how much of each is present in each person one encounters.<\/span><\/p>\n

This brings me to a penetrating passage<\/a> from Sam Harris that illustrates my theme:<\/span><\/p>\n

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Our humanities and social science departments are filled with scholars and pseudo-scholars deemed to be experts in terrorism, religion, Islamic jurisprudence, anthropology, political science, and other diverse fields, who claim that where Muslim intolerance and violence are concerned, nothing is ever what it seems. Above all, these experts claim that one can\u2019t take Islamists and jihadists at their word: Their incessant declarations about God, paradise, martyrdom, and the evils of apostasy are nothing more than a mask concealing their real<\/em> motivations. What are their real motivations [according to these experts]?<\/span><\/p>\n

Insert here the most abject hopes and projections of secular liberalism: How would you<\/em> feel if Western imperialists and their mapmakers had divided your lands, stolen your oil, and humiliated your proud culture? Devout Muslims merely want what everyone wants\u2014political and economic security, a piece of land to call home, good schools for their children, a little leisure to enjoy the company of friends. Unfortunately, most of my fellow liberals appear to believe this. In fact, to not accept this obscurantism as a deep insight into human nature and immediately avert one\u2019s eyes from the teachings of Islam is considered a form of bigotry.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Beheading\"<\/a>Harris has put his finger on a mistake that too many in the West, whether you call it psychological projection or not make, namely, the mistake of assuming that everyone, deep down, cherishes the same values and has the same motivations.  This mistake is one of the planks in the platform of political correctness.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as we should have learned by now, political correctness can get you killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nRelated articles<\/legend>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Islam as a Gang Religion<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Does Anyone Really Believe in the Muslim Paradise?<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>Islamic Scholar: Barack Obama Is Dead Wrong About Islamic State, "They Are True Muslims"<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>If ISIS Is Not Islamic, Then the Inquisition Was Not Catholic<\/a><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>"How Isalm Creates Psychopaths," by Nicolai Sennels<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/fieldset>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have found that it is dangerous to assume that others are essentially like oneself. Psychologists speak of projection. As I understand it, it involves projecting (etymologically, throwing outward) into others one's own attitudes, beliefs, motivations, fears, emotions, desires, values, and the like.  It is classified as a defense mechanism.  To avoid confronting an unsavory … Continue reading “Islam and the Perils of Psychological Projection”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,163,221],"tags":[705,707,706],"class_list":["post-7679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamism","category-leftism-and-political-correctness","category-psychology-and-personality-typology","tag-islam","tag-political-correctness","tag-psychological-projection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7679\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}