Who are the leaders and who the followers?
THE CHORUS IS THE AUTHOR

Norman O. Brown (above) with commentary by Richard Koenigsberg (below)

Heavy trip, but comprehensible if one reads carefully. The Greeks understood quite a bit (as did N. O. Brown).

Explains a great deal of the politics of today.

Who is the leader and who the followers.

With million upon millions of “likes,” it’s not clear.

Maybe the “likes” bring political reality into existence.

From “below upwards,” as we used to say.

Carry on,

Richard Koenigsberg

THE CHORUS IS THE AUTHOR
Norman O. Brown (above) with commentary by Richard Koenigsberg (below)

"The chorus is really the author. Their act is to repudiate responsibility; this is part of the net of lies in which they entangle the hero, their bull, their victim.

This is what Freud calls their "refined hypocrisy," as they say, "not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name. The hypocrisy of the chorus makes them too an actor (hypocrites).

"The chorus identifies with the hero: he is their vicar; in whose actions they take vicarious pleasure. The hero is 'created to perform deeds which the community would like to perform but which are forbidden to it.' 

Their vicar also in vicarious punishment: their victim, the scapegoat, the lamb which takes away their sins; through whom they obtain vicarious redemption.

"Vicarious satisfaction: the deed is both theirs and not theirs. On this self-contradiction, this hypocrisy, this illusion,

In vicarious experience there is both identification and distance. The mediator is to keep reality at a distance, to keep the multitude in remote contact with reality.

"Hobbes saw the paradigm in Exodus XX, 18-19: “And all the people saw the thundering, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when they saw it, they removed, and stood far off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die."
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KOENIGSBERG'S REFLECTIONS: I've never fully understood the concept of the "leader" as source or cause of political events. This idea grows out of the belief that human beings are fundamentally stupid and that leaders "oppress" or "brainwash" people to accept or embrace ideas that otherwise they would not embrace and accept.

HITLER BECAME HITLER BECAUSE HIS "FANS" YELLED "HEIL HITLER." Elvis Presley became Elvis Presley because people in 1956 liked the way he shook his hips. These "leaders" became leaders because they had millions of "likes."

Misunderstanding originate based on the "liberal" belief that people are fundamentally "good" and only do bad things because "evil" leaders take hold of their minds and compel them to do evil things. Maybe human beings are not fundamentally "good."

The leader exists to fulfill the fantasies of the populace. The populace creates the leader by embracing his ideas, however bizarre they may appear to be. The leader enables the "masses" to express their hate.

The other faulty assumption is that people are fundamentally "rational." Freud disproved this idea one-hundred-twenty years ago. People enact unconscious phantasies and desires. The belief that human decisions are based on "rational choice" has proven to be incorrect. One might even say it's an obsolete idea. The textbooks have to be rewritten.